Numbers, Numbers, Numbers
It’s hard not to pay attention to numbers when you’re a small-time content creator.
Now, this was really unhealthy for me — and I don’t recommend anyone do this — but I used to associate my worth with them. If a post was a hit and it got a lot of interactions, I felt better as a content creator. If they didn’t do so well, I would feel worse. There’s a lot to unpack with those associations (yikes). But for now, I’ll focus on the numbers themselves.
Using Metadata Properly
This fancy word just makes me think of The Matrix (1999). I didn’t know there was a distinction between data and metadata. Metadata is… data about data. In the context of content creation, blogging, and media marketing, metadata is what gives the actual content its meaning. It can help organize different types of data depending on its values. So, metadata includes things like title, author, aspects of its description, or the date it was created.
You know those times when you repeat a word so much that it doesn’t look like a real word anymore? Yeah.
Anyway, it turns out these values are super important for marketing. Huy Tran, an award-winning photographer, emphasizes that it’s important for marketers to use metadata and its taxonomies. He says adding highly-searched keywords to the description of a product or service can draw customers in.
Trusting the Process
In my case, the disappointing numbers were because I wasn’t thinking about the metadata of my posts. I wasn’t utilizing the right tags, either. I just hoped the hosting site’s algorithm would boost my work somehow, but I didn’t know how to measure the algorithm’s effectiveness. I went in without some semblance of a plan, and it just gave me disappointment as a result.
The more I learn about how each site works, the better. It definitely helped with my one viral post, but I wonder if I can get lightning to strike twice. I’ll have to see what happens.
For now, I’m just enjoying my progress as I go. That’s certainly not something I would have foreseen years ago, when numbers ruled my life and regulated my mood (seriously, don’t do this when you’re just one kid with no idea how blogging works). Metadata helped me realize that it’s what’s inside that counts!