You may have seen a couple dozen (or, more honestly, a couple hundred) job listings and LinkedIn bios claiming to be looking for a ‘content unicorn’. Someone dedicated, passionate, skilled, and hungry to improve- someone as rare as a unicorn.
While the term is already common in hiring practices, it’s not just recruitment that requires searching out ‘unicorns’. Creating content requires a set of skills just as rare. The best influencers, marketers, and business owners all are chasing the same unicorn standard of production.
The good news, though? Once you learn the requirements, you can become one yourself! No more waiting for someone else to bring the attention your business needs: you’ll be able to make it on your own.
Let’s Start With Some Definitions.
First: Content. The term content is defined as the data, information, entertainment, education, inspiration, and any other valuable material that is created to be shared. This can be on the internet, or otherwise! This article is considered content, and so is every other post you see on your Dashboard today. Offline, think of music you hear in the car, or magazines in your doctor’s waiting room. All content.
As for Unicorn, the term is a reference to the mythological animal with a horn projecting from their head. These animals were considered so rare that they were deemed impossible to find. This rarity led to the sale of fake ‘ground horns’ as forgeries, fetching what would be the modern equivalent of millions in medieval Florence and Milan. That’s why nowadays, the term means something highly desirable, but so rare it feels impossible to attain.
Putting that together, you get a Content Unicorn.
“A person who has an impactful message that
has the potential to make a significant positive
impact on others and has the ability, desire, and
course to share their message by leveraging
today’s communication channels in order to
achieve that very purpose” – Manuel Suarez
What Are the Traits of a Content Unicorn?
At Attention Grabbing Media, we’ve worked with hundreds of clients, big and small. We’ve worked up close with the biggest names in health, finance, and entrepreneurship, and put together a list of the traits we’ve found to guarantee success.
- Obsessed with an industry, passion or skill, to the point they could discuss it for hours without burning out.
- Have a deep belief in their message, and that it has the potential to help others, whether through education, inspiration, or entertainment.
- Not in it to “get rich quick.” They have a genuine passion for creation, and are willing to work for the long-haul.
- Understands the value of attention, and keep a keen eye on metrics like followers, views, website visitors, etc.
- Dedicated to creating consistent, high-quality content.
- Willing to be in front of a camera, regardless of introversion or fear of failure.
- Passionate and dedicated to spreading knowledge.
- Good and ethical people.
- More invested in helping others than generating revenue. Provide value, the money will follow.
- Surrounded by a team devoted to the same purpose.
Why Should You Care?
Time stops for no one, and neither does progress. As the methods of communication change, you cannot achieve the goals you want without adapting. Attention is a currency. With the social media landscape getting evermore competitive, you need to keep up in order to stay ahead.
Becoming a content unicorn opens up the opportunity for endless expansion. Want to grow a business from the ground up? You have a passionate audience that trusts you, hungry to buy. Want to create art, music, or written works that transcend generations and become ingrained in popular culture? With a good following, you have a dedicated set of evangelists happy to support your dreams. Even if you’re not interested in creating a legacy that can live beyond you: a good backlog of social media content makes you more attractive to jobs in any field.
By mastering the traits of a content unicorn, you stop being a passenger in your own life, but a driver. As we said, a unicorn is something desirable. Who wouldn’t want a unicorn on their team?
