Let Your Work Speak For You (The Rest Is Noise)
The content you put out in your name, should never take precedence over the business that you’re trying to develop and build.
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There is an adage of sorts that gets thrown about a lot these days, which is that all of us need to be “creating content,” and that all of us need to be taking advantage of all the tools at our disposal to “tell and share stories” with the world at large. Now, at the face of it, all of this sounds well and good, but of late, I’m beginning to realize an important caveat is missing in these missives for entrepreneurs and professionals in the social media age. You see, I believe that we shouldn’t be promoting just the creation of content- instead, we should be promoting the creation of good content.
There is a massive difference between those two things- one is just noise that adds no value to anyone and is either just throwaway information or, at best, self-promotional swagger, while the other is something that has been thought about, worked on, and developed with the idea that it will be of use to someone else out there. As entrepreneurs, while one cannot really deny the importance of pitching and presenting yourselves as brands in your own right, there is a fine line to be walking when you’re doing this- after all, in the long run, rest assured that it’s your work that will speak for you.
As such, all of the content you put out there in your name, whether that be a self-aggrandizing image on Instagram, or a sanctimonious comment about anything and everything on Twitter, all of that should, I believe, never take precedence over the business that you’re trying to develop and build. At this point, I should probably state that sure, everyone is essentially free to say what they want and when they want to, but, as a Spider- Man comic famously once said, “with great power, comes great responsibility,” and with that thought in mind, it’s really not too much to ask to put some care and thought into what one is shouting into these megaphones on the internet.
In the world we live in today, I’ve been noticing a seemingly craven urge among people around me to put themselves up as celebrities of a sort, and while I guess there’s nothing too wrong about wanting to be famous, I feel it’s a problem when you try to achieve this by focusing on building up your profile and prominence, as opposed to honing your talent or work, and letting that be the vehicle to take you to the big league. After all, that’s what matters in the long run- the good work that you do and actually put out to the world. Because everything else is, well, just noise anyway.
Related: How To Boost Your Career With Online Personal Branding
There is an adage of sorts that gets thrown about a lot these days, which is that all of us need to be “creating content,” and that all of us need to be taking advantage of all the tools at our disposal to “tell and share stories” with the world at large. Now, at the face of it, all of this sounds well and good, but of late, I’m beginning to realize an important caveat is missing in these missives for entrepreneurs and professionals in the social media age. You see, I believe that we shouldn’t be promoting just the creation of content- instead, we should be promoting the creation of good content.
There is a massive difference between those two things- one is just noise that adds no value to anyone and is either just throwaway information or, at best, self-promotional swagger, while the other is something that has been thought about, worked on, and developed with the idea that it will be of use to someone else out there. As entrepreneurs, while one cannot really deny the importance of pitching and presenting yourselves as brands in your own right, there is a fine line to be walking when you’re doing this- after all, in the long run, rest assured that it’s your work that will speak for you.
As such, all of the content you put out there in your name, whether that be a self-aggrandizing image on Instagram, or a sanctimonious comment about anything and everything on Twitter, all of that should, I believe, never take precedence over the business that you’re trying to develop and build. At this point, I should probably state that sure, everyone is essentially free to say what they want and when they want to, but, as a Spider- Man comic famously once said, “with great power, comes great responsibility,” and with that thought in mind, it’s really not too much to ask to put some care and thought into what one is shouting into these megaphones on the internet.
