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JUNE 9, 2023

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

5 things to do

Are you a content entrepreneur in the sea of sameness? Or are you deep in the ocean of obscurity?

Robert Rose, chief troublemaker at The Content Advisory, asked those questions of Creator Economy Expo 2023 attendees. As he explains, content entrepreneurs in the sea of sameness have the occasional different idea, but they express them as well as anyone. In the ocean of obscurity, creators frequently have amazing, remarkable ideas, but they can’t express them.

Escaping either body of troubled water involves the same solution: Create a point of view story.

Frankly, for content entrepreneurs, a point of view is a necessity for a successful business. After all, your POV should be your brand’s competitive advantage. Otherwise, your content business will just tread water.

“It’s your invitation to the journey for your audience,” Robert says. To design and implement your POV, he offers this process:

1. Develop a brand promise: What do you stand for? Every narrative you create should align with your brand promise. It embodies who you are. It’s how you express yourself in content.

2. Determine your orientations: What do you do? It could be channels, email vs. website, guest posts – all the places where you distribute your output. You can identify themes, shows, initiatives, projects, etc. How do you plan the order of those things? How many ideas do you express?

3. Create your unique point of view as a story: This is your non-negotiable view of the world as a story. It centers on your audience’s why. Creating this allows you to express ideas in consistent yet different ways across different orientations.

Identify your primary purpose. How will your audience benefit from your POV? Then create the primary message that you will use throughout your business. Secondary messages follow. These are based on context so they may be audience or channel specific.

With your messaging in place, you can detail your definitions/standards. What is your consistent voice? What words, phrases, concepts, etc., have consistent meaning across your content?

Now, you have your POV architecture.

4. Create content briefs: Documenting your POV as a story then lets you have a common document from which to operate. It is essential if you work with others to create the content or market the business. But even if you’re solo, the POV document can serve you well when you’re tempted to stray from your focus or sometimes forget parts of the POV story. It helps you scale ideas, create consistency, and think about your audience and content in a broader or deeper way.

5. Treat your POV story as a living document: Just because you write it down doesn’t mean it won’t change. Revisit it at least annually to ensure your POV still aligns with the story you want to tell, and your audience wants to hear.

Go deeper into the POV architecture with Robert Rose in his CEX presentation and more than 40 more with a digital pass. Buy today for instant access. Use code TILT100 to save.

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5 things from the tilt

Will ChatGPT help or hurt your small business? (The Ascent)
The Pen Pivot curates AI tools, prompts, and news for the creator economy. Join other creators leveraging AI to boost their content. Subscribe for free today.*
The LIV/PGA Merger: What can brands learn? [This Old Marketing podcast]
Every content entrepreneur needs to have a portion of their time dedicated to a giving or philanthropic, nonprofit goal. Here's an example of how to make it happen. [Content Inc. podcast]
Don't want all 40+ hours of Creator Economy Expo recordings? Smaller packages are now on sale starting at $85. Packages include five-six sessions specific to topics like podcasting, social media, building a content business, and more. Buy one today!

*The Tilt receives a small commission if readers (at no additional cost) make a purchase using this link.

5 things to know

Money

Not social: Bond, a new social commerce platform billed as an alternative to traditional social media, says it wants to make storytelling center stage. The shoppable in-platform site also gives creators and brands more control of the relationship than they would have on social media. (Vogue Business)
Tilt Take: We love empowering creators, but a new third-party platform may not be the answer. Why not just focus on your own audience on your own platform?

Audiences

Little ears: Almost half (47%) of Americans ages 13 to 24 have listened to a podcast within the last month – that’s an estimated 24M Gen Z listeners. (sxm media; h/t Podnews)
Tilt Take: Looking for a content format that appeals to younger generations? Think audio.
Rights retention: Creator group Yes Theory released its first feature film (Project Iceman) on its site with a pay-what-you-want model. They turned down a million-dollar streaming deal because it might have hurt their primary metric – the audience. (The Publish Press)
Tilt Take: Creator control is a huge deal, and so is launching a global marketing campaign and shifting how people typically consume movies.

Tech and Tools

Brands seek AI: Lightricks’ recent creator survey finds 56% say brands have asked them to use AI compared to 39% the previous year. (Insider)
Tilt Take: Not sure brands care how the content is created unless they think AI may reduce the creator’s rates. It shouldn’t matter because creators should charge based on the value they bring to the brand, not as a production factory.

And Finally

First glance: A writer for Black Mirror, the Netflix series, asked a generative AI content tool to generate an episode. At first view, the AI response read plausible. But a more thorough read found it just mushed together all the synopses of earlier episodes. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Tilt Take: AI can’t do original. You should.