Getting started as a media creator is easier than you think! If you own a smartphone, you already have everything that you need to get started. The basic tools include the camera on your smartphone, social media apps and the processing capabilities of your smartphone/web device. To get started, simply take pictures and videos on anything you are interested in, and upload that media to a social media account of your choice. That’s it! Now do this over and over. Indefinitely. All while carefully crafting your message and media to be relatable to your intended audience. This is an extremely simplified example of what it is to become a media creator. Once you start to hone your skills, story tell or explore niches, you’ll find that this process can become much more complicated. However, that “formula” can be what makes you stand out or excel in your niche. But, you have to start somewhere and this is where we all start. But where to go from here? First you must identify your niche and audience. Think of a niche as a single topic. Some examples of a niche include; health, gardening, baseball, fishing, racing, sneakers, business management, food service, and of course, one of the most popular niches of all time, “make money online.” Within each niche, is an existing audience. Audiences can vary in size based on the popularity of each specific niche. Audiences can be growing, or shrinking, at any given time or as a seasonal fluctuation. For example, “baseball” is one of the most popular sports in the United States. “Baseball” is a niche. It is estimated that 25.3 million people participated in baseball or softball during the year 2023. This data comes from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA). There is a huge number of people within the baseball audience. Each niche is made up of smaller niches which are commonly referred to as sub-niches or micro-niches. “Baseball bats” and “pitching mechanics” are examples of sub-niches. These sub-niches also have their fluctuating audiences. As a media creator, it’s up to you to decide what niche that you want to make media about. You can explore multiple niches at the same time. There is no limit to the amount of media that you can create or social media accounts that you can have. Most professional media creators will advise you to choose a specific topic/niche that you are passionate and knowledgeable in and use this topic as your springboard for media creation
