How to Get Social Media Famous in Japan

This month we’re going to be doing a workshop on the Top 10 Facebook Secrets to Success.

The truth is I spend about 90% of my day on social media.

Watching videos, studying accounts, and testing out growth strategies.

And if you didn’t know this about me, you’d never know by looking at my own social profiles, unless of of course you came to one of our marketing meetups here in Tokyo.

It’s true, because that 90% of my time is usually attributed to accounts of the future and past such as American Express, LG, TripAdvisor, TiVo, Jabra, G-Shock, Atkins, Oracle, GE, and so many more- including the 11 different startups I’m managing to grow right now.

And I guess the other 10% is getting people to RSVP for our Facebook Networking Event Here.

But within all of the viral videos I’ve got the chance to ask the deep questions, such as “What does all this content matter?” and to be honest, I’ve come up with several answers.

But the short answer is this, “It does matter” — If the president of the United States can single handedly change the world (for better or worse) with one tweet, then something very significant is happening online and we need to start paying attention and maybe even jump in and start participating.

With that being said, if you ever wondered how to get social media famous in 2018, you should first ask yourself “Why?” And then pay attention to these three learning lessons I’ve come to after 15+ years marketing.

Learn to be transparent, without being yourself

Seriously, though technology has changed, entertainment has only evolved. This means putting on a show still means, “putting on a show”.

When David Bowie went on stage, he didn’t just jump up there with a mic and say “What’s up, I’m David”.

No, he revealed his inner most passions, pain points, and personal secrets to deliver the best performance ever.

And whether you know it or not, the same is happening on YouTube and everywhere else.

In my studies, 8 out of 10 influencer personalities are just that “a personality”.

And if you were to meet the person in real life, you’d be meeting an entirely new personality with it.

So, if you want to grab someones attention on social media, you still need to learn how to put on a good performance.

But that’s only the beginning, because a show is only as good as its drive to become great.

So…

Be addicted to greatness, not growth

This is a tough one, but just listen.

I’ve met so many growth hackers and organic content evangelist in my career, and while they both have different strategies for how to meet their end goals, they still have the same end goal.

Growth.

But the truth is, while you can read many books on growth hacking or how to get 10,000 followers without any paid media (Good luck), the only constant is this:

Greatness.

What I mean is, real and lasting growth is never going to be decided by a tool or technology, it’s going to be decided by how good you get at entertaining your audience and managing the numbers that come with it.

How often do you look at a daily spreadsheet of your actions, analyze them all, and then see the holes in between revealing new areas for improvement?

This is how you get good and eventually great.

Look at the best athletes in the world- they watch tape, analyze their performances, see what they did right and what they did wrong within every step and then put a plan together to do better next time.

Are you doing the same?

I think this is what drives real change in an individual and in the world- when regular people learn how to take on basic daily actions that lead to extraordinary results.

Believe it or not, you can actually become the Lebron James of your field if you only decide to put in the work necessary to learn more about your craft, the audience that seems to be enjoying it, and how you can make it last.

You might now be saying, “That sounds like it could take time, what am I supposed to do if the growth I’m looking for doesn’t happen overnight?”

Be ready to wait while remembering to have fun

So, let’s assume you just spent the last two weeks building your strategy, personal brand, how to get as much traction as possible, and now it’s time to go live!

You post a status update that starts off with something like, “So excited to finally announce…”

Or, “Honored to be a part of….”

You get your analytics ready, because in your head everyone in the world has been waiting for this release, and now you’re ready to give it to them.

So you finally go live, launching your product or brand with that magical status update, and then “boom”…

1 like.

Yes, we’ve all been there, even me.

I like to call this stage, “The Validate Mandate” — Because it’s during this time that your idea or performance will get truly validated.

But it’s also during this time that you’ll learn what’s validating you.

If you’re in this for the likes or the shares, you’ll soon find out and that will negatively impact how many more status updates we expect to see from you.

But if you’re doing this for the art, for the fun, for the love it all and the joy it gives your audiences- then setbacks won’t deter you from the goal, they’ll only create more drive to get there.

You know they often say that the definition of luck is “When preparation meets opportunity.”

The same can be said for getting social media traction or reaching social media success:

And that is- if you’re able to learn how to develop passionate content, while at the same time striving to deliver a better performance each day than the day before- then give yourself credit for being more of a success than you understand and let time take its course for the rest of the world to realize.