Content Creator’s Creed Overview
Overview of The Content Creator’s Creed
I created a “Content Creator’s Creed” to really set down a framework for what we believe are the reasons that people should be creating content and how it should be sourced, based on the way most people receive it.
This conversation was used as the source material for a corresponding blog post.
Grab the entire Content Creators Creed series (9 short episodes) on iTunes.
Transcript:
Shayla: I’m talking today with Dave Young from Shortcut Content. He is the founder of Shortcut Content, actually, and, Dave, today I want to talk about the Content Creator’s Creed. Why don’t you just tell me a little bit about that?
Dave Young: Doesn’t that sound important?
Shayla: Yes, it does. It sounds very important; like the Bill of Rights.
Dave: Exactly. That’s what we want it to sound like. And we’ve been doing content now for about three, three and a half years under the Shortcut Blogging brand and we’ve been doing much more than blogging so we decided to kind of spread out the message about content and blogging is just one type of content and we’re doing so much more than that because we’re doing these podcasts, we’re doing blog posts and we’re even creating videos and info graphics and case studies and all kinds of things for people. And so what I wanted to do with this Content Creator’s Creed is really just kind of set down a framework for what we believe are the reasons that people should be creating content and also how that content should be sourced based on how most people receive content. And maybe if we share what the Content Creator’s Creed says that might make more sense. And so I’ll just read it, if that’s alright.
Shayla: Great.
Dave: This is the Content Creator’s Creed:
We believe…
…the best content comes from individuals rather than organizations
…your work’s meaning and your company’s purpose are best shared through a human voice of story-telling
…communication derived from story transcends communication derived from product features
…readers deserve first-hand stories from experienced experts
…stories are best shared by experts who have lived to tell the tale rather than vicariously through writers and researchers
…the strength of your company rests in the personalities of your leaders
…sharing your wisdom through story is your best legacy
And the BEST way to write your story is whatever method gets the job done.
And so you can see that embedded in that creed is this notion that first-hand, the leaders of the company, we want to hear the content about those companies coming from the people that created them and the people that are continuing to develop them and are adding meaning to what those companies are doing; in essence, give people the why about why that company even exists and that’s really what we’re doing right here when we’re talking about Shortcut Content. And, again, first-hand, from the creators, from the founder of the company. In other content here, we’re going to get into each of those, each of those different statements in the creed, but what we really want to focus on is the importance of the stories coming out of your company, come primarily from the mouths of the founders, the leaders, the innovators. If you’re a scientific company, the researchers, the scientists. If you’re a medical company, the people that are interacting with your patients. For example, we’ve got a chiropractor/physical therapy firm that we’ve been doing business with for three years and we interview chiropractors, physical therapists, and some of their massage therapists because those are the people that can tell the stories, they’re the ones that have worked with the patients. And so we feel that that’s much more valuable content than hiring a marketing person to write things for you.
Shayla: Well, Dave, if someone has heard, heard you talk a little bit about this and doesn’t have time to listen to the next few podcasts where we’re going to breakdown each part of the creed, how can they contact you to learn a little more about how they can get their first-hand experiences out into the world?
Dave: Well, if you get to ShortcutContent.com, everything is there. We’ve got forms you can fill out, you can give me a call. I’m Dave Young on Twitter. Lots of ways to reach me and ShortcutContent.com is probably the quickest route there.
Shayla: Great. Thanks, Dave.
Dave: Thank you.