The Simple Way to Become A Successful Social Media Brand

In 2009, a teenager known as Marques Brownlee got his first laptop. It was an HP laptop. A media remote control came with the device. And Marques decided to do a video review of it.

Marques didn’t have the nicest camera; all he had was the webcam of his laptop. And that was what he used. He launched his YouTube channel with this video and that was the start of a long line of tech review videos.

After a year, he had a catalog of about 100 videos on his Channel. He didn’t have a lot of subscribers, but he kept making videos. He also kept making his videos better.

Fast-forward to 2020, Marques has about 12.8 million subscribers. Within 24 hours, Marques gets about a million views for his videos. One of his latest videos, at the time of writing this, was uploaded 4 days ago, and it already has 4.6 million views.

The secret he used to build this large and engaged subscriber base can work for podcasting, YouTube, and even blogs: any platform where you provide helpful and interesting content.

The secret is simple: he built a brand.

How do you build a brand?

Three things:

• Trust
• Interaction
• Connection

Trust

This has to do with the quality of your content. Content creators go to great lengths to produce content. A lot of research happens. Many times, they spend a lot to secure an interview. This is why people trust their brands. I follow Marques Brownlee’s channel because he uses the tech and shares his personal experience with it. He tells you the pros and cons of the product.

He shares the improvement over the last one and the limitation of this new one.

For instance, to do the iPhone 12 review, he used the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro versions for about 2 weeks each and gave individual reviews. I trust him more because he’s not just reading what the copywriter on Apple’s website wrote about the phones — which is what many blogs are doing.

You may not be able to afford the iPhone 12, but what if you research forums for people who love to review Apple devices. There are many on the internet. This way, you’re giving reviews of users. As much as this cannot substitute for actual use, it’s better than just rewriting what’s on Apple’s website.

Your goal should be to become the first choice of your audience for what you talk about.

Interaction

Back in the days when mass media was the main supplier of visual content, it wasn’t easy to know what the audience wanted. Nowadays, on YouTube, you will get an instant like or dislike on your video — that’s your feedback.

Many successful YouTubers ask their audience to leave in the comment section what they would love to see a review about — or a new topic they will like to be discussed. They also ask for opinions. For instance, towards the ending of the video, they may ask something like ‘if you think A is better than Z, let me know in the comment section.

Connection

This is what the audience feels about what you’re offering. A lot of friends and family members guilt-trip us to subscribe to their channels or follow them on Twitter — even if we’re not interested in what they have to offer. The cancel culture of ‘if you cannot support my brand, then why are you my friend?’ is trending fast.

The result is that you have 5000 YouTube subscribers and less than 50 views for a video. How exciting!

The reason is simple: the people on your list are not interested in what you have to offer. The reason for the success of Marques Brownlee is that his subscribers find connection with what he has to offer. Nobody recommended him to me, I found him. And since the first video I saw, I have seen every of his latest videos. I even go back to his old videos.

The iPhone 6 is old already, but I went back to see a review of it. That means he earns from new subscribers just enjoying his content and going back to see his old content.

This is where defining your objective comes to play. Why is your brand in existence? Is it to help people lead better lives or to help people make better decisions. You need to write that out.

If you get this right, it will be easier for people to go back and read, view, or listen to your old content because they enjoy what you do.

‘Better’ is better than More

This works in two ways:

• Audience
• Content

Audience

A large subscriber list should not be your first goal. It is the same for any social media platform. What’s the point of 5000 followers or subscribers with less than 50 likes or views? Shoot for a better audience. Grow a list of an engaged audience who subscribed or followed you for what you have to offer — not follow me, I follow back.

Content

It is great to be a content machine, but 5 years from now, can the content you’re producing today earn you money? Even if what you talked about is outdated, would people want to see it for the sake of seeing it? This is why your content should be enjoyable. As much as you’ve gotten better, you should be able to show off old content.

Put your best into every piece of content you’re producing now. Make it standard.

So, don’t just create more content, create better content.

Finally,

It is hard to motivate yourself when you’re looking at the analytics and it’s a slow start. But look beyond the single digits you see today, create content knowing that your audience will return, one day, to view, listen, or read it.

A celebrity mention is not the definition of success. It will bring a spike in traffic, but you need to be mentioned every day to maintain it. Build with a focus on your audience. Unless, of course, it brings you more dedicated followers or subscribers.