Getting into content creation

A photo of someone uploading on Instagram in front of a laptop.

Whether it’s podcasting, blogging or vlogging, content creators are part of the media industry.

If you’re looking to build up a following, create a brand and tailor your content to specific audience, follow these top tips for getting into content creation.  

Be well-researched 

When you’re first getting into content creation, you’re in a race against everyone else to have the most engaging, accurate and exciting content, otherwise you won’t make it to the For You Page.  

The way to ensure you get consistent engagement, and the trust of your viewers, is by being extremely well-researched.  

Whether it’s women’s cricket or French politics, being in the loop with any updates and accurately relaying the facts to your followers is essential.  

Understand SEO properly  

Understanding search engine optimisation is what will change your content from getting 20 views to getting 20,000.  

Using relevant words and hashtags will ensure your content gets in front of the right people.  

By tracking what phrases, words and music have been trending, you can tailor your content to what your audience are watching.  

At our ‘becoming an award-winning sports content creator’ Q&A, The Long Play founder Jordan Macauley empahsised the importance of understanding what works for the algorithm.

He said: “I had 300 YouTube subscribers in January 2024 and by the end of the year, I had 18,000 subscribers, considering this is a new venture for me, I thought it was a decent first year.

“But this year, we kind of hit a bit of an uptick and in the first six months of 2025, I’ve grown to over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube which is pretty strong.

“Now I have thousands of subscribers to the newsletter, I just needed to figure out how to drive traffic to it.

“Short-form on Instagram, and TikTok, long-form on YouTube, it’s kind of like the perfect matrix.”

You can learn all about this in the social media module on our BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism degree. 

Promoting your work  

Posting your content across all platforms gives you the most reach possible.  

Especially early in your career, you should be trying to get your work in front of as many people as possible.

The Content Club founder Miles Addy said: “I feel like if you’re not using social media to at least start building your personal brand, then there’s something wrong there, it’s a good place to build confidence and take a leap.”

If your content doesn’t always fly on TikTok, it might do well on Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts.

Jordan said: “Short-form on Instagram, and TikTok, long-form on YouTube, it’s kind of like the perfect matrix.”

Create a schedule  

The key to success in content creation is consistency.  

You don’t have to post every day, but you should be posting when you say you will.  

Make a schedule for yourself for the week and carve out time to create, edit and upload your content.  

This way, your followers expect your content and are likely to return to your page.  

Network  

Use social media for what it is for! 

Follow similar content creators and make connections around you. 

This can inspire your content, tell you what has or hasn’t already been covered and hold you accountable to posting regularly and staying in the loop.  

Jordan said: “You need to be comfortable and enjoy creating the content and focus on that rather than the outcomes.”

Now you’re all set to start your content creation journey.  

Find out here how to use social media like a journalist.