We all know publishing content is important for your company and your brand. After all, how else will your target audience learn about you and what you offer? In this article, I’ll tell you why documenting is a better content strategy.It’s natural to spend time and energy carefully crafting the perfect blog post, getting the right angles for your vlog, or staging clever Instagram pics. But with today’s incessant demand for content, pushing you to churn out that much high-quality stuff is a one-way ticket to burnout.

That’s Why Documenting Is A Better Content Strategy

Shifting your mindset from creating to documenting can make pushing out content easier because every post, vlog, and tweet ties back to the mission, the vision, or the project.

Document, Don’t Create

A content strategy evangelized by Gary Vaynerchuk, AKA GaryVee, is one of “Document, don’t create.” The premise is that when you focus too much on publishing fresh, unique content all the time, your creative energy will start to stall out. The process of continuously creating new work from scratch can be exhausting.

Ask anyone that’s attempted to keep a blog or YouTube channel going for some time and they’ll tell you that inspiration comes in waves. Grinding through those times when the creative well is dry is excruciating, especially if you keep upping the standards of your work.

But, by shifting your mindset from creating to documenting, you can generate similar engaging content far easier. That why documenting is a better content strategy.

In trademark GaryVee fashion, he suggests that businesses should be putting out at least one long-format blog post, vlog, or podcast once a week and between 6-25 pieces of content on Snapchat, Twitter, or Instagram daily.

That sounds like a lot, and most people – realistically – don’t need to publish content at GaryVee’s clip; however, by “documenting” you’ll have a much easier time generating content for your audience.

When you’re in this mindset, you’re thinking about sharing stories of yourself, your team, your creative work, etc., without having to make something original every time. You can focus on what’s happening behind the scenes: anything from photos of your workspace and project updates to videos of your hardworking team and products in production. Even if it seems small, these small things add up to a bigger picture.

Stories Sell

Stories bring us together. Stories allow us to connect with one another. If you’re building a business, people want to hear your story.

So, why not share the story of your company as you grow?

GaryVee uses his daily vlog to share not just his day, but also the steps he’s taking to build his business and making moves towards his ultimate dream goal: buying the Jets.

For your business, there’s plenty of material for you to draw from.

Why did you choose to do what you do?

What motivates you and your company?

What mission are you on?

Find the stories that exist in your business: either ones that have already happened or one’s that are still ongoing, and find ways to document them for your audience and potential customers.

When storytelling is used as a way to convey your company’s mission and resonates with your target audience, it can lead to more sales, or if you’re at that stage, more money from investors. If your mission is the heart of your company, stories become the soul.

SEE ALSO: How to Use Instagram Stories to Promote Your Digital Brand

Be Yourself

Part of why documenting is a better content strategy is that you can just be yourself. Trying to live up to an ideal is exhausting but documenting your business and personal life is easy, all you have to do is keep doing what you’re doing.

GaryVee goes on to say:

‘Documenting’ versus ‘creating’ is what The Real World and The Kardashians is to Star Wars and Friends. And don’t get confused—just because you’re ‘documenting’ doesn’t mean you’re not creating content.

It’s just a version of creating that is predicated more on practicality instead of having to think of stories or fantasy—something that’s very hard for most people (including myself).

Think about it: you can ponder about the strategy behind every post and fabricate yourself into this ‘influential person’… or you can just be yourself.”

For another example, Casey Neistat’s daily vlog documents the building of his tech company Beme. His quirky attitude provides a unique face to the company and their ever-shifting aspirations.

Beme is a self-described lab of innovation, and Neistat determined that the best way to get the message out was to do a daily vlog to share the day-to-day workings, successes, and failures.

SEE ALSO: How to Get Over Your Fear of Live Streaming

Final Thoughts

Once you get started, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start the documentation process sooner. It makes content generation a breeze, and it solidifies your story, your mission, and your goals all while adding a touch of humanity.

And the key reason to document is so you can tie your content strategy to your company’s larger mission or plan.

The difference between generating content from scratch as opposed to documenting your journey is that you aren’t sharing what should be but rather what is.

You’re not sharing your ideal version of your world, but instead, you’re offering a window into the daily life of you and your company.