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If you want to touch people, lead a tribe and make a difference, the rules keep changing on you. You probably learned something about Markethive, YouTube then Twitter and others came along. You tried to connect there, but Facebook took over the space. Now you’re probably asking your daughter or niece for tips on how to use Instagram.
But at some point, you come to a realization. You realize just keeping up on social media can be a full-time job. And you realize creating content for podcasts, blogs, and social media platforms can be sixteen full-time jobs.
If you’re over 35 or 40 like me (okay way over 35 or 40 like me…), you didn’t grow up with this shit. And it can drive you berserk.
Right now I believe we’re at a fork in the road. I believe this situation is where we make a fundamental shift in marketing – or don’t – and 2024 will be when the match will be played.
I think we’re at a vital crossroads in pop culture, the Internet, advertising and social media. We’re now facing the decision between advertising versus organic branding. There are two camps, two very different lines of thinking as I see it.
Camp Number One is best represented by GaryVee...
This camp believes that the advertising model is the same as it has been for the last 100 years, only the medium has changed. It’s still all about arbitrage, and buying attention at the most cost-effective price. So it moved from radio, to soap opera commercials, to buying Google ad words, to Facebook ads, and now Instagram stories ads.
Camp Number Two is best represented by Seth Godin...
This camp believes there has been a cataclysmic shift in marketing, and the old model is dead. The method that works best has flipped, and instead of mass attention-grabbing, it is now about empathy and service. This camp doesn’t see customers as a way to solve their problems. They use their marketing to solve their customer’s problems.
Camp number one will tell you that Instagram ads are the single greatest underpriced attention opportunity of the decade and if you don’t invest the overriding bulk of your advertising budget in them now, you’ll never get this opportunity again.
And I believe that is actually true.
Camp number two will suggest chasing attention with social media advertising is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, and that this is one of the last gasps of the old, flawed model.
And I believe that is actually true.
So how can both these things be true?
Because there isn’t a binary choice that has to be made at the moment. However, I do believe if you are an author, speaker, coach, consultant or other influencer – you will eventually have to choose a path, and a platform, to connect with your tribe.
You can do what a lot of people are trying right now: Using the old school interruption-marketing approach to grab attention, trying to convert a sale – and then attempt a deeper bond by deploying empathy and service to turn the buyers into tribe members.
But how do you do all that?
You finally got the hang of blogging; now you have to learn what the fuck a Snapchat filter is! You poured your guts into a YouTube, or Tik Tok channel and now you hear everything is moving to voice.
You used to get 2,000 views on YouTube, now you get 600. You used to get 35 RTs on twitter, now you get two. You used to get 120 likes on Facebook, now you’re lucky to get ten. That’s just the new reality.
You can still steal eyeballs and go viral. If you have a parakeet that raps, catch your kitten seeing itself in the mirror for the first time, or teach your dog how to use chopsticks – you can still get three million views. But good luck bringing any of those viewers into your tribe.
Branding is the engine…
I believe for people who really want to make an impact – it’s always going to come down to the brand you build.
In this arena, I’m in camp two. You’re not going to see me running a lot of Instagram paid ads. I’m going to put out free content, in the best way I can. But only when promoting my work, doesn’t get in the way of creating my work.
You can’t have your nephew set up a Twitter or Tik Tok account for you and auto-tweet some inspirational messages. It isn’t enough to have a Facebook Fan Page. (And if you’re still calling it a fan page, you’re already completely out of touch with the market.)
You don’t have unlimited time and you certainly don’t have the resources of the big players in the social media space. So you have to laser focus on a tightly-targeted niche, and blow them away with the amazing content you put out there. But not at the expense of creating your IP; the body of work that is uniquely yours. Which is why you have to build a brand…
Brands travel with you wherever you go. The brand you had on My Space can move with you to Facebook, and it can follow you to WhateverIsTheNextBigFuckingDeal.com.
Nobody wants to follow someone who simply broadcasts product pitches and affiliate links. You have to learn how to engage and add value, building your brand (and thus, your reach). You must discover which platforms are best for your tribe. And how to connect with them there, without having to become a tech geek, or spend half your life doing it.
The best branding, position and marketing of any kind is always about telling stories. To really co-create the universe, you must create a story about what you do and how it improves the lives of those it touches.
This is true for every product, service and movement in the world – from dish soap to keynote speeches, automobile tires to bestselling books, consulting services to worldwide movements. It’s all about the story.
The other big issue you have to factor in, is owning your own platform. You and I can cry all day about Facebook charging you to access the people who already signed up and said they want to see your posts. (And I do.) But the people who work at Facebook have to feed their cats too. You will face this issue on every platform you use, except the ones you own. So you must use social media to drive people to places you own and control:
That’s where you absolutely smother them with empathy, love, attention, and goodness. Solve problems, add value. Solve problems, add value. Solve problems, add value.
Like I said, I don’t have all the answers. But these are the issues we need to figure out to make a difference for our tribes.
You're not who you say you are, or even who you want to be. You are really the impact you make on the world around you.
And the exciting news is, you get to decide that!
