Shihab Hasan Neyon: Inside the life of a content creator

Content creation is one of the hallmarks of our age. The youth of today are constantly creating, innovating, and presenting content for the digital audience. Although creativity is limitless, coming up with something new and better than your previous work has to be one of the toughest jobs. 

The Business Standard spoke to a rising content creator - Shihab Hasan Neyon, an Economics graduate from the University of Dhaka, who first started as a comedy content creator for fun, and now is a well-known video content creator for sports. He is known for his unique videos and his bold opinions. 

But why this career path for an Economics graduate? 

"I believe after finishing basic education, when you are studying at the University in a particular subject, your passion or career focus often changes. I think that happened to me too. I wanted to explore a little. But it does not mean I will not do anything with my Economics background, I just might," Neyon replied.

TBS went on to ask him about his experience, the shift from ordinary life to the life of an influencer, and asked him to share with us the train of thoughts and brainstorming that goes behind every video. 

"The output does not really show what goes on behind every video. As time passes, the demand for content creation is also increasing. Thus, there is tremendous hard work, we always have to assemble ideas that will stand out, and create thumbnails that will be interesting enough for viewers to click on," said Neyon. 

Neyon started creating videos for fun, but the response of viewers slowly led him to become very serious about content creation. He started off as a comedian, but later moved to sports. 

"I think it is not possible for a person to be funny all the time. Also, making comedy content is extremely difficult. A person has to have that comedic voice, the ultimate gig punch line, and the ability to make the audience laugh with every joke. I think that is a challenge. It does not mean the videos I make are easy. But comedians are doing a very hard job."

These days, there are many content creators in Bangladesh. However, not many have the content worth the exposure or appreciation. Many bloggers end up being called 'influencers' with very little to no contribution at all to influence someone for the better. 

Neyon however has a strong stage at the moment where he is gaining viewers because of his quality work and reviews of the sports arena.  "We are so serious about the content we put on our platform that my team and I decided to formalise our work and get an office to create content and let our thoughts flow better. We are grateful that we have come out of our rooms," mentioned Neyon. 

Collaborations have become a crucial part of content creation. Neyon uploaded his collaboration video called 'Influencers Playing Cricket', involving eight different influencers, and the video was a competition of two teams of four. The video reached about a million views. 

"If you look at influencers and content creators from other countries, you will notice they are often hanging out with other influencers. It is friendship and casual. People do not always think about their own gains. But here, approaching others often becomes difficult as people look out for their own benefit. But even without that, bringing everyone on one platform and on a given date is a challenge. You see, we have many good content creators in Bangladesh and they have a busy schedule. Matching schedules becomes a huge battle sometimes." 

Neyon drew inspiration from watching Tanmay Bhat, an Indian YouTuber, comedian, scriptwriter and performer and also the co-founder of AIB. But he gives credit to Rafayat Rakib, a very popular local content creator. He was the one to advise Neyon about content creation and also motivated him to make this a career. "When I just started, this was a huge motivation for me. He has supported me a lot." 

Recently, Neyon uploaded another one of his collaborations titled 'Influencers Playing Football'. The influencers in this video were Ayman Sadiq, Khalid Farhan, Shoumik Ahmed, Shouvik Ahmed, Rafsan Shabab, Amin Hannan, FK, Shishir Rahman and Salman Sadi. 

"It was a great but a bit of a tiring experience as well, because my team pulled off back-to-back videos like these. Also it was more difficult to edit because we shot with seven cameras and football is a fast-paced game - so there was a lot of movement. In editing, we spent three sleepless nights just to give the audience the best experience. There was one hour of footage, but we worked hard to find out the best 22 minutes for the audience."

So far, the video has received great reviews on both Facebook and YouTube.