Go Make Some Friends

Do you know someone at Facebook? Snapchat? Apple?

If you answered yes to any of those, you should probably start a media company.

Five years ago, if you wanted to build the next Huffington Post, you needed to learn to code. Or you needed to pay someone who could code. Or shell absurd money for tech talent who hopefully might one day have a stroke of genius and invent the next BuzzFeed quiz tool and for some reason stay in our company and make you lots of money.

Remember BuzzFeed quizzes? Those were cute.

Despite the drive to, media companies never became tech companies. They didn’t launch apps that shot to the top of the app store, they didn’t release hardware, and as cool as the New York Times’ interactives are, they’re not exactly technological milestones.

That’s not to say tech isn’t still important. You need the basics. And there will always be someone trying to do something new.

But take a hint from the emergence of the social internet: relationships are king. Especially relationships with tech partners.

In the age of search, you could drive traffic through good tech. Solid technological chops could push you to the top of Google rankings, help you game an algorithm and really start you off. Sure now you need all the right social tags on your site today, but if you really want to succeed as a company — beyond driving traffic, you better know some people. Some people who are doing some cool things every day.

You need to know someone at Facebook who can get you into the first VR betas. Someone who helps you test Instant Articles first. Someone who gives you two months heads up before video becomes a priority. Someone at Snapchat who gets you on Discover and warns you when they test new advertising.

As social media platforms have become the front pages of the internet their decisions not only make or break publishers from a traffic perspective, but they dictate their futures from a brand perspective as well.

You are as your Facebook fans perceive you to be.

They’ve become the gate keepers of tech. Social/messaging/video/viral/whateversnext platforms are the first place many people have seen things like 360 video or facial recognition technology already. They’ll likely be the first place your growing audience encounters your brand in the next form as well.

And the people behind those products hold all the keys.

So get to know someone. Reach out, flex your creative muscles. Learn to innovate on what your partners are creating. At the very least you’ll make some friends.

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