Creating online for something more than content creation

Not everyone is a content creator and that's okay

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “I don’t want to be a content creator” know that you’re not alone. Not everyone is a content creator.

Each of us has been gifted by the gods with talents for the particular path we’re born to walk. Some of us are born to be content creators, whilst others (myself included), use online platforms to shine light onto the work. However problems arise when people avoid creating content because they’re worried about becoming a content creator, not realising that content creation can be appointed to serve a higher purpose.

What is a content creator?

Online followings, posting schedules, edits to fit creator aesthetic and B-Roll intros are all signs of a content creator. We understand that creating content means sharing anything on social media to inform or entertain others. Witnessing ourselves doing this or even thinking about doing it can cause us to worry that we might be becoming one. However sharing online doesn’t automatically make you a content creator—sharing content and being a content creator are two completely different things.

Sharing online doesn’t automatically make you a content creator—
sharing work online and being a content creator are two completely different things.

The difference between content creation and content creator

Content creation is an activity, whereas content creator is a Career Archetype.

There are thousands of career archetypes and as with all of them there’s a combination of traits needed to create a pattern and make it appear. You are not a Tarot Reader because you read for yourself. You are not a literature critic because you reviewed a Didion essay. You are not a philosopher because you took a philosophy class in university. You are your own career archetype.

Still Life with Books, Sheet Music, Violin, Celestial Globe and an Owl (1645 - 1650) by Jacob Van Campen

Our dominant vocational traits are important here.

For example John Mayer has the career archetype of musician — traits such as rhythmic sensitivity, auditory imagination and tonal memory help bring it to life. So posting TikTok's about his music and launching his album online won’t turn him into a content creator. The same can be said for us because most of us don’t have all the traits. To better understand the differences, here are 5 of the major traits of the content creator.

The content creator traits

1. Consistently self-expressive online
   They show up, share themselves and their work on social media with intense devotion.

2. Audience responsive
   They seek feedback from their audience and prioritise their needs above their own.

3. Platform and niche status
   They are driven by rising in status within their chosen social media channels and seek niche dominance on the platform itself.

4. Creatively independent
   They desire creating content from a deep and personal resonance within themselves and having the final decision on what to select is critical.

5. Algorithm orientation
   They seek to deeply understand the algorithm on the platforms they are creating as a part of their own mastery.

Are you a content creator?

If you’re worried about the term content creator, you’re probably not one. Content creators enjoy creating content—it energises them, they are pulled towards it and it’s a central part of their vocation and mastery. Doing it full-time is their dream. So here’s a visual aid to see whether or not you are a content creator.

Content creation arrangement

For the content creator, creating the content is at the centre of their craft—it’s their mastery’s epicentre. Growing an online audience, gathering clicks and views, connecting with others, improving their videos or carousels or essays on Substack is at the centre of what they do. This helps their career archetype pursue its calling: their craft is the content creation itself.

For those of us who are not content creators—creating content is not at the centre of our craft and may or may not serve it. Meaning that content creation needs to be considered against the vocation and arranged to serve it, otherwise it risks delocalising our soul’s work and pushing it to the periphery of importance, taking us away from our path.

So rather than putting content creation at the centre, content creation can serve as a window that others can peer through to glimpse our real work. Making our craft visible to those who never knew they needed it until they saw it online.

Adoration of the Magi by Jan Van Scorel

We can use content creation to transmit our vocation without thinking of ourselves as content creators. One way to rearrange this to serve your vocation is through your career archetype. For example, my career archetype is philosopher—sharing online is a way of educating people about my philosophy on vocations and Career Archetypes. What I share online has a higher purpose beyond the content creation itself.

Creating content for the vocation

Instead of focusing on content creation as an end, we need to focus on how sharing our work online can serve our vocation in the world. Connecting online posting to our vocation also helps re-orient our perspective and kills complaints we might’ve had about content creation such as burnout, constantly having to produce, dealing with negativity, curating feeds, thinking we need to be vulnerable all the time and the pressure to always be “on”.

By serving the vocation we question how, what and why we create content on social media. Giving us a way to go beyond it rather than avoiding it because we don’t want to become a content creator.

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Helpful questions to ask yourself

1. Already sharing online
   Ask yourself, “Am I being influenced to act like a content creator or does my content serve my vocation?”

2. Worried about becoming a content creator
   Ask yourself, “Does my vocation need me to share online and if it does, what content do I need to create to serve my vocation?”

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More free resources: For more insights & encouragement follow us on Instagram @thecareerarchetypes or tune into The Career Archetypes Podcast on Spotify