I was approached yesterday by a school pupil, he has the world at his finger tips and yet was keen to email someone locally (ish) that would give him straight forward advice. He has created an online store where he’s selling the stuff he loves, knows is popular with his peers and has the potential to turn into a much bigger business. He’s got the fire in his belly, whatever he turns to, this lad is going to make it work.
My advice to him (for starters) was this:
1. Speak to people like you would your Mum; don’t hide behind a brand. There has to be honesty and openness, speak to everyone with respect. You have a laugh with your mum too, right?
2. Speak to everyone that likes or comments on your content – yes, every single one.
3. Search on every platform for mention of the brands you like, then like and speak to everyone that talks about that brand. Get to know the audience, they will likely dictate and or introduce you to knew opportunities and brands.
4. Create content that challenges people, makes them question – don’t be boring, don’t fill the web with inane junk unless you know that’s what your audience are interested in or excited about…
5. Create and share daily – yes, even the weekends (are your audience online at the weekends?). This is a startup, you eat sleep and breathe this business.
6. Think about how your content will stand out and be different to everyone else… this is much harder than you think. Who do you know that is a creative thinker / do’er, what have they said or done that’s made you pay attention?
7. Always film and photography. Essential. The world content machine is moving faster than ever before, we consume data quicker and yet we are getting lazier, film with subtitles is on the increase because,
– we pay attention to it,
– get distracted by it,
– can look at it at work…
8. Twitter, Snap, Instagram, Facebook… The platform you spend the most time on depends where your audience are. If they’re on all, that’s where you need to be.
There are of course many more elements to constructing the best approach however – this is a good start.