How To Avoid The Mistakes I Made When Becoming A Content Creator

So, you've heard the buzz that posting on LinkedIn is going to boost your journey into data analytics, and you want to give it a try. Whether you're simply going to stick to using your content to get a job / network, or you want to become a "Content Creator" (I don't like the Influencer phrase), please, let me be your Content Creation big sister and lay some things out so you can learn from my troubles/mistakes/successes!

I am going to put the troubles at the end but if you're just here because you want to create content to get a job just know the mistakes might not apply to you as much but make sure to skip down to "troubles" because this is where the big sister advice comes in that hopefully helps keep you away from burnout.

Successes And Tips

Let's start with a win. If you are just becoming a data analyst, you are in a position to win as a content creator just by showing up and being you. Why is that? We as humans love stories. And if you show up on the scene and just start posting your journey, people are going to like that. My following on LinkedIn and Tik Tok grew at an honestly unbelievable rate when I started out posting, and I have seen other content creators come onto the scene on LinkedIn and experience similar success.

If you break it apart, it makes complete sense. Here's what I (and you) had going for me (you):

• I brought them into my real story, not just the highlight reel. People are into that right now- gone is the days we want everyone to be a perfect Instagram model.

• I was on a journey with a well defined end point, so it was almost like tuning in for a series or a movie. Would I get a job, or would I fail at getting a job? People were logging in just to see if I got a job at one point.

• There are a lot of people out there who want to become a data analyst, but have no idea what that looks like. You posting your roadmap, and how it felt (the good and the bad) helps them understand what their next steps will look like. All of those people will hit "follow" or "connect" right away when they realize you're only a few steps ahead of them.

Here's my tips that are specific to the LinkedIn algorithm/ community on how to create posts that resonate well with people:

Include a Hook

People are scrolling on LinkedIn like it's a social media. They only see one or two lines of your post before getting to the "Read More". If you don't catch their attention in the first line, they're never going to read your post.

Be Concise

When you start creating content, it's very tempting to just pour out your entire stream of consciousness. Some people might read that, but most won't. I've been doing this for almost a year now, and I still re-read every post multiple times asking myself "how can I cut this down? What is redundant?

On that same point, every post should have just one main point. Not two, or five. IF you read your post and can't identify the one main point, go and break it apart into multiple posts.

Format for Humans

You see how I've broken apart each point nicely for you here and bolded the headers? This is much easier to read than a bunch of long paragraphs, one after the next.

On LinkedIn, your typical English class grammar goes out the window. I generally avoid any "paragraph" being more than a few lines long. Each "sub-point" within my point gets its own paragraph.

Algorithm Tips

Many people tell me they're intimidated by hashtags - they're not as complex as you may think. Do not commit algorithm spam by including any hashtag that could possibly be remotely related to your post, and every trending hashtag too. The algorithm hates this.

The algorithm uses hashtags to show your post to the relevant people. If I post about SQL, I will use a SQL hashtag. If I post about data analytics, but it's about Tableau, I won't use a SQL hashtag. But I will use Tableau, and potentially #businessintelligence. Go with 2-7 hashtags that are relevant to your post.

I find the most success in posting at 7:30am, and during the week. Sometimes posts outside of those windows do well, usually they don't do as well. My theory is that I'm catching Americans on their way to work, but I am catching people in the UK and India (there are a lot of people from India in the data space on LinkedIn) on their way home from work.

I actually schedule my posts ahead of time - it takes the stress away from needing to post at a certain time.

People love images and documents. If you can add an image or a document, they're more likely to stop the scroll for you. Those carousel style posts have been doing quite well lately.

I find on the other hand, the algorithm isn't a big fan of polls. It hates links - if I post a link I will talk about it in my post, but then put the link in the comments. If you're posting a portfolio project I find that the best combination is to add a static image of the project/dashboard, and then put a link to the project in your comments. This grabs people's attention, and passes the vibe check with the algorithm!

Do NOT participate in those stupid Social Saturday posts. I know, they seem great when you're starting out. They're just engagement machines for the poster. As a matter of fact, they hurt you. If someone connects with you because of Social Saturday and they don't give a shit about your posts, they're going to scroll right by your posts. This tells the algorithm "Don't push this post".

Mistakes

Now, let's get into the things I did "wrong", or would at least recommend you not doing.

Striving for Viral Posts

"Going viral" is a well known win on any platform really. The first few times you make a post and it hits it big, you might follow what my friend called the "Follower Dragon". It's natural to think "wow, that went viral! A lot of people loved what I had to say (which is cool for me and for them). Not to mention I got so much exposure and followers from that!".

So what do you do? You start chasing that. You think "ok, how can I do this again?". Stop.

This isn't necessarily bad, and there are some elements that I like. You found a subject that resonates with a lot of people. Great! That will help direct your content. You got exposed to a larger audience, potentially pulling people who like your content. Great!

But the flip-side is this - how many of those people hit "follow" without looking at anything else you posted? Are they going to scroll right by your next 20 posts and never get shown them again? That may not help you as much as you think. But that's actually not the mistake here.

The mistake I made early on was not capitalizing on exactly what people loved, without the expectation of going viral again. Are you going to go viral twice in a row for posting about the same topic? Probably not. But what you have got now is a captive audience and a data point for the algorithm to say "if they liked that post and this person posts about something similar, they're probably going to like the next post".

So what does it look like to capitalize on your viral post without just trying to re-do it? Think about this - if they liked that topic, what are the next questions they would have? For example, my most viral post to date is one on Tik Tok that will likely reach 1 million views in the next few months. It was a very off the cuff video talking about the bare minimum you need in order to become a data analyst.

After I saw the huge boom of popularity of that post, I did not spend any more time trying to recreate the "bare minimum". Everyone had already seen that. But I did notice that I got probably a thousand comments from people asking "you need a portfolio to be a data analyst?" and "what is a portfolio?" and "how do I start making a portfolio?".

I was pretty busy that week but I knew that the "iron was hot" so to speak so I jumped on that momentum and I made a few videos about portfolios - linking to my portfolio and some of my older videos on the subject in the process.

I didn't get a ton of new followers out of those follow-up videos but I did get something that I find much more valuable - engaged followers who are genuinely benefitting from my content.

Striving for Followers

This isn't one I have done per se, but I have seen other people fall into this trap. It's very related to the first one. Sometimes I see someone start creating content, and they get this initial wave of success. That's great! But then they go "huh, how can I chase more followers?".

Suddenly you see them striving to post every day, multiple times a day. They want to see how they can hustle and expand what they are doing - more, more, more. At some point, the momentum dies down. People aren't engaging as much with their posts. Their follower growth slows.

Why is this? I think it's for the following reasons:

• Most people who push themselves to post every day start creating a lot of fluff, that people just scroll past

• People can tell when you are being genuine. Nobody is here to follow "Annie the Content Creator", they're here to follow "Annie the Data Analyst". Once it begins to feel like you're selling yourself it no longer feels genuine and people lose interest

• You can only say the same thing so many times. If you're new to data analytics, how much unique content could you possibly have to share? I have given the advice more than once- focus on upskilling at work (and out of it if you have time). If you have new things and new learning to talk about, your followers will be more interested in that than yet another recap of "The three tools you need to become a data analyst"

Engaging with your Community

When I started out creating content it was all kind of overwhelming, to be honest. All I really had the headspace to make time for was creating my posts, and responding to comments on my posts.

After about 6 months of content creation I started to shift my ways - I started to engage more with my community. No, I was not responding in depth to every InMail I got. What I was doing is going out and commenting on other people's posts. Other content creators, and especially, people who weren't content creators who were following me.

I noticed that the social fabric of LinkedIn changed for me after that. I feel much more connected with and supported by others in a similar niche to me- but I also feel much more invested in my community. I don't post every day any more, but I do make sure to be on there connecting with people every day.

The downstream effects of that is that after months of this I have many followers who honestly, if I said "I wrote a book", they'd buy it just to support me. I also will see comments on my posts and others saying things like "Annie always talks about the importance of a portfolio!". I know this is something I do in my posts but I am much more vocal about this in comments so I can tell that people are seeing this and learning from it in a format that is much more connected than typical posts.

Creating the Content You Think They Want To See

I've done this, and I've heard many others echo the same experiences I had. I started creating content essentially for me. I didn't really have an intended audience, and I didn't have a following. I was just putting out there what I was doing.

When my numbers started to grow, I started to try and predict what it was my audience wanted to her. I would sit down and really think hard about coming up with the "right" posts. I was also very emotionally attached to how well these posts did, because I did this for my audience and wanted to be validated.

After a while I realized I was super burned out from doing this, and it didn't even seem to be working reliably anyways. So I took a break from posting, and considered if I wanted to give it up. After some thought and much-needed time away from my socials, I decided I was just going to go back to my roots and start posting for me again.

If I had a thought I wanted to share, I would share it. If not, I would just scroll and comment on other's posts and catch up on my inbox. I also started creating the type of content that I wish I had seen at different stages of my data journey. There is probably a fine line between that and doing it for followers who are a few steps behind me, but I did not struggle with it because I kept it firmly rooted in my own experience.

Troubles

If you've made it this far, I am guessing you are truly invested into this content creation thing, for one reason or another. Or you skipped ahead. These next points don't really have much to do with your actual content - they relate to you, your feelings, and your emotional energy. When you start creating content it really makes you realize that these are worth protecting.

Your First Haters

I have this theory that you haven't truly "made it" as a content creator until you get your first haters. When you are a newbie, nobody really cares enough about what you're doing to take the time to be negative. So once you make a post that unexpectedly gets a negative response - you've made it as a content creator. You're putting out content that matters.

If you're creating content for everybody, you're creating content for nobody. We all have our own niche that we create content within. A lot of times when I have gotten hate on my posts, it's from people who 100% are not my target audience. I remember my first post that this truly happened on was a post I made in about 5 seconds where I was like "Easy Apply? More like Easy Rejected!" because I was frustrated that I had not hear back from a single "Easy Apply" job posting on LinkedIn.

It makes sense if you think about it, because if it only takes a few clicks to apply to, there's likely going to be hundreds and hundreds of (unqualified) applicants. Anyways, I know many other entry level data analysts who have experienced something similar, and agree with my logic of why this might be something you do not want to get your hopes up about. However, it attracted the attention of people who were neither entry level, nor data analysts.

The comment section was pretty conversational, even people who had done well with Easy Apply were nicely voicing their experience. Then this one guy came onto the post and made some negative comments about how I was spreading misinformation. It was like he had sent up the bat signal to his entire toxic network.

All of a sudden I had people with titles like CEO, Head of Recruiting, Director, etc. commenting on my post and reprimanding me for spreading false information to job seekers (um hello, I was a job seeker!). Since it had gained all of these people's attention, the post quickly went from 20k views to 60k views. I was taking every single comment very personally - this was before I started to build up my network of friends too.

Eventually I had to go in and edit at the top of the post saying essentially "hey can you please stop being mean to me? I'm an entry level job seeker and was just expressing an experience I was having. If you're just here to yell at me please go away".

Even after that, some people just did not want to let it go. So, what did I learn from this? A few things - do NOT take it personally when you start getting negative comments. These people don't know you, you don't know them. Think about it, do you really care that much about the opinion of some rando who is so unhappy that they need to go out of their way to be mean to someone else on the internet? How much would it take for you to leave a comment like that on someone's post? Probably a lot more than whatever it is you said. Don't take it personally.

Another lesson was that when this happens, reach out. There are people in your network who love you and want to support you. They probably already liked and commented on your post to begin with, so they don't see the hate happening. Reach out to them. They do not need to do anything on your behalf - it's just nice to know you're not alone.

Setting Emotional Boundaries

I'll be honest with you, this point specifically is like 90% of the reason why I am writing this post. The thing I struggled (/currently struggle) the most with and hear from every single other content creator that they also struggle with is boundaries.

When you start creating content to help people on LinkedIn, you will start getting a few different types of messages.

• Personalized connection messages (I always respond with "happy to connect!)

• People thanking you for your content, and maybe sharing a bit of their story and how you've impacted them (I usually respond positively to these but not very in depth)

• People wanting to have a coffee chat ( I do not give out my time for free like this)

• People wanting to hear your story ( I point them to my featured posts, pages, and blog and bio where I have created extensive content on the subject)

• People sending their resume or portfolio for you to review ( I'm not a career coach and I redirect them to my content)

• People wanting you to get them a job (I do not respond)

• If you're a woman, some people will message you about your appearance (immediate block)

• Some people will reach out to you with a genuinely interesting message - whether it's someone who really has been following you for a long time and commenting on your posts and just wants to say hi (I always respond to these messages, with more than just "hi!", or people who have a very specific question for you and are trying to be as respectful of your time as possible (I usually respond to these unless it's something that takes way too much effort or can be answered with a redirect to my content)

At first, everyone wants to try and keep up with these messages. After all, we are here to help, right? So we share our story over and over, and give personalized advice to every message that comes in.

Then you start to reach this volume of 2+ people per day wanting your personalized energy and attention, and it seems like they haven't even bothered to read through all of your posts and additional resources before reaching out and asking for your 1:1 time.

So then you're in a pickle! It's rude not to respond to their messages, and it seems counterintuitive to their message. But, your emotional energy is wearing thin - and it's not even something you're getting paid to do!

We all hit that point. You're not alone in that. My advice is this: You have a few options. You can:

1. Keep sustaining this pace until you burn out and stop creating content all together (or become a full-time content creator instead of your intended career)

2. Hire a social media manager to manage your inbox

3. Set emotional boundaries for yourself and on your page.

Obviously, my suggestion is #3. In my list above I included my typical response for messages that I get. Let me unpack what's going on behind the scenes here.

First of all, I have a post pinned to my featured posts saying I will no longer be responding to all of my messages in my inbox, and here's why. The boundary is set, and anyone who is bothering to put in any effort themselves will see this.

Secondly, I set a boundary with myself. If someone cant even take the time to go through the massive amount of free content I have put out, why should I take up my time and energy to give them a 1:1? That line helps me feel better about leaving people on read.

Finally, I do actually have a lot of helpful content out there. I make it easy- I pin all the important stuff to the top of my page in my featured posts, or I put it in my bio. This gives me an easy spot to redirect to. I understand that sometimes people will see a post that they resonate with and on an impulse want to reach out to that creator, without ever considering how many messages they get per day. Having all of that information available allows me to gently redirect people away from my emotional energy while still pointing them to something that is ultimately more helpful than a 1:1 anyways.

Your time is valuable. People on the internet will never respect that. If you want to be a content creator long term, make sure to protect yourself before doing anything else.

Posting Schedule

It took me about 7-8 months to get into a comfortable rhythm for creating content/ engaging with my socials. Here is the rhythm that works for me:

• I don't hold myself to any kind of a schedule - if I don't have anything to say, I don't post. I find a lot of people who post daily for the sake of posting daily end up putting up a lot of fluff/ repetitive content

• I almost never post in the moment. I will usually get an idea or two, and I will write up the post, and schedule it. I mentioned earlier that posts tend to perform best on weekday mornings. So I will schedule the posts for around 7:30am on the next weekday. I used to use Publer to schedule my posts, but now LinkedIn can do that natively.

• I generally keep my helpful and informative content to my weekdays, but I will post "nurture" content that is intended for my more dedicated followers on the weekend. It seems like LinkedIn is much quieter on the weekends, so I know that a much higher percentage of my audience for a post will be those close followers- and it won't reach many other people.

• Because I schedule my posts for the mornings, this frees me up to stay off of LinkedIn all day until the evening. After I finish off work for the day is when I will generally go in and respond to comments and catch up on my inbox. On busy weeks I sometimes won't even get to the comments on my post until the following day.

Finding a rhythm that works for you will help keep things in a flow state - it's kept me from feeling rushed and panicky about catching up on everything I have to do in all corners of my life.

Whew, that was a lot of words! If you have made it this far, feel free to shoot me a message on LinkedIn letting me know what you think. I don't really get any feedback on things I post on my blog, so I would love to know if someone out there is finding this helpful.

I wish you luck on your content creation journey, and I hope you can learn from my story!