Four Ways To Ensure Social and Search Changes Never Affect Your Content Marketing.
Today I got my copy of Gary Vaynerchuk’s latest book “Crushing It”. It reminded me of the desperate journey of so many to “be like Gary” or some other digital celebrity. Sure Gary, Seth Godin and other digital celebrities have zillions of followers, deservedly. They’ve been hard at work providing great content, amazing value, for years and have earned their perch in our minds and hearts. I’ve learned so much from them.
But the one thing you’ll consistently hear every good content marketer say (and that includes Gary and Seth), is that success in digital marketing is NOT about the quantity of followers. Don’t get BLINDSIDED by the numbers.
It’s all about being true to YOUR audience.
The New York Times wrote a substantive story exposing how so many celebrities feel pressured to have HUGE followings that often they do the “unthinkable, they buy followers.
Don’t do this, don’t even think about it.
Here’s what I’m getting so used to and in fact enjoying over the past few weeks.
It’s the “age old” concept of being a big fish in a small pond.
Every time someone unsubscribes from my email newsletter, every time someone chooses to NOT follow me on Twitter or etc – I’m happy. This is because I ONLY want to share the “Ramon Ray” version of business growth with those who want it. I”m also excited because that means there’s a HIGHER percentage of people who WANT to hear from Ramon!
It’s a waste of my time and their time if we’re not aligned.
Sure, if you have 10 million followers and 1% of them buy your stuff – that’s 100,000 buyers. Much more than having 10,000 followers and 1% buying your stuff. But this is rarely the case in business – or in life.
If you have 500 followers who are MADDENINGLY in love with your message and 30% of them buy from you. That’s a lot better off than 5,000 followers who are just groupies and really not all that in to you and who probably even less than 1% buy from you.
So instead of seeking to have a HUGE number of “fans” (or followers), seek to have raving fans who are in LOVE with your message. These are the people who will be paying more attention to your message, who will do what you ask them to do and who will tell others about you.
Stopping looking in the rear view mirror and in the side mirrors trying to catch up with the gal ahead of you or RACE to stay ahead of the business that has just a few less followers than you.
Seek to do the BEST you can to provide VALUE to your audience, to educate your tribe. Let it grow organically and passionately.
In the long run you’ll be happy.
When Facebook changes it’s algorithm, when Snapchat shuts down (just joking), when LinkedIn makes it’s next tweak – you keep doing what works. Here’s my simple formula for content marketing success.
Frequency – frequently sharing great content.
Relevancy – being relevant to your core audience
Engagement – ensuring your content is spicy and exciting
Analytics – measuring what you’re doing so you can tweak it and do it better.
FREA.
At Smart Hustle University you can check out my course on social media marketing which goes deeper into FREA.
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