Content creation in your marketing process is a crucial element in generating qualified leads, putting yourself out there for your public to get to know and hanging your 'Open for Business' shingle out there to fill up your appointment books with satisfied clients. But what exactly is content?

In this series you will learn:

• What constitutes content
  
• How to make it work for your business on and offline
  
• How to set it up so you don't end up becoming a slave to your own product and process.

Today we'll talk about what content is.

WHAT CONSTITUTES CONTENT?
I'm assuming we're all familiar with the term "Less is more." and it has a lot of relevance and truth to it; however, when getting your name out there, and in your personal chef business, this couldn't be further from the truth! You see when it comes to your particular professional niche, the more folks hear about you and come to know you, the more celebrity status you'll build and the more they'll want to have you in their circle; but, how do you do that?...

Create Content!

Here's what constitutes content:

• What you're thinking
  
• What you know
  
• Where you go
  
• Who you know
  
• What you do
  
• What you've seen and or how you see it
  
• How you're thought of
  
• What you've learned or are learning
  
• Some of your life's comedy [personal / professional]

and they can be housed in these many formats:

• Articles: print & digital
  
• Videos
  
• Podcasts
  
• PDFs
  
• eBooks
  
• Photographs
  
• Interviews
  
• Blog Posts
  
• Microblog Posts
  
• Websites
  
• Mind Maps
  
• Lectures
  
• Demonstrations
  
• etc.

and the list goes on. Now why did I list all of these content types?

Here's why.

Your audience and potential clients reside on numerous mediums, digital and physical. If you're not in front of them and in the ways they're telling you they want to get to hear from you, then you're basically non-existent. That means you're leaving a lot of money on the table. NOT GOOD! Remember... It's not the talented who survive this game, but rather, the marketed and exposed.

Here's an exercise I want you to accomplish between now and next week...
Sign up for at least one of each of the following [if you haven't already done so]:

• Gmail account
  
• Twitter account
  
• Facebook account, group and fan page
  
• YouTube account
  
• MySpace account
  
• Wordpress blog
  
• EzineArticles account
  
• Podcast Alley account
  
• Squidoo account
  
• LinkedIn account
  
• Del.icio.us account
  
• Mindmeister account

This is not a hard thing, and if you're taking your time with it, that's just under 2 per day. These are going to be key components in your content marketing campaigns. We'll go over what to do with these as we continue this series, but for starters, make sure that when you create these accounts they're relative to your profession and or your name. The key to remember is, whatever you're wanting to create exposure for is what you design your name for. [Ex: If your business name is Chef's Choice you want as many of your profile names to match, as closely as possible, "Chef's Choice". It's not always possible, but if you're wanting to put Chef's Choice on the radar you'll use it in as many things as you can. It'll increase your reach and frequency or branding to match your message to market.]

Now go ahead and get your accounts set up. We've got some work ahead of us to get you set up for the web 2.0 and 3.0 worlds!

Look for my next article: "Using Your Content To Open Doors"

As always, it's been my pleasure to serve you in this way. Until next time...