There is ZERO excuse not to be creating content around your brand, your product, your service or your business. If you don’t have something to say, document. It’s the advice I give to my entire community. Create a podcast, start a blog, do a Q&A show. All of it works.
Never before have brands and consumers had the ability to create and consume content at scale. Because of the iPhone and the internet, and social media, anyone can produce and distribute. Just 15 years ago, if you wanted to create a commercial to promote your brand, you would need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on media and marketing. Today, you can literally use your smartphone, record a 2 minute clip and run ads on Facebook. The cost of entry has dropped 100 fold.
There’s no reason in today’s world not to be creating content online. Whether that’s your vlog on Youtube, pictures on Instagram, articles on Medium, or a podcast on iTunes. My friends, the key to content success online is you’ve got to start doing. Let me tell you how. Just Start.
There are only three steps to content creation:
The WHAT, the HOW and the WHERE
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO TALK ABOUT?
People are stuck because the fear of losing trumps the excitement of victory.
Everyone who ever did anything had to start. Most people don’t begin with a grand vision. They start with an idea and an action. Through the process of doing they build something greater. No one thought Facebook would succeed to this level. The vast majority thought I couldn’t sell wine on the internet. No one believed that computers would be in every home. All ideas are considered insane until executed. The key is to just start.
The truth is that in today’s world, you don’t need much. The cost of being an artist, or starting a business, or connecting with an influencer is practically zero. If you have a smartphone and access to the internet, anything is possible.
It’s fairly simple. The only thing people need to understand is that the the platforms have changed. Before it used to be writing a book and now it’s on Medium. Before it was drive-time radio and now it’s a podcast. Before it was reality tv and now it’s a vlog. That’s just the truth.
STEP 1: START WITH YOUR MANIFESTO
You have to start with your manifesto. Your “what” and your “why.” What are you into? What do you want to do? Do you like health and fitness? Do you want to be in strategy? Do you like social media? Are you trying to sell sneakers?
Tell me where you are and where you want to be. It can be a document, a video or a voice memo. Find your medium and create.
Once you decide where you want to be, you need to share your story and whether it’s your mission or who you are today, it has to be your truth. Don’t tell me you’re an entrepreneur if you have never sold anything in your life. Tell me that you’re aspiring or interested in business.
Tell the world exactly what you are thinking about it.
The practicality of defining your voice is powerful. If somebody made a video eight years ago that said they think fashion should be high/low, and that people should wear expensive clothes and inexpensive clothes together in one wardrobe, they would have been the queen or king of the vision of the fashion industry just by making a 2 minute clip.
Whether it’s a video, article or Instagram story, you just have to tell the world and speak your truth.
And by the way, things will definitely change. You may like soccer today or entrepreneurship tomorrow or art the next day. It doesn’t matter. Just get your thoughts out there. Done is better than perfect.
If you want it, your actions have to match your ambitions. Don’t have dinner at seven o’clock and drink two beers. Don’t watch entire seasons of House of Cards. Don’t spend 45 minutes on Facebook talking to Rick. Especially if you’re telling me that you’re going to build a business.
STEP 2: WHERE TO CREATE
There are so many people in the world that shouldn’t be producing video because that is not the best way they communicate. Only a decade ago, if I was writing this article, all I would be talking about is blogging. Yet, there are people reading this that are caught up by Instagram and Youtube as the only form of communication. The thing they don’t realize is that they are tremendous writers, and if only they were posting on Medium, they would win. When your strategy is right, everything starts to happen.
If you think about it, there are really only three mediums: Video, Audio, and the written word.
For Audio: You can create a podcast, a radio show, a voice memo, an interview, a phone recording, or music. And if you’re really fancy you can create an Alexa Skill
Video: This is the most rich and all encompassing medium. The possibilities are practically endless and we live in a time where almost every platform can play and support video content. You can post onYoutube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or just make short films.
Written: A lot of people still love to read. Write a book, a banner ad, or a medium post. If this is your format, go all in.
STEP 3: DISTRIBUTION
This is the last pillar of the equation. How are you going to spread the word?
A lot of people can tell me the what and why. Many can choose a platform and start to create. FEW can actually get anyone to see it.
This is called distribution. How do you get individuals to actually consume the content you create.
There are really only 2 ways. Hacking culture and buying ads.
The latter is simple. Deploy $100 against your content on Facebook and you will attain reach. Now there’s no guarantee that people will follow you or buy your product but it’s 100% guaranteed that someone will see it.
You can target a specific audience by age, geography, likes, and more. The possibilities are basically endless.
You can literally put your business address, run a radius around it, and everybody in the area will see it in their feed. It’s a piece of cake.
OFFERING STUFF FOR FREE IN EXCHANGE FOR EXPOSURE:
You are building brand and you have to be willing to provide value first.
If you have a physical product, this is a no-brainer. You can literally DM every influencer in your space that has less than 50 thousand followers and ask to send them a free sample. The one thing to understand is that you have to be strategic about who you are after. If I decided to give away Garyvee clothing to women’s makeup accounts, I might not get a lot of responses.
The power of leveraging influencers in your space is enormous. Imagine you are a fashion company and you make t-shirts. If you get one influencer with 500K to wear your product and tag you on Instagram, you are going to have sales. Honestly that is just the tip of the iceberg.
There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of male and female models on Instagram that have a million to 10 million followers on their page. 1 photo from them tagging you might just change your life.
WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE A PHYSICAL PRODUCT?
Collaboration: This is the number one way to grow your account regardless of what you’re offering. Whether it’s a product or service, app or podcast, collaboration is key.
You have to be able to provide someone else value. If you want to grow your account, start collaborating with other people on Instagram. Write quotes for their posts, take photos of their product, make images or designs for free.
If you aren’t providing value then you won’t succeed. No one on Instagram is going to shout you out simply because you asked them to. This is insane. What did you ever do for them?
If you have 200 followers, you need to message every single person in your city who has more followers than you and see if you can provide them value. Find a way to work together and get to it.
Trading work for exposure is the quickest way to grow.
HOW DO I BUILD A COMMUNITY ON INSTAGRAM?
This is actually the most important part.
So many people can amass a following. They can get 10,000 people to like them on Facebook. They can get a ton of followers for their account. But none of them actually build a community. None of them actually care or engage.
That’s why you see accounts on Instagram that have millions of followers and a disproportionately small number of likes and comments.
I guarantee that the VaynerNation engages more with my content at 2 million followers than most people who have 10 million. It’s because I care. I make room for my community and I engage with them every second I can.
There are so many people that like their page but don’t actually do the thing they are actually looking for. I know my community has my back. And that’s what’s important to me.
I’ve done it since the very beginning. Whether you have 500 followers or 500,000, the biggest mistake you can make is not engaging with your community.
Say hello, say thank you, ask them who they are and where they are from.
All of this matters. You’re not some stupid Instagram account or brand. You’re a human being. Start acting like one. The more 1–1 engagement you provide, the more people will care about what you create.
The key is simply providing other people more value. I just don’t see people doing it. It blows me away and it is absolutely the only way to win.
Getting started is always the hardest part. It’s just so difficult for so many people. That’s why I have created this post to give you a detailed step one, step two, step three… What, How and Where?
Here is a video where I talk more about how to build a social following:
Hope this helps!!
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