Why Listening is the Secret to Good Content
By Levina Kusumadjaja
Have you ever felt the pressure to always create content? To constantly share something on your social platforms and websites. An expectation from the audience that you have to consistently be inspired with what to share, say all the wisdom to help them, always know the answer. That as a brand strategist, you have to constantly be able to share knowledge, to keep up with the latest brand trends, to never run out of ideas.
On one end, it can bring more motivation and drive to keep growing and learning new things, so that what you share will be more and more valuable. But on the other end, this pressure can make you feel trapped because sharing content now becomes an obligation. A rule to live by, instead of something enjoyable and fun to do in the journey.
For me, this pressure made me even more stuck in my process.
I tried to keep searching for topics and ideas from my own experiences, from resources that I can access, from my own notes, my own brainstorming process. I committed to digging deeper inside of myself, but that felt more like a rabbit hole than a freeing journey towards the end of a tunnel. The more I looked into my own pool of ideas, the more I realized I have so little of them. I discovered all the things I haven’t mastered, that I am still in the journey as much the people I want to help and impact.
I decided that this approach wasn’t going to work, it wasn’t sustainable. I must be seeing this from the wrong angle and I started looking at the community that I serve. Instead of relying on myself to find ideas, I focused on listening. I focused on paying attention to the conversations that happen in the community—the things my friends ask about and struggle about, what they feel and what they think.
And that was when the wheels started running again. Inspiration starting flowing to the surface. I felt the pressure for me to figure it out on my own was taken away. This pressure was replaced by ideas from the people that I want to help. I didn’t have to rely on myself to figure out how I can help my community, and instead allow the community to share their thoughts on how I could give value to them.
Good, valuable content isn’t about the person that creates the content, it’s about the audience that listens and reads the content.
The problem was what I placed my biggest attention on: myself, and not the audience and my community. I focused on my capacity and my knowledge. This experience taught me that good, valuable content isn’t about the person that creates the content, it’s about the audience that listens and reads the content. It’s about the audience’s story. That’s why focusing on yourself won’t work when you want to create content that serve people. The best place to find ideas for that isn’t by creating something you feel good at, but by listening to your audience.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!