Charlemagne Tha God's recent interview with Chloe Bailey about why she deleted an Instagram video licking a lollipop is an indicator of how long his platform is going to last. Content about licking a lollipop?! Really? 😳 I have said this on numerous occasions; we are now in a Content Era. Streaming services are in global competition over it, Podcasters and Bloggers need it to survive every week and it's like that Frank Lucas blue magic to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TicTok and YouTube users. For THAT Economy to sustain itself Content must be consistently harvested from Creatives and Entrepreneurs who are sometimes trafficked through digital internet rings... We have to be able to control our Content. If some entity steals our Content then we can sue them; like Bev Standing did TikTok after she found out that they used her text-to-speech voice without permission. If we don't have that ability, we will be used as Content slaves.
The obvious question is, "What can we do to control our Content?" The first thing that I would encourage people to do is to PROTECT THEIR BRAND. Even if you think that the Content that you share is for fun, PROTECT IT. If you have a Logo, Business Name, a unique Phrase or Hashtag that you use, trademark it! It is better to have it and not need it now than to need it after something you shared goes viral or some celebrity with 2.6 million followers uses it without giving any credit to you. Remember when it was announced that the Washington [Redskins] were going to change their team name? Well an Actuary [Risk Manager] named Martin McCaulay who had been stockpiling trademarks for years already owned many versions of the Washington team name such as Washington Red-Tailed Hawks, Redtails, Veterans and Warriors to name a few. If the Washington team wants to use any of his trademarks they would have to get licensed permission from him, which is not free. What about Durell Smylie? He successfully trademarked his viral phrase "Where The Money Reside" that entertainers like Saweetie, Meghan the Stallion and others were graciously using on their social media. Smylie also began to create merch bearing his trademark, lend his voice to advertisements and paid partnerships, appearing on television and showing up at celebrity parties. These are just some examples of how people have positioned themselves in this digital domain to PROTECT THEIR BRAND and how it works in our favor.
The next thing I would encourage people to do is stockpile Content before they officially put themselves out there. I have seen people with excellent ideas yet they failed to assess the time commitment necessary to create consistent Content. I have seen a person put out 3 or 4 great episodes or articles and the next thing you know it's damn near a year later and they disappear. What happened? They never really studied and prepared for the Content demand. They also did not make an honest assessment of their time and dedication to this work. If you want to start a Podcast you need to be clear on the amount of time you can unquestionably dedicate to it. If you are a family man with 3 children under ten-years-old, you probably should not tell everybody that you are going to have a Podcast Mon, Wed and Fri from 4pm to 7pm. If your office includes Starbucks Wi-Fi, you may not want to tweet to folks that you are dropping 1400-word articles 4 times a week while working on your first article during a morning rush. If we cannot honestly envision ourselves consistently maintaining that output of Content for at least three years, then we need to rethink the time we can dedicate to this. It is work! For the family man, maybe doing a Podcast from 8pm-9pm every Wednesday after your children are in bed is more realistic. For the Blogger, maybe writing a weekly article at your residence and only coming to Starbucks to upload it while you grab an oatmilk frappuccino is best. If you intend on starting something new in 2022, whether that is writing articles, Podcasting or Vlogging, stockpile at least six months of Content before you launch. Plan ahead! It is far better to have that Content available when you need it instead of scrambling to find something to write about, someone to interview or something to talk about. When you don't have anything to say people can see through it and your analytics will reflect it. That undermines our ability to build our readership and/or listening audience.
If you are already out there then ask yourself, "Does my Content consistently represent my brand?" If someone were to click on your unique Hashtag do those posts accurately reflect the posts that you have made? Sometimes you may need to go back and meticulously update and/or link that Content to reflect your digital footprint. For example, I have well over eight hundred YouTube videos and I had to go back and add/change descriptions, keywords, create playlists and etc. on many of them to make sure that they were uniform with my brand. Again, this is work and a serious time commitment that we need to honestly assess.
For at least two decades I have consistently used this digital space as a medium to communicate my projects, programs and initiatives around education, youth advocacy and community outreach. I have been able to maintain this Content creation because it is based upon actual work that I do. I don't need to look for anything to write or talk about. That is the real key to consistent Content creation in this online space; to live a content life offline. When the shutdown happened and film/television production houses came to a grinding halt, entertainers were out of work and entertainment venues closed, this exposed the fact that we are in a Content Era. It also revealed that many people were/are online because they are not content offline.
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As we closed out this Gregorian calendar year, I look forward to seeing more people controlling their destiny as Creatives and Entrepreneurs. Don't just talk about what you are going to do; prepare and plan to put your best foot forward with the goal of sustainability. Don't burn yourself out, pace yourself! If you are not a Creative or Entrepreneur then I encourage you to support those of us who are showing that we appreciate that support by investing in our communities, cities or online network.
Peace,
Saladin
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