Every couple of weeks our founder @kylehjelmeseth shares musings with our exclusive talent roster that he thinks will give them big ideas to think about. Generally the topics come from the firm’s work with each influencer, and what he’s hearing at the top of the industry. Here is one of those musings, reformatted for our friends and followers:
This week…
Making your business bulletproof
The other day I overheard a conversation at a coffee shop in LA. It went something like this:
Man 1: “Did you guys notice the other week when Instagram went down for the day, what happened to all the influencers?”
Man 2: “Yeah, haha, they all went back to being regular girls” *snicker*
What was interesting about this exchange is that it was a group of three early 30s looking guys, who knew enough about Instagram and influencers to draw the conclusion that IG going down for a day basically killed a bunch of influencers’ livelihood. They had enough awareness about influencers to find this to be something to laugh at. I really felt like I was in the right place at the right time to hear that conversation — because they are RIGHT.
If Instagram were to go down tomorrow…forever…what would you do? Would you go back to being a “regular” person? Of course, as a business management firm our goal isn’t to let that happen to anyone we represent, but a lot of the burden falls on the shoulders of each individual creative to really plan their content and their presence, to make sure they themselves are “bulletproof”.
IF INSTAGRAM WERE TO GO DOWN TOMORROW…FOREVER…WHAT WOULD YOU DO? WOULD YOU GO BACK TO BEING A “REGULAR” PERSON?
Here are three ways you can make sure that no matter what happens to Instagram tomorrow (or any other platform), your business will be able to adjust and continue to thrive:
HAVE A BLOG
At G&B we beat this into the ground…you do not own Instagram, or YouTube, or whatever other social media you are on. You CAN own your own slice of the internet by having a blog or online portfolio. If all social media blew up tomorrow you could still go on creating and connecting with fans on your own blog. A blog is a perfect place to keep all of your larger thoughts and ideas, and really show more about who you are than people can see on one tiny Instagram space. The biggest single thing you can do today to insulate your online business is to start a blog, and keep it going with weekly updates.
By building traffic to your own blog all of your content becomes more valuable, because you own 100% of what you’ve created. When you own a blog that is building traffic you can actually even charge a bit more for your content in other places, because you drive real value via SEO. That’s a whole other topic. Tip 1…if you don’t have a blog, start one. If you have one, but haven’t updated it, get back to updating it. If you already have one, update it regularly, then you already know the value and you get thumbs up from us.
SYNDICATE YOUR CONTENT: One of the smartest ways of planning your content is syndication…basically starting it in one place, and then feeding it to each other place it could be seen while making it fit that place’s purpose. A quick example would be creating a post for Instagram, and then placing the same post on Facebook and Twitter, but instead of just copy / pasting what you wrote for Instagram, making your Facebook and Twitter captions specific for those audiences.
Why do this? Because you’re maximizing the hard work that you’ve created, and satisfying fans across your various channels. Basically you’re making sure no money (opportunity) is being left on the table! If you have a growing YouTube, then start by posting your full content there, post a trimmed version on instagram / Instagram Stories, or a still. And the post everywhere else, but make sure it’s a version of your content that fits the space…so a tweet of the content that’s made for Twitter, and not just a quick copy / paste.
This simple strategy will not only help you grow your presence, it’ll make you more money in the long run, and make sure that if one of your social sites falls, the rest will pick up the pieces!
DO STUFF OFFLINE:
This goes along with the rest of the theme of this blog post, that diversifying your interests and presence is the key to long term success. How are you spending your time away from Instagram that is enriching your life? Many of those who are a part of the G&B family have side interests and hustles, even before they came to G&B for social media management:
Stella Simona owns Amarilo & Haati Chai jewelry lines
Lex Dieck owns her own scarf business, and was recently featured by Stacy London. Marwa owns the insanely popular VELA Scarves too!
Steph of Honey & Silk and Tommy are pro-photographers that often pick up retail clients to shoot spaces and products
Mai (of Mai and Zooey) does content consulting, primarily in social. She would say she’s a “Buzz Creator // Cultural attaché”.
Many digital creatives and influencers today are already doing something that enriches their lives outside of social media, whether it’s revenue generating or not. What are you doing that helps diversify your interests and create opportunities that will leave a lasting mark and keep you relevant for years to come?
As a business G&B is always looking at ways to further diversify, to stay relevant to the market, without taking away from our day to day goals. This last year we expanded to have a group in the Middle East (G&B East), we have another group that is comprised of skaters, motorcycle enthusiasts and celebs (The Black Label Agency)! We’ve got lots of ideas, little market test going on, and a bold vision for the future!
WHAT ARE YOU DOING THAT HELPS DIVERSIFY YOUR INTERESTS AND CREATE OPPORTUNITIES THAT WILL LEAVE A LASTING MARK, AND KEEP YOU RELEVANT FOR YEARS TO COME?
Images Courtesy of blog Honey & Silk
Wow…that was a long one, but I hope this gave you all a lot to think about. If Instagram was gone tomorrow, what would you want to do next? Let’ s talk about it!