Advice for Scaling Your Brand Across Social Platforms | Q&A Session w/ Influencers

0:00Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Gary V Audio Experience. On today's episode of the podcast, we are sharing a recent Q &A session that Gary did with influencers for the screening of the new VFriends cartoon. In this one, Gary touches on how to grow across platforms, the art of subtle selling techniques, the importance of learning live shopping, and much more. This is a great episode for anyone who is looking to become an influencer and learn the ropes of how to get the most out of leveraging social media. I hope you all enjoy. Thank you, everybody, for being here. this is the second one of these we've done as I think all of you know probably got offered two different time slots the first one went extremely well and I want to replicate that model I'm ready to go into Q &A thank you for having me so my name is Jenna I am a board certified behavior analyst and I have a social media account that shows parents and teachers that behavior analysis and parenting so that's what I do So my question today, Gary, is that so a year and a half ago, I started my social media account after listening to you tell us to share what we love for so long.

1:08So I did that, and I focused on just providing value, nothing else, not asking for anything. And then a month ago, I launched a course that's doing really well, but I struggle with the fine line between embedding, talking about my course into my content, but doing so in a faithful way. I try to do it naturally, but I don't want to turn off all of my followers that I've gained from. I mean, are you kidding me? Did you see how awkward these first 10 minutes are for me? The thought of saying, hey, can you guys tell everybody about my cartoon is the worst thing in my life. Here's what I would say.

1:47Get your profile perfect. Here's what I mean by that. Your bio should be your selling engine and your content should be leading into it. Right? So Jenna, what's your Instagram? ABA Naturally. Right. So already you're doing the right thing. Video course with the link down. But you've got four. You're selling five different things. Just one. There's two courses. Just selling two courses. I'm sorry. When I say selling, you're sending me to five different things. Your Amazon store, your YouTube. Right? Okay. Right? So when I look at this, what I'm trying to think about is, and I'll make this for everyone.

2:29What I'm trying to figure out is like how this bio, the more you can make your bio remarkable to sell the thing of the moment that you most want to sell, the more you don't have to sell in your content. Okay. So Dustin, maybe he doesn't even know why I always do this. Dustin knows on my team, a lot of, I'm always trying to get down to only having one link. And the team always wants to have three because I have 97 things that are going on. and like sometimes I rarely like control the controllers I just tell them to but sometimes they'll wake up and like I'll take down but like I will take it down yeah it's because if I want people to know about my cartoon I want them to know for this month about the cartoon and I don't even want them to have to click right you all know what I'm saying right like you've got to click that extra link let me do it here so it's easier right this extra link to scroll down I just want it there because there's friction.

3:23Think about how I think about friction. Because you have to click that to then get the other things and click that, that's two clicks. Whereas if you just have it here, it's one click. Think about the nerdom I'm going with on all of you right now. So getting your bio or you know what else you can do that crushes, that you will love, put out your content, like your good content that you're putting out. At the end of that clip or on the loop, You can have your PS, like literally at the bottom, you can have like a banner, like right where your name is right now on the screen, that could just say PS, link in bio to my course.

4:02Now it's just making people aware, but you don't have to say it. Okay. Is it okay to do that in like most of my videos? Yeah, I mean, I think you can do the end card. Like at the end, if you're like, learn about my new course or PS, check out my bio or click the link in my bio if you wanna learn more. like people will accept that you have something to sell to your point if you do it with tact and taste there's little maneuvers versus just like every fucking video and be like sign up for you know you don't want to be QVC I get it does that make sense? little tweaks yes yes very much thank you you're welcome the other thing you can do is go on a podcast tour where you're allowed to plug it they'll set you up for that okay there's also that like investing more to go to other places.

4:51Do you know what I mean? Where that audience, like, you know. Smaller, and it's okay if it's smaller podcasts. I, back to Sol's thing, I prefer it because you can get clips from it too. Right. Like, it's smaller. Like, listen, you're not gonna wake up out of bed and go right to Joe Rogan's show. You know what I mean? No, I don't think so either. Yeah, and I know you don't. I know you don't. And so like, when people ask me, they're like, so what do I do? I'm like, start going on smaller shows. Joe Rogan's first stand-up have three people in the audience, you know? So anyway. All right, Johnson fam.

5:23Hey. Hey. One of the things that we have a question on is we've been on YouTube and since YouTube switched over a couple of years ago when they started not paying as much for YouTube Kids. I'm curious as why, how you're monetizing this show on YouTube Kids because we currently do roughly like 40 to 50 million views and a lot of those come from YouTube Kids and our ad sets sees none of that. Yeah. I don't view this as a monetizable asset within the YouTube environment. I view it as a brand building exercise for all the things that are gonna happen outside of YouTube. Okay, great. And I think for you, I think for you, and as you know, like I know your journey from afar well and I know the journey very well because I'm in this business.

6:10This is why what you're seeing from Logan Paul and Charli D 'Amelio You have as much permission as anybody to make a kid's toothpaste that could be a$100 million business. Now that's a totally different business. But to remind the two of you, you didn't do family video blogging 10 years ago either and you figured it out. And so this is why you're gonna see a lot of people go into product. Thanks Johnson fam. Garrett, I saw your hand go up a while ago. If you want to. Everyone, my name is Garrett. I'm the dad of the Bucketless family, the name of our YouTube channel and our Instagram. A year ago, we signed a deal with National Geographic to create a cartoon with them.

6:54And so I'm following in your footsteps, or at least trying to. And the question for me is, National Geographic, who's owned by Disney, is greatly just following their traditional recipe. and I'm coming at it from a tech entrepreneur perspective of how can I use new technology, social media, AI to do things differently, do things better and I'd be curious what answers you might have knowing that you think about things so forth as well. That would have required you to set the rules up front. Right? And I will say I've done a good job of knowing that. I carved out complete ownership of freedom on social media and emerged.

7:38Great, great. So then, yeah. So I'm giving them the traditional cartoon and I can do whatever else I want. So smart. Look, I think you already know the answer, right? Your ability to post-produce creative from the long-form cartoon and produce original creative to social that takes advantage of the algorithms creating awareness is the whole game. As far as AI, you know, I think of it as a thinking partner right now more so than making the actual creative though that will continue to advance and so and the most important AI right now in the world for everyone here is the AI that powers how the algorithms actually work understanding human behavior and like understanding that's becoming more and more of the game so there's nothing too out of the ordinary on that Garrett other than for me where are the opportunities I'll give you an example one of the biggest opportunities for every family and every individual here is snapchat spotlight so snapchat spotlight is tiktok is youtube shorts is instagram and i have a funny feeling almost no one here is taking it very serious and i would argue many of the people here and let's remember what this room is this is a winner's room there are people are winning in this room I'm pretty sure many of the people in this room aren't even posting on it or have an account on it so to remind all of you of how you won you went on a platform that had a lot of attention whether you started on YouTube and then went somewhere else or you started on TikTok and went to YouTube you went on a platform that had attention you figured out how to make content so people for free saw it and then you refined your skills and then if you were smart, you started to try to do that on more than one platform.

9:31My question to you is, are you dominant on all of them? What makes me wildly unique, many people here have way more views than me, more subscribers on a different platform, but nobody here has 2 million followers or more on every platform. And when I say every platform, I mean LinkedIn. I have 5 million. I probably, I'm gonna guess this. I have more LinkedIn followers than everybody in this call combined times the multiple. Yet, everybody on this platform can literally post the same. I know I'm a businessman. I get it. I know where LinkedIn started. LinkedIn is Facebook, friends. Every one of you, and I know what you all do, can post your actual videos on LinkedIn and slightly change the copy.

10:21just a copy that supports it by knowing it's a business environment like literally at its most kelly m can just say need two minutes away from your shitty job watch this that's it that's already contextualized what she does for linkedin so the biggest thing i want from you garrett honestly is to keep doing what you're doing but i would want to know which like I'll give you one that actually is even more serious. Where's everybody out on Facebook in here? Actually, I want everybody to do me a favor because this is gonna help everybody. From a one to 10 going hard, making content, trying to figure out the algorithm, like giving a fuck.

11:00Where are you one to 10 right now on Facebook proper? Put a number in. Put your number in the chat. So, you know, it's fun to see all the different numbers, right? I'm sure for some of the people that are two, they're looking at an 11. Now obviously Jenna with going after parents, like there's a lot of logic like Brittany, I can see it, but I'm telling you, I understand a lot of these numbers. Every one of you have to understand that Facebook is Instagram is YouTube. They're all kind of the same. You think they're not, but you're wrong. I don't know what else to tell you. Like I'll give you an example.

11:34My fastest growing audience on Facebook right now is 20 to 30 year olds. it baffles me i don't need i've never found a kid 20 to 30 on earth who's on facebook but they are they just go once a week or they're using facebook marketplace to get a free couch or they're part of a facebook group that's mental health issues for 27 year olds like but then they consume a little bit of the algorithm so garrett obviously as you can tell i'm answering you but i'm answering everybody here the by far the thing i would do because you know what to do i know that from afar, it's just and. I want you to dominate every platform.

12:09Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna answer Johnson's fam's question because it's gonna help a lot of people and then we'll go. If our Facebook created years ago but it seems to be dead, should we create a new one? Here's the wildest shit of all and I think all of you are gonna resonate with this. The answer is sure, yes, no, maybe, but here's the actual answer. I believe all these platforms are dangerously close within the next three years to get to a place where it won't matter how many followers you have. Every individual piece of creative has its own algorithm. Like all it is is now the single piece of content.

12:50So I would probably test it, to be honest with you, Johnson fam, on that one. Start another one with a tweak. Maybe you decide. I'm sure the two of you have like some creative ideas. The kids have gotten older. You've evolved. Like there might be like a little spinoff. the BTS of what you do on YouTube. Or maybe, you know, I'm not close enough to your content to not know there might be a meme going on in your world right now around eating cereal. Maybe you just do cereal content there and on YouTube you're like, all our deeper cereal. Like, there's a lot, you can be very, it's creativity. You can see what I just came up with in two seconds, right?

13:21So, it's that. I don't want to forget this because I will. Live shopping. I have no idea how many of you you have started selling on TikTok shop or whatnot. I'm talking QVC, live shopping. If this is not on your radar, like for real, for real, I'm telling you right now, live shopping is where social media was in 2012. Meaning, people knew it. I'm sure everyone here knows what TikTok shop is or whatnot, or like Amazon Live or eBay Live. Like I'm sure you've heard of it. or you might even like fully know that it's the biggest thing in China. Like I'm sure it's on your radar. You've seen a viral TikTok video of the woman that just does the purses and made 40 trillion.

14:10Like, but I'm telling all of you, you will love, some of you really did start your careers by something I said or a book I wrote. You already like me. This might really be where you really love me and build like a statue in your house. Live shopping is a huge deal. So that's different than what I told the Johnson fam to be the product. This is more being Walmart, being Amazon, like selling stuff. Like I believe the Johnson fam, if they live sold for four hours a day, could do eight figures selling stuff to buy in your house. Shampoo, toothpaste, it's coming. So I want you to get educated, okay?

14:50Just wanted to tell everybody, like live shopping. The one that I think will really catch your attention, does everybody know what Whatnot is? please download Whatnot, Jack, put the URL. As a matter of fact, oh, this is even better. I've been doing the trading cards, so some of you know that the big thing going on in VFriends is the Pokemon cards of it all. Like just to give you context, we sold$100 ,000 worth of trading cards in six hours on Whatnot the other day. I need you all to understand social shop, live shopping, live shopping. All right, not affiliate, not TikTok affiliate, it live shopping qvc you win it all right michelle all right i'm going to live shop gary you coming with me let's do it me and you i'm ready um first and foremost so excited to chat with you about this you mentioned podcasts earlier i have a podcast called red relevant entertaining dynamic and we feature content creators influencers celebrities we do red carpet events too and I also own a marketing agency.

15:56I've been in marketing for 23 years. Always been known in the Hudson Valley, Poughkeepsie area as like the guru of marketing and I've always followed your footsteps. So everyone's like, hey, Michelle, how do you know this? I'm like, can't tell you, but it's my little secret. Thank you, Gary, for all these years of being my go-to guy. But truly, you know, looking to branch out of this area, I've been doing red carpets and been out there and I feel like my personality is electric. you know every time I'm with other hosts and interviewers I feel like I stand out and I didn't know if I could ever compete in that world now that I have some confidence and I'm ready to do it we've been doing a lot more on social followings growing a lot came to VCon and met so many people so thank you so much and you know I'm really looking to how to become the Oprah the Ryan Seacrest and build that real brand online with the podcast with iHeartMedia so they'd give given me a lot of leverage to knock on doors and you know being able to have that backup just to get out there has been huge and got me into the dma's the grand me super bowl things like that but i want to really take my brand to the next level and become that go-to interviewer how much how much how much content are you putting out on social a week right now we're doing about five videos a week um of clips from the podcast and two or three from red carpets and and so if you're So you're doing about eight original piece of content?

17:23Five to eight. And when you say per week, right? Per week, yeah. And what platforms are you posting that on? Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and mostly YouTube Shorts, but the longer episodes on YouTube, like the regular one. All right, so I want you to expand into LinkedIn, Facebook, Snapchat, Spotlight, ASAP. ASAP. Twitter too. Everybody, Twitter's about to take a hard turn into like all these two. Okay. I know that Twitter's enigma in a lot of ways, but Twitter video and Twitter algorithm and like Twitter's gonna be, they all, Snapchat spotlight's gonna wake up in the next two to three years and start acting even more like TikTok and Instagram.

18:08Twitter's about to. So I really just need you to put all that content on every platform. Here's the key though. You've got to get great at what to do slightly different on every platform to maximize reach. I'm sure everyone here can agree that there's a platform of all the platforms that they feel the most confident in. Yes. Right? That is your biggest vulnerability, everybody. Yeah. And it gets worse. You know how like when you get older, you become like a worse version of yourself in some ways. You become like less curious. Like obviously wisdom and there's some good things, but I think everybody understands what I'm about to say.

18:45Like, I bet you a lot of you have been on other platforms, even back to the Johnson fam saying, what about our Facebook that you said? Like, a lot of you've been on other platforms, but because you took off on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube, you're like, oh, that's where I feel good about myself. So listen to me. There's seven platforms that matter. If you want to get famous, you need to win on all of them because you never know which one, what, how, what, where, what. You can't post the same exact thing on every video. You can post the same video, but you need to make the thumbnail different, the first three seconds different, the copy.

19:19This is the reason I wrote Day Trading Attention. Please, if you haven't read it or listened to it, I don't want your two bucks that I get from my publishing deal. You can pirate it on Pirate Bay. I don't give a shit. Just read it. Seven platforms, platform excellence on all of them will lead to everything all of you want. How am I gonna do that? The answer is figure it out. Like I know the next question. How? Easy, reinvest some of the money you're making. How? Stop wasting your time on dumb shit and spend more time in getting good at it yourself and doing it yourself. There's nothing more important.

19:57Yeah, just to clarify, the reason you're changing the text on the thumbnail, is it an algorithm thing or is it because the audience is a little different? Both, both. Yeah, I mean, I don't think this can be complicated to everybody. Every one of us does our thing. I know most of your things. you're gonna think that the LinkedIn audience is different than the TikTok audience. Why wouldn't you change the thumbnail to like things you can do while you're at work or having a tough day with your boss? Let me make you smile for an hour. You put that on LinkedIn. You're not gonna put that on fucking TikTok.

20:27Weirdly, what you'll learn is you might put that on TikTok and you never would have thought of it. The game becomes incredible when you're a Swiss army knife instead of just being a fucking fork. Most of you are just fucking forks right now. You're so fucking good at being a fork that all your dreams and hopes have happened. But if you're a fucking Swiss army knife. James, we actually had a question in the chat from the Doherty Dozen. What are the seven platforms that you're talking about? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, right? Snapchat, Spotlight, LinkedIn. All right, we'll talk more soon.

21:08Thank you so much.