The Content Creation Game: Turning Hard Work into Play

The woman was visibly in pain. Her face was sweaty and red, her legs swollen from hours of labor.

"Push! Push harder!" Her colleagues screamed, and between two spasms, she thought, "Oh my, why did I have to do this here? I wish I had some professionals taking care of me!"

Andrea, her assistant, leaned closer with an expectant and slightly encouraging look, she repeated the magic phrase: "Push! You can do it!"

She let out a painful scream, followed by gasps and exclamations from the audience.

Andrea's face burst into laughter, mixed with tears of joy. "I can see its hook; it's coming out!"

Tony from marketing chimed in, "Awesome, boss! Only 1,200 more characters until you can hold your new status update in your arms!"

Sound familiar? Producing content shouldn't be hard. Otherwise, it leads to stress and fatigue.

Blueprints for Creativity?

I use blueprints when I wire my photovoltaic systems. I have a rigid system in place whenever I clean up my workshop. But with writing, creativity reigns.

Or perhaps we are such complex algorithms that not even Richard van der Blom could decipher us.

The aesthetical imperative: If you desire to see, learn how to act. -- Heinz von Foerster -

I often hear this: We struggle with producing content on a daily / weekly / monthly / quarterly basis. (Okay, I made "quarterly" up.)

No one ever said, Last month was so busy and full of priorities, I couldn't possibly answer a single email.

Some emails take longer to write than status updates.

The Content Strategy Game

Let's take the experts at their word and assume that building a personal brand without a solid content strategy is impossible. Boils down to:

The most valuable content strategy is the one you actually execute.

Does the thought of posting once a week give you cramps? Fine, post once a month.

Still unsure about crafting the perfect post? Then don't. Instead, embrace authenticity and write from the heart.

Post about how hard it is to post. Nothing is easier than documenting your struggles. Peers will relate, engagement will inspire hunger.

Adjust the frequency as your hunger grows. You're in the zone when posting becomes fun again. You'll only produce quality content then, no matter the effort.

From Chore to Challenge

"LinkedIn is a marathon."

Come on - 2019 called; it wants its motivational B2B slogans back.

I don't know about you, but the thought of a marathon gives me shivers. Love walking, hate running.

I say LinkedIn is more like knife-throwing: You inevitably improve because training is fun. But as you're getting good, you'll still miss the target plenty of times. You'll need swift reflexes when the knife ricochets.

Like all, LinkedIn trainers have biases. The wise ones question them.

Never doubt playfulness though! You'll find no better long-run motivator than a pinch of gamification.

When we moved to our garden house, constantly picking up fallen ripe apples annoyed us immensely. That changed when I made hitting the target with apples into a game.

Gamify your content strategy. For example, weave a new industry statistic into your weekly posts. Keep content fresh. Transform data hunting into an exciting quest for knowledge.

Will any of these posts earn you 10,000 followers overnight? Probably not. Yet everything - I repeat: EVERYTHING - is way better than investing time and energy in mindless fake engagement activity and annoying automation.

And you'll have fun along the way, too.

Newsletter over.

P.S.: Can't forget to mention that the gang is reuniting. 'LinkedIn LaB' has joined a witness protection program and shall henceforth be known as B2B LaB. We'll share all our corporate B2B secrets on March 1st - now's the time for early bird tickets. Get yours here (workshop in German):