THE SECRET KEY TO A MASSIVE FOLLOWING

It is no secret in starting a business that at some point in time, your content is going to speak for your business. Many of motivational speakers talk about the influence social media has on a small business. Even before you launch an actual business, you can use the content posted on social media, to build your brand and establish a name for yourself. That is where my journey began. In just a few short months, I have been able to obtain a few hundred followers across the social media platforms.

This can be as simple as just posting a picture on Facebook or Instagram. Posting a selfie while going through your day-to-day gives your followers insight into how you do things, as well as what you do. This can help inspire others to follow your actions and therefore, build a trustful relationship between you and your followers. But what happens when your followers fall in love with you and your “business” but search for new posts and find nothing?

It happens. We all get busy. Whether you miss a post for the day because your child has a sporting event. Or you don’t shoot a new video for your YouTube channel because you got sucked into a great movie on Netflix. I’ve done it! But what does this do to your following? Consistency is the number one thing that followers look for. Without consistent material, your followers lose interest or your number of followers starts to plummet. Even as I write this blog post I am guilty of this as well. My last blog post was weeks ago and I have tried again and again to sit down and write but never made the time. That is not how I want my business or my personal brand viewed.

So What Exactly Happens When You Are Inconsistent?

Consistent content has more benefits for your small business/personal brand than many realize. In this section, I’m going to dive deeper into this subject based on what I have learned along my journey and what I continue to see day in and day out. First of all, allow me to offer an example. I follow many people on YouTube. I have my reptile videos that I love to watch in order to learn about certain species like Brian Barczyk, Dav Kaufman, Brian Kusko, Snake Discovery, etc. and I also have my daily inspiration and motivational videos I watch like Gary Vaynerchuk, Grant Cardone, Evan Carmichael, etc. If I were to say go onto Brian Barczyk’s channel on YouTube and see he didn’t post a video for that day, I’m going to move on to another channel. If I come back the next day to the same, eventually I’m going to forget about the channel and find somewhere else to get my information from. So not only does inconsistency lose people’s attention, but it also loses people all together! Luckily, Barczyk is there 365 days a year for my viewing pleasure.

SPONSORSHIP OF CONTENT

Because of his consistent vlogging and successful career, Barczyk, pictured left, has been able to obtain not only followers, but sponsors. Businesses everywhere, in any profession, watch for people that they like and believe would be great to advertise their products. In the reptile community, some large sponsors include Zilla Labs, Freedom Breeder, ZooMed, and many more. With consistent content, a large following, and added value to your audience, you could land a sponsor for your page. Sponsors will pay you in order to advertise their product on your content. You can have a vlog, blog, podcast, website, or any type of content sponsored. Sponsorship can also bring the possibility of free product. For example, if my YouTube channel got enough attention and a company felt I was worth sponsoring, they may send me their product for free in exchange for a promotion on my page. Of course, my YouTube channels just launched and I currently have minimal followers, this is one of my goals.

Pre-selling Your Product or Service

Another benefit from having a large collection of content, is trust. Your followers build a trust in your knowledge and your product/service before it is even offered. So if you have an idea for a business, or you want to turn your passion into a business, start a social media page especially for this topic! Invite your friends and family to like and follow the page to give you initial followers. This is a great platform in which to build on for future success. Not only will your followers consume your content, but if they like it they will share it with their friends and family bringing in more followers. Common sense, right?

The only issue is this will not be easy if you are not posting content when you mean to. If you mention that you will be posting daily, post daily. If you mention that you will post weekly, post each piece on the same day, at the same time. When the time comes to offer a product or service, people will already love you and your product and it will make it that much easier for your business to be successful. YouTube is a great platform to make this happen because with the right keywords, you can gain a massive following very quickly.

MONETIZATION

Many internet celebrities, especially YouTubers, have made money just by posting content alone! This is called monetization. Basically with monetization, the platform in which you post your content will pay you. This is usually in CPM in which advertisements are placed throughout content, and you are paid by the company per click on the advertisement. This can lead to a steady income if you have hundreds or even millions of subscribers. Simple concept, right? post your content, run an advertisement in the video, and get paid. This in itself can turn into a business for yourself on top of product/service sales. Different platforms have different requirements for monetization so I would advise looking into the platform you post on the most.

In Conclusion…

Posting content is easy! Almost too easy. But consistently, not so much. As I have said I am also guilty of not posting for days, or even weeks (this blog for example.) But you will be seeing much more of me throughout 2020! I have a weekly schedule to post my content and I hope to help as many people as possible in 2020. I appreciate you for taking the time to read this blog post! For more, you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube. I also have a Podcast “gRYnd Tyme with Ry the Reptile Guy available on Spotify, RadioPublic, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, PocketCasts, Breaker, Overcast, and Anchor.fm! Please let me know what you thought of this entry and I look forward to growing with all of you!