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Comments from Social Media Experts (3): Dorie Clark on Creating and Sharing Your Own Content


Recently, I have been reading more and more about the importance of creating your own content. “It’s useful and powerful to be a curator of other people’s good stuff,” explains Dorie Clark at Buffer, “but if you really want to establish an expert reputation, the fast ticket to do that is creating your own content.” It seems that popular ways of creating your own content can include starting your own blog, publishing original posts on a social media platform (like LinkedIn), or having those posts featured on the blogs of others. Clark, author of the popular business book Stand Out, says that by sharing your own thoughts, your customers and clients will start to recognize that you are an expert in your field.

Here are three of Clark’s tips to keep in mind when creating and sharing your own content:

Live out your brand through your content: “If you want to stand out and get noticed as, for instance, an innovative and connected fashion entrepreneur,” writes Clark at Entrepreneur, “you need to start writing blog posts about trends you see in the industry….”

Create posts that serve others: “While a search advertising campaign will go away the moment you stop paying for it,” writes Dorie Clark at dorieclark.com, “a smart ‘how-to’ article may live forever – and drive traffic forever – on the web.”

You don’t have to stick to one share per post: “One blog post can be turned into at least five or ten tweets,” writes Clark at Entrepreneur, “if you excerpt different ‘pull quotes,’ or interesting quotes you pull out to highlight along with a link to the piece.”

I am grateful to Dorie Clark for these excellent tips, which will help entrepreneurs in Africa and beyond. Finally, if you are worried about establishing yourself as an expert by creating your own content, Nigerian content entrepreneur Kelechi Udoagwu has some helpful advice: "When people see you being who you want to be, they will begin to know you as that, and you're well on your way to becoming it."

--Chimuka Moore
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