Remember when the internet and social media were a major part of grass roots marketing? You told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on and so on...
Now, you can have 5000 "friends" Facebook. Countless followers on YouTube ( I do not ), Instagram and whatever else is running around out there. But to get these large groups of friends and followers started, you almost need to hit a "critical mass" number to get things started.
For YouTube, the magic number seems like 1000 subscribers. Now, people to subscribe to so many things that you also need to click a "bell" icon in order to actually be alerted to when a channel you subscribe to posts something new. The 1000 subscribers isn't a number I'm just guessing at. YouTube uses that 1000 mark for a few things. For example, my channel, with it's 258 subscribers (and shrinking at the moment ) can't enable "Super Chat". I need 742 more subscribers to enable a feature that I don't even know how to use. Also, videos that tagged "Not suitable for all advertisers", which could be for any number of reasons, including, "we're not sure it IS suitable for all advertisers so we're going to mark it as not suitable for now", will not be manually reviewed "until your video has at least 1000 views in a seven day period" or if you have 10,000 subscribers (a new magic number I've just noticed).
So, in order to hit these numbers, you need to start somewhere. You would hope that putting out good, entertaining or informative content consistently would do the trick and it some cases, perhaps it does, but to me, it seems that most of the time, without a certain number of views to begin with, the automated systems don't "push" your content. So, if you don't hit 1000 views in those first seven days, the likelihood of being at the top of a list during a search are pretty low.
How do you get those first numbers? You bug your friends and family. You try to get across how important it is that they like, comment and share your stuff. The trouble is, if you're like me, you have a few dedicated cheerleaders, but their crowd isn't really the crowd that enjoys the genre you produce. So, what you have is free advertising to the wrong market. That becomes frustrating for them and eventually, the shares and watches, reviews and clicks become exhausting for all of you.
At this point, you start to consider two things:
1. Giving up, which if you've followed this blog, I have done before.
2. Paid promotional online marketing, which I don't think I've done since before this blog existed. It was a total waste of money, time and effort, but I did attract a large following of people who wanted to sell me more of the same.
So, do you risk annoying your friends and family with constant posts about sharing your stuff, watching it and bragging about it? That's entirely up to you. I can't even tell you that it has really worked for me so far. I have seen if work for friends, so I suspect part of the problem is, I really just don't have than many friends and they may not enjoy my stuff that much, so it's hard for them to "pimp". Like asking your buddy who is having a garage sale to sell that waffle maker you never use. You think it still works, but lost the cord three years ago. Also, you would like to get $40 for it because you saw one for that much at Macy's and it wasn't even the cool avocado green that your "classic" model is.
Sorry, did I go off on a tangent? In the end, ask yourself a few things:
1. Do I try to lift others? Do I share posts, projects, art and other things?
If yes, why not expect the same?
2. Do my not artsy friends still share stuff with me they know I can only really be interested in because it comes from them? You know, like that video of a dance recital you have to watch, like and comment on, not because it's the best 87 minutes of ballet you've ever seen 3-6 years old perform, but because one of those kids, the one halfway in and who manages to stay on the stage for 32 seconds, was spawned by one of your friends.
If yes, why not expect them to watch, like and comment on the 4 minute short film you wrote, produced and directed for $6?
3. Do you really need friends who find your life's work "annoying"?
This is a big one. Maybe it's okay that not everyone you're friends with cares how hard you work to make these things. Maybe it makes sense that your success shouldn't depend on help from others. I mean, when your friend opened that shop, did they expect you do keep buying overpriced goods there instead of at the "big corporate place" that sold the same stuff for 1/3 of the price? Maybe selling to your friends puts them off. It's not like once a year you're hit with "offers" to buy magazines, cookies, candy or whatever thing you have no use for so their kid can go to the Washington and see how government works or get new football uniforms. The real question here, for me, is not whether someone likes everything I do. It's whether they find asking for simple help, like sharing, watching, subscribing, so annoying that they're willing to end a "friendship" over it, if they're a friend worth worrying about losing? This past year, I've gone with "no".
Maybe if I annoy them all enough I can become known as "That Annoying Asshole, Jason" and build a following of people around that. From what little bit of watching reality TV I've done, it seems like annoying assholes attract pretty fair sized fanbases.
By the way, if you'd like to help us hit that magic number of 1000 subscribers, our YouTube Channel is: www.youtube.com/c/hocusfocusproductions
Now, you can have 5000 "friends" Facebook. Countless followers on YouTube ( I do not ), Instagram and whatever else is running around out there. But to get these large groups of friends and followers started, you almost need to hit a "critical mass" number to get things started.
For YouTube, the magic number seems like 1000 subscribers. Now, people to subscribe to so many things that you also need to click a "bell" icon in order to actually be alerted to when a channel you subscribe to posts something new. The 1000 subscribers isn't a number I'm just guessing at. YouTube uses that 1000 mark for a few things. For example, my channel, with it's 258 subscribers (and shrinking at the moment ) can't enable "Super Chat". I need 742 more subscribers to enable a feature that I don't even know how to use. Also, videos that tagged "Not suitable for all advertisers", which could be for any number of reasons, including, "we're not sure it IS suitable for all advertisers so we're going to mark it as not suitable for now", will not be manually reviewed "until your video has at least 1000 views in a seven day period" or if you have 10,000 subscribers (a new magic number I've just noticed).
So, in order to hit these numbers, you need to start somewhere. You would hope that putting out good, entertaining or informative content consistently would do the trick and it some cases, perhaps it does, but to me, it seems that most of the time, without a certain number of views to begin with, the automated systems don't "push" your content. So, if you don't hit 1000 views in those first seven days, the likelihood of being at the top of a list during a search are pretty low.
How do you get those first numbers? You bug your friends and family. You try to get across how important it is that they like, comment and share your stuff. The trouble is, if you're like me, you have a few dedicated cheerleaders, but their crowd isn't really the crowd that enjoys the genre you produce. So, what you have is free advertising to the wrong market. That becomes frustrating for them and eventually, the shares and watches, reviews and clicks become exhausting for all of you.
At this point, you start to consider two things:
1. Giving up, which if you've followed this blog, I have done before.
2. Paid promotional online marketing, which I don't think I've done since before this blog existed. It was a total waste of money, time and effort, but I did attract a large following of people who wanted to sell me more of the same.
So, do you risk annoying your friends and family with constant posts about sharing your stuff, watching it and bragging about it? That's entirely up to you. I can't even tell you that it has really worked for me so far. I have seen if work for friends, so I suspect part of the problem is, I really just don't have than many friends and they may not enjoy my stuff that much, so it's hard for them to "pimp". Like asking your buddy who is having a garage sale to sell that waffle maker you never use. You think it still works, but lost the cord three years ago. Also, you would like to get $40 for it because you saw one for that much at Macy's and it wasn't even the cool avocado green that your "classic" model is.
Sorry, did I go off on a tangent? In the end, ask yourself a few things:
1. Do I try to lift others? Do I share posts, projects, art and other things?
If yes, why not expect the same?
2. Do my not artsy friends still share stuff with me they know I can only really be interested in because it comes from them? You know, like that video of a dance recital you have to watch, like and comment on, not because it's the best 87 minutes of ballet you've ever seen 3-6 years old perform, but because one of those kids, the one halfway in and who manages to stay on the stage for 32 seconds, was spawned by one of your friends.
If yes, why not expect them to watch, like and comment on the 4 minute short film you wrote, produced and directed for $6?
3. Do you really need friends who find your life's work "annoying"?
This is a big one. Maybe it's okay that not everyone you're friends with cares how hard you work to make these things. Maybe it makes sense that your success shouldn't depend on help from others. I mean, when your friend opened that shop, did they expect you do keep buying overpriced goods there instead of at the "big corporate place" that sold the same stuff for 1/3 of the price? Maybe selling to your friends puts them off. It's not like once a year you're hit with "offers" to buy magazines, cookies, candy or whatever thing you have no use for so their kid can go to the Washington and see how government works or get new football uniforms. The real question here, for me, is not whether someone likes everything I do. It's whether they find asking for simple help, like sharing, watching, subscribing, so annoying that they're willing to end a "friendship" over it, if they're a friend worth worrying about losing? This past year, I've gone with "no".
Maybe if I annoy them all enough I can become known as "That Annoying Asshole, Jason" and build a following of people around that. From what little bit of watching reality TV I've done, it seems like annoying assholes attract pretty fair sized fanbases.
By the way, if you'd like to help us hit that magic number of 1000 subscribers, our YouTube Channel is: www.youtube.com/c/hocusfocusproductions
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