How to become a social media content creator: my experience

Hello, my travel friends! Happy to have you here! Today we are talking about how to become a social media content creator! In my last Instagram post yesterday, I’ve asked you what you wanted to know? and what topic my next blog post should be about? And surprisingly, most of the questions were about the same topic! So today let’s talk about how I became a social media content creator and how I started to work with brands and made it a living!

I know these new digital jobs, like “content creator” and “digital entrepreneur” in a general way, are so much intriguing and fascinating at the same time. I mean, we can start from zero, create a community that has the same passion and finally live the life we have created! This sounds amazing, but I swear this is not as simple as it looks and it requires so much work, time, energy and patience. This is why I wanted to answer your questions, and let you know everything my own experience as a travel content creator and behind the scenes of this job!

If you would like to become a social media content creator or if you’re simply curious about this topic, this post is for you! 😉

How to become a social media content creator?

 Identify your passion

To become a content creator, the first and most important thing is to identify your passion. This must already be your passion in your real life. I mean, you can not start traveling just for Instagram. If you have never traveled before and if you are not truly passionate about travel, people will see it and you will never inspire them. You need to bring something real to people and bring value. Also, you need to know that starting a travel account has a real cost, as you will finance all your first trips by yourself. So if you’re not truly and sincerely passionate about travel, this will not work.

Be authentic: be yourself!

Personally, we have always loved travel, we started traveling together 8 years ago when we met, and it was evident that we have this passion in common. We were ready to put all our money on travels, just because we needed to travel, not for social media but for us. To fulfill our soul. We had this inside voice that told us to discover the world, we were in search of the adventure, the thrill. So we started naturally to share our travel journey 3 years ago on Instagram, but at this time we had no idea it could become a business. We started to share our adventures just for fun, to inspire people to travel more and share our way of life and good vibes!

You need to identify your passion, and ask yourself why do you want to share about this? Do you have something new and valuable to bring to people? If the answer is yes, you should probably open an Instagram account or a Youtube channel! This can be a travel account, fitness, fashion, beauty, but also, food or even nature or animals! It must be something you truly love, that is big a part of your life and something you have to share with the world!

Find your niche

Ok, you already know that these markets are over-saturated. There are just too many people that are creating new accounts and doing pretty like the same thing. Same places, same outfit, and so on! Unfortunately, it’s hard to make your place in these industries. But if you have something different, fresh, and valuable to offer, you can totally success! There is a place for everyone that has something new to offer!

You need to find your niche. Now, finding a general field is not relevant, there are too many people on the market, you need to find a niche. This is a smaller segment in the market. Find the one that corresponds to your personality! For example in the fashion industry, you can choose naturally to be in the street style niche or maybe more boho. In the travel one, you can go into the adventure, sensations, tropical islands, oriental countries or maybe into the luxury niche. This must be the niche that shows your personality and your lifestyle the best!

 Create and share great content

This one may sound obvious but seriously there is no secret to success in this industry, you have to produce quality content! For me, this is the key to be able to build an audience around the same passion. Instagram is very competitive, so if you want your photos to be seen, shared and appreciated, you have to produce great quality content! This works for photos, videos but also for stories.

But you need to know that creating professional content takes time and requires to develop real skills. This is not about taking iPhone pics and put a Vsco filter on it! Unless you are already a professional photographer yourself, you have to be an autodidact and learn everything about it! In the beginning, you don’t need to invest in expensive gear. The camera you’ve received for your birthday is totally ok to start photography! The most important when you’re starting is to understand the basics of photography. I mean playing with the lights, shadows, or angles. You should read our post about “How to set up a camera and start shooting”

Also, you will also have to learn how to post-product your photos, this means how to edit them. You will have to learn how to use professional software like Lightroom, Photoshop or Premiere pro. About this topic, you can read this post about “How to edit your photos with lightroom“.

Engage with people that have the same passion

Also, one of the most important things to do daily to become a content creator is to engage with people that have the same passion! You can not just post a pic and wait. You have to find the people that share the same passion and create a real and sincere connection with them around the same values.

Creating an audience around the same passion takes time but it is really rewarding and fulfilling. Sharing my adventures with my community is amazing. I have so much luck to have this travel community that is like a family! As we are sharing the same passion for travel and we have the same lifestyle and values, we have built a real connection!

It’s really important to value your community and be sincere and authentic with them. You could not do this job without them after all! Always try to answer to all your comments and DM. Every person that takes the time to connect with you is worthing a reply!

Be present online

Around the same topic, be present online! The harder part is to produce quality content but at the same time to be present online as much as possible! You can not post only once per week and think it’s sufficient to become a content creator and make it a living. You should try to post every day if you can, or at least 5 times per week. Also, you have to engage every day with your community, the other content creators and to post stories about your daily life. This is a very important part if you want to become a content creator.

Be regular and consistent

Also, you have to be regular and consistent. Post every day, engage, be present online and just be patient. It took us 3 years to build a community of more than 100k travelers. It takes hours and hours of work, no weekend, no vacations. Becoming a content creator means to pursue your dreams and starting creating the life you have imagined.

But it also means doing many sacrifices, in terms of time, energy and money. You will have to invest a lot in your project in term of photography gear, in your travels and so on. Personally, we have been sacrificing basically everything that was not travel-related during the past few years. And we are glad we’ve done it! It was so worthing it!

Analyze and improve yourself

Analyzing and improving yourself is also one of the most important things in the process. You need to learn what works for you or doesn’t work. You will also improve a lot in terms of photography skills and editing! When I see our old pics this makes me smile! I realize how much we have improved our skills! But everyone is starting at the same point! So don’t wait to start 😉

Monetize: collaborate with brands

This is one of the questions that came the most: how do you work with brands? Do you contact them? So, to answer, there are no rules it is depending. When we started to grow our audience, brands starting to contact us to collaborate together. But you can also contact the brands you love to work with them! This can be tourism offices, travel agencies, technologic, fashion or beauty labels.

But, think long term!

Always collaborate with brands that have a real value for your audience! Don’t make the mistake to accept collaborations just for money, even if it is a lot of money! If the brand or the product doesn’t have a real value and interest, your community will see it. They are not stupid! And you will totally lose your legitimacy. Never use your audience to make money with shitty products. I’m sure you exactly know what I mean! You should better think long term and collaborate only with valuable brands and product in which you truly believe!

Don’t listen to what people say!

Being a content creator or an online entrepreneur are new jobs. People are not used to hearing about these new 2.0 jobs. Some people around you will find it really cool and others won’t understand! Some of them can try to dissuade you, but don’t listen to them! Just do what you love!

Have fun during the journey and stay humble!

The most important is having fun during the journey! Don’t forget one thing: the most important is not the end, but having fun all along the way. It’s like a trip! Enjoy every minute and focus on the positive! Don’t spend your time thinking about the shitty algorithm. Take time with your loved ones, have friends in real life and take time for yourself! Your mental health must be your priority! Instagram is just a platform to have fun and share positive vibes with others to inspire them!

I’ve seen too many persons doing a burnout, trying to compete instead of collaborating with others or taking their selves too seriously! We don’t become Beyoncé because we have 100k or 500k followers. We are just humans and everyone deserves respect! 😉

Ready to become a content creator?

I hope you loved this post! I really loved writing for you and sharing my own experience! This is probably my favorite post! Let me know in the comments if you would like to become a content creator or if this post helped you to get to know more about this original online job!

Don’t forget to follow our next adventures on Instagram and turn on notifications to not miss our posts! @chiarabarrasso @jelafaille