{"id":93348,"date":"2026-05-18T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessesgrow.com\/?p=91516"},"modified":"2026-05-18T08:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:52:06","slug":"content-creator-angst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessesgrow.com\/2026\/05\/18\/content-creator-angst\/","title":{"rendered":"Content creator angst: You can engage yourself broke."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Content<\/p>\n

Too short for a blog post, too interesting to ignore, here are a few snippets on what I’ve been thinking about lately.<\/p>\n

Content creator angst<\/h2>\n

I am finding it harder and harder to post on social media. I feel like it has become a performance. People are trying to out-vulnerable each other.<\/p>\n

I just want to do good work. Spending one second of my life editing a Reel seems like a waste of a second that will never come back.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is why I like writing. Create. Let it sit. Make it sing. And it doesn’t disappear.<\/p>\n

There’s no schtick to it.<\/p>\n

Content you can create in your underwear. Now that’s livin’.<\/p>\n

Content creator angst part deux<\/h2>\n

My friends and colleagues are constantly debating any system tweak that pleases the LinkedIn algorithm. The major theme is to post stuff that generates comments. LinkedIn wants conversations.<\/p>\n

I generally do not write for comments, but sometimes I stumble into it.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of myself sleeping on a bench in the Amsterdam airport after canceled flights and a hotel foul-up. It received more than 82,000 views.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The following week, I posted a helpful, original article reflecting on Peter Drucker’s unique wisdom<\/a> and how his “five questions” remain relevant to marketing today. This post, which took about four hours to write, received 2,000 views, or about 3% of the airport post.<\/p>\n

This suggests that the key to engagement on LinkedIn is goofy personal photos. But before you follow this path of least resistance, keep asking yourself — for LinkedIn and ALL social media activity — “to what end?”<\/p>\n

Engagement is largely a vanity metric. You can engage yourself broke. Marketing is about creating customers.<\/p>\n

It’s all about the feeling<\/h2>\n

New research shows that 42% of teens say that talking about their feelings is important to them, and brands are responding. McDonald\u2019s new \u201cDraw How You Feel<\/a>\u201d Happy Meal boxes trade the classic red for a blank canvas. This ties into a broader trend of\u00a0experiential<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0wellness-driven packaging<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Built around the finding that 85% of teenage girls aren’t meeting recommended physical activity guidelines, Nike and Spotify launched Make Moves<\/a> to encourage girls to move to just one song a day, using music to make physical activity more joyful and emotionally accessible. A UK pilot with 700 girls showed a 20% improvement in confidence and a 19% decrease in regular feelings of anxiety.<\/p>\n

Experiential marketing is such a huge opportunity and is largely overlooked.<\/p>\n

More about experiences<\/h2>\n

My new book, How AI Changes Your Customers<\/a><\/em>, details six ways AI is rewiring human psychology.<\/p>\n

Chief among these is cognitive offloading, addiction, and a trend to form trusting emotional connections with chatbots.<\/p>\n

But pay attention to the news. There’s a backlash trend emerging.<\/p>\n

Young people are rediscovering the joy of gathering. I’ve recently seen articles about young people watching movies together, listening to vinyl albums straight through at parties, and a surge in the popularity of board games:<\/p>\n

\"teens<\/p>\n

How can your company help bring people together like this and be part of this trend?<\/p>\n

Keeping pace with AI<\/h2>\n

The AI world is changing so rapidly. I think there are three key strategies to keep up:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Schedule time to dabble every day. Most platforms have a free or trial version. Push the envelope and experiment.<\/li>\n
  2. Subscribe to at least one podcast, newsletter, or video series commenting on the latest updates and releases. I really love the Artificial Intelligence podcast hosted by Paul Roetzer.<\/li>\n
  3. Join a community of like-minded people who are experimenting and can teach you by association. One option for marketers is RISE<\/a>. You can’t stay relevant on your own.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We need to find new channels<\/h2>\n

    Here’s another reason why looking at alternatives like experiential marketing and word-of-mouth makes sense: Social media use appears to be in decline. A roud-up of research I’ve seen:<\/p>\n