565: Why Your Social Media Strategy Isn’t Working—and How to Fix It

Summary

Episode Summary: Episode 565 - "Why Your Social Media Strategy Isn’t Working—and How to Fix It"

Published on November 28, 2024, on "The My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast With Steve Chou," hosted by Steve Chou. In this episode, Steve delves into effective social media strategies for building an audience, drawing insights from personal experiences and industry events.

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1. Introduction to Social Media Strategies

Steve Chou initiates the discussion by highlighting the challenges many e-commerce entrepreneurs face with their social media strategies. Emphasizing the transition from traditional blogging to video content, Steve sets the stage for an in-depth conversation on leveraging social media effectively.

2. Video vs. Blogging: The Changing Landscape

[05:23] Steve Chou:
"We didn't actually form the mastermind group till a little later... relying on SEO and affiliate marketing with their blog making millions of dollars... just because of the last couple of years, with what Google has done, we're all hurting in the blogging department for the most part."

Steve reflects on his mastermind group's reliance on blogging and how recent changes in Google's algorithms have adversely affected their traffic and revenue. He contrasts this with the success of pivoting to video content, sharing his personal journey of adopting YouTube during the pandemic, which has sustained his business despite the decline in blogging effectiveness.

3. The Power of Consistency and Frequency

[10:15] Speaker B:
"They don't have the money. They, maybe their kids are a little bit older... They have the time to play the social media game."

Consistency emerged as a pivotal theme. The speakers discuss the importance of regularly posting content to maintain and grow an audience. They stress that while social media requires ongoing effort, those with the time to invest can reap substantial benefits through consistent content creation.

4. Platform-Specific Content Strategies

a. TikTok

[06:43] Speaker B:
"Make the content on your phone without a mic, just get started."
[19:07] Steve Chou:
"I hit a hundred thousand pretty quickly... because that was the original short form platform."

TikTok is highlighted as a dynamic platform ideal for quick wins and audience growth. The speakers advocate for starting with short-form content, emphasizing that even without professional equipment, creators can achieve significant reach. Steve shares his success story of gaining 100,000 followers by maintaining a consistent posting schedule.

b. Instagram

[16:26] Speaker B:
"You push the button record, you talk... Instagram users want a more curated feel to the content."

Instagram requires a more polished and edited approach compared to TikTok. The speakers suggest tailoring content to match each platform's unique audience preferences, ensuring that Instagram posts are visually appealing and well-produced.

c. Threads/X

[24:50] Steve Chou:
"I grew from like I don't remember... from 4K and ended up at 40 something in a year."

The transition of Twitter to X introduces new strategies for engagement. The speakers discuss the effectiveness of active participation, such as commenting and engaging in threads, to build a presence. However, they caution that success on these platforms often requires direct interaction and cannot be entirely outsourced.

5. Balancing Short-form and Long-form Content

[35:02] Speaker B:
"You could blow up on TikTok and make a thousand to $2,000 a month."

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on balancing short-form and long-form content. While short-form platforms like TikTok offer rapid growth and immediate engagement, long-form content on YouTube provides sustainable, long-term benefits. The speakers advocate for using short-form content as a gateway to building skills and an audience that can later be leveraged for more in-depth content.

6. Overcoming Hurdles and Adopting the Right Mindset

[06:11] Steve Chou:
"It's all a state of mind... It's really just framing your state of mind to look at it in a different way."

Adopting a positive and proactive mindset is essential for overcoming the initial reluctance to engage with social media. Steve shares his personal journey of shifting his perspective, transitioning from hesitancy to regular content creation. The emphasis is on removing barriers, such as the need for expensive equipment, and focusing on consistency to build momentum.

7. Insights from Fincon 2021

[04:09] Speaker B:
"Everyone's doing video. And if you're not, it's not too late. It doesn't matter when you start, as long as you start."

Drawing from the Fincon conference, the speakers underscore the universal shift towards video content among e-commerce entrepreneurs. The consensus is that embracing video early on can mitigate the declining effectiveness of other strategies like blogging, ensuring continued business growth.

8. Leveraging Long-term Content Value

[38:06] Steve Chou:
"The more content you put out, the more traffic you're gonna get because you're building up this portfolio."

Long-term value of content is a recurring theme. Older content, even those that initially garnered low engagement, can accumulate views and revenue over time. The speakers highlight the importance of viewing content creation as an investment, where each piece contributes to a growing portfolio that continues to attract and engage audiences well into the future.

9. Notable Quotes

• Steve Chou [06:17]:
  "Like for the longest time with video, I was like, I don't think I can do it, I don't want to do it. But then as soon as you do it, it's actually not as big of a deal as you thought."

• Speaker B [09:28]:
  "If you're going to be creating content all the time, whether it's X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, the more content you put out, the better you will do."

• Steve Chou [21:07]:
  "The first three seconds are like the most important. The first sentence that you say should be interesting."

• Speaker B [34:26]:
  "If you work really hard and do a lot of things right and you have the right type of content, you could be making a thousand to $2,000 a month."

10. Conclusions and Takeaways

Steve and his co-host conclude by reiterating the critical elements of a successful social media strategy:

1. Consistency is Key: Regularly posting content across chosen platforms to maintain audience engagement.
2. Platform-Specific Approaches: Tailoring content to fit the unique style and expectations of each social media platform.
3. Long-term Investment: Viewing content as a portfolio that builds value over time, ensuring sustained revenue and audience growth.
4. Mindset Shift: Overcoming initial hesitations and adopting a proactive approach to content creation.
5. Balance and Adaptability: Utilizing short-form content for immediate engagement while investing in long-form content for long-term benefits.

By embracing these strategies, e-commerce entrepreneurs can effectively navigate the evolving social media landscape, build a robust audience, and drive meaningful business growth.

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For more insights and resources on building your e-commerce business, visit mywifequitherjob.com.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all of the latest strategies and current events related to E commerce and online business. Today we're going to conclude our four part series on creating content to promote your business. In this episode we're going to talk about how to build an audience with social media. But before we begin, I wanted to let you know that tickets are now on sale for sellers summit 2025 over@sellers summit.com the seller summit is the conference that I hold every year that specifically targets e commerce entrepreneurs selling physical products online. Unlike other events that focus on inspirational stories and high level advice, mine is a curriculum based conference where you will leave with practical and actionable strategies specifically for an e commerce business. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches of their e commerce business entrepreneurs who are importing large quantities of physical goods and not some high level guys who are overseeing their companies at 50,000ft. I personally hate large events, so the Seller Summit is always small and intimate. Every year we cut off ticket sales at around 200 people, so tickets sell out fast and we've sold out every single year for the past eight years. If you are an e commerce entrepreneur making more than $250,000 or $1 million per year, we also offer an exclusive mastermind experience with other top sellers. The Seller Summit is going to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from May 6th to May 8th. Right now, this is the cheapest the tickets will ever be. And finally, if you haven't picked up my Wall Street Journal best selling book the Family First Entrepreneur yet, it's actually available on Amazon at 38% off right now. My book will teach you how to achieve financial freedom by starting a business that doesn't require you to work yourself to death. Plus, you can still get my free bonus workshop on how to sell print on demand and how to make passive income with blogging, YouTube and podcasting. When you grab the book [e-mail] book so go to mywifequitherjob.com book, fill out the form and I'll send you the bonuses right away. Now onto the show. Welcome to the My Wife Quitter Job Podcast. Today we are covering the last segment in our four or five part series, however you look at it, on content creation and today we're going to cover social media. But before we begin, I know you just got back from one of the events that I've gone to almost every year since its existence, fincon and I had to miss this year. How was it?

[B]

I It wasn't the same without you Wasn't the same.

[A]

I wanted to be there, but it was all the way in Atlanta. And I've got duties now as the father of two teenage kids, so.

[B]

So. Yo. Okay, so, total side note, Atlanta has what's called the marta, which is like their public transportation. And they have a station at the airport that basically drops you off underneath the hotel. However, it's not quite as like. It's not like the New York subway. Yes. I was gonna. I was trying to find a better word, but it. I mean, I didn't hear anyone have a bad experience with it, but so I decided that, like, so. So an uber was like $40, and the Marta was 250. So I was like, I'm gonna take the Marta. It's 2:00 in the afternoon. Like, I'll be fine. So I took the marta. I was fine. And then I was like, so emboldened because I took the marta. I was like, I'm gonna take it back too. Like, look at me. I have saved $100. And then I proceeded to basically spend that on my dinner at the airport. Because everything is. Because I didn't want, like, fast food. I wanted to, like, sit down and eat something. Because, you know, when you're at conferences, you're like, sn. Like, not eating great the whole time. So I was like, no, I want, like, a real meal. I was like, you know, $60 later, I was like, oh, well, there was my MARTA savings all. All eaten away by my nice meal. But fincon was really good. I. We were talking about this a little bit before we started recording. I will say that the biggest lesson out of fincon is everyone's doing video. And if you're not, it's not too late. It doesn't matter when you start, as long as you start.

[A]

Yeah. So that my mastermind group, which I've been in for, I want to say, eight years, I feel like all those guys. Yeah, maybe longer than that. I mean, I've known those guys for over a decade, for sure.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We didn't actually form the mastermind group till a little later. But anyway, all those guys, for as long as I've known them over a decade, have relied on SEO and affiliate marketing with their blog making millions of dollars. Millions of dollars. Lots of employees, writers, everything. Just because of the last couple years, with what Google has done, we're all hurting in the blogging department for the most part. And so I think that's why this series is important, because there were some of those Guys who pivoted to video early are doing okay. Yeah, like I count myself as one of those. Right. I started YouTube during the pandemic and it's been four years, almost five years now. And I'm fine because almost all of my leads and everything have transferred over to video. But if you stayed on blogging, and we've covered this in a past episode before Google has, I don't know what's going on with Google, but because of AI, I mean, they're, they've shifted all their traffic over to Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn, like mostly well known sites.

[B]

Mm.

[A]

And the little guys, or the smaller publishers, I should say, have been hurting for the most part.

[B]

So yeah. So I would say that that was one of the biggest themes at fincon this year and I thought it was pretty encouraging because I know a lot of people are like, well, it's too late, right? It's too late for me to get on YouTube. It's too late for me to start making videos. That's absolutely false. The common thread with everybody, either the sessions that I went to or the people that I talked to at the event was as long as you get started and are consistent, you will see success at some point. And I don't want to give away, I'm doing a talk on Office Hours today about it, but I don't want to give away all that stuff because that's for the course. But there is something to be said about that investment that you make early on in creating the content in the video space.

[A]

I mean, what I found with video and social media, which is what we're going to be talking about today, it's all a state of mind.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like for the longest time with video, I was like, I, I don't think I can do it, I don't want to do it. But then as soon as you do it, it's actually not as big of a deal as you thought. And today it's, it's kind of like I don't even think about it. I just sit down and I just pump it out. It's actually not a big deal. So it's really just framing your state of mind to look at it in a different way. And I'm trying to do that with social media right now. So I'm interested in what we're going to be talking about today.

[B]

So I think I'll give one nugget that I'm going to talk about today in the course. But the biggest thing that I took away from our friend Tay's talk Financial tortoise. He told the story about how he went to Fincon in 2019 and he had a job in like the financial services industry. Went to fincon because he was like, oh, this is interesting. Sort of like, could this align with something that I'm doing? And heard a talk, I think from Ms. Be helpful. I think that's her name on video creation. And he was like, could I do this? You know, I don't, I don't know, it seems interesting. And then sat on it for two years. So didn't make his first video. He went to Fincon in 2019, didn't make his first video until 2021, June of 2021, and had no subscribers, no audience. Right. He didn't have anything to lean on. And he talked about the fact that he made a decision that he was just going to make. He decided to make two videos a week. Two long form videos a week. That was his and that was his, that was his schedule, right? And he said, and I just decided that no matter what I was going to do this, like I was going to create the content. And one thing that he did initially, which I thought was so fascinating is we talk a lot about like, you don't need a lot of tools to get started in YouTube. You don't need equipment. He didn't even have a microphone. He just used the microphone on his phone because he was facing like he was shooting directly at the phone. He wasn't walking around or anything like that. And also our friend Jim Wang does not use a microphone when he TikTok, yes, he does not use a microphone, but he was like, you don't even need a microphone. So if that is the hurdle that is stopping you from creating video content, make the content on your phone without a mic, just, just get started. And he went on to, you know, talk more about like that journey and how he's now at almost 300,000 subscribers only three years later, right. Very fast. And had no audience, right? Had no way to promote this outside of, you know, YouTube promoting it in itself. So I think, and this goes for social media because so much of social media now is video. And I think, you know, if, if you need to change your mindset, don't think about the fact that like, oh, I need to get this special vlogger camera or oh, I need to get that little mic that people hold or I need to do xyz. Literally you can just get started with your phone. Everybody has one, everybody listening to this has one and make it remove as Many hurdles as possible so that you can get going and be consistent. And that is like a. That's a truth with any format. Right. That's a truth with video creation. It's a truth with social media. It's a truth if you're still wanting to write, podcast, whatever, remove all those hurdles to get going.

[A]

Yeah. And with that, let's talk about the state of mind required for social media. And so let's get the, let's get.

[B]

The big negative out of the way. Let's just talk about the elephant in the room. The thing that sucks about social media is that it's not a set it and forget it. You have to continually be putting content on whatever platform you choose. Whether it's X, whether it's TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. It is a numbers game. The more content you put out, the better you will do. But here's the thing I was thinking about this morning when I was thinking about this podcast today, is that a lot of people that we talk to, that join our course, that we meet at events, they have more money than time. No, they have more time than money.

[A]

Right.

[B]

They don't have, they don't have the money. Like they, maybe their kids are a little bit older. They have, you know, maybe they have their Saturdays free now, something like that. You probably have the time to play the social media game. And I will say, if you do it correctly, you can grow pretty quickly on social media and you can leverage that audience to something bigger if you're willing to put in the work and be consistent.

[A]

Did you know our mutual friend AJ Bufumo? Have you seen him? Oh, my gosh.

[B]

I was just going to tell you about him. He was on the Tonight Show.

[A]

I know he was on the Tonight Show.

[B]

The Chargers did his dance in the end zone or the Rams or something. Yes. And they, they posted it on their. I guess it was the Chargers. They posted it on their official tick tock and tagged him doing the boom dance.

[A]

Exactly. AJ is someone. I. We invited him to seller summit, I think one year and he came out, we hung out.

[B]

Yes, yes.

[A]

He just decided to make tick tocks with his son one day.

[B]

Yeah. Big Justice.

[A]

Big Justice. I don't know who the Rizzler is, but I know AJ and Big justice.

[B]

And they have this bring the boom dance, which if you're on social media, you've probably seen it. What's funny is I kept seeing their videos and I was like, what is he doing? And then all of a sudden I see the Chargers video and they're all in the end zone doing the like, boom dance. And they tagged him. And I was like, holy, holy crap, what's going on? And then I go to his page. He's on the Tonight Show. He's at the Yankees game. Like, yeah, 2. 2 million followers on TikTok.

[A]

It was just crazy. And. And it just goes to show that you can do this at any time. Yeah, he was, he was making tik toks about insurance. No, no, wait. Refi mortgages, mortgages, refining mortgages. And then he just shifted to his son and then he hit something big and yeah, look, he's on Fallon now. It's crazy.

[B]

Yeah. So. And that's where I think the like. And if you actually. What is it? Is this channel AJ and Big Justice. If you search that, it'll come up. Go watch what they're doing. It's fascinating because it's like, we talk about, like, it's. It's better to provide value and like, teach something on social media, but you can also just bring the boom. And obviously. Okay, he's got like an amazing personality.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Like, if you meet him very soon, he's like larger than life. Right. Like, awesome, dude. It was great to have him at seller summit. I felt like he was like the hype man for seller summit when he was there. So, like, obviously I think that you can have a personality driven social media presence, but you better have a personality. Whether. Whatever it is, you've got to. And if you watch anything that he's done, you'll see his personality. Like they were. They were doing an ad for some sort of protein wrap, like, like making a video, a sponsored video. And it's him and in Big Little Big justice, who's his son. And it's like, have you seen these dad? And his son's got like his same personality and he's like, there's 20 grams of protein. And his dad's like, yeah, like. And it's just all like. But I'm like, I'm clearly watching an ad, but I'm not scrolling off because I like, want to see how animated he is about these protein chicken wraps, you know, kind of thing. So, yeah, he's a perfect example of someone. Well, he was doing coloring.

[A]

He was. For a long time. Yeah.

[B]

So, I mean, so, yeah, so I think the, the bad thing about social media is it is. It is a numbers game. You've got to be creating content all the time and you will get burnt out at some point. Which, which means if you want to play the social media Game. You have to have a long term strength strategy for this. Clearly AJ's got a long term strategy going, right? Like he's picking up brand deals, the amount of like notoriety, things like that. When I went to that pet summit earlier this year, a lot of these people like were trying to move into the physical product space, you know, a pet based product, because they had an audience of 2 million people. We look at our seller, summit speaker, Eugenia, who was creating, you know, TikTok content about her little dog and you know, moved into, I think she sold the dog outfits, right? Didn't she move into that as. As well as just like leveraging her TikTok expertise to offer? I think she offered a course about TikTok. So you have to have a long term plan. It can't just be, let me just make TikToks for the rest of my life five times a week.

[A]

Yeah, that's the problem. That's the thing I struggled with for a long time. I think you want to do it well, we're talking one post a day.

[B]

Yeah, one post a day for sure.

[A]

But my friends who are doing it really well, they post like three times a day, which is something that I just am having problems getting myself to do. And that's the biggest hurdle really, I think of all social media.

[B]

So I, I got on a rabbit. I was like halfway through this and I was like, oh, please let me not be logged into your channel when I'm watching this video.

[A]

What were you watching?

[B]

This girl who exposes influencers for inconsistencies in their video. Like, here's what I spent in a day as a stay at home mom, right? But then she'll like zoom in on the receipts and be like, this is one day and this is a different day. Anyway, I got like halfway through it. So I will say like, when you think like, okay, one post a day, you don't have to make one video a day. You can make seven videos on Sunday and then drip them out throughout the week, change your shirt, whatever. Depends on what you're talking about, right? It doesn't matter. It's not like you have to be creating content every single day, but you do have to be willing to invest a good amount of time in that batch. Content creation and, you know, then committing to posting it every day. The other thing to think about is each platform has its own strategy. So I know you are sort of a proponent of using a tool to post the same thing everywhere.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, it's the easy way out, right? Otherwise you have to produce 3x the content.

[B]

Yes. And I don't necessarily think that's a bad idea, but I will say if you really want to like grow quickly and you want to, you know, really focus on like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm going all in on Instagram, right? There's nothing wrong with promoting putting your Instagram Reels on TikTok, but you're not probably going to see the same results and here's why. So TikTok is a platform of you. Literally, how many TikToks have you seen where someone's literally the start of the video is them like their finger moving away from the record button on the.

[A]

Phone or someone just popping into the screen. I know someone.

[B]

Or popping in as if, as someone does. It's so cringy. But, but whereas Instagram is far more curated, far more edited, a lot of people put stuff on TikTok that's not edited at all. Right. Or edited by, you know, you push the button like Jim does. You push the button record, you talk, you let the button off, you do, you know, you do that. So it's choppy, but it's not. There's no really post production in it. Whereas if you want to go in on, all in on Instagram, the people, the users on Instagram want a more curated feel to the content. So while you can, you know, set the phone up and make your bed and show people how to fold the right corners, it's going to look a lot better if you do a voiceover with that and you know, you sort of have the. Every morning what I like to do is get up and make my bed first thing, blah, blah, blah, you know, it's like that kind of thing. Whereas on TikTok you're like, gotta make the bed, you know. So I think, you know, if you want to go platform specific, there is a strategy to do that.

[A]

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that you may not be aware of. If you are interested in starting your own online store. I put together a comprehensive six day mini course on how to get started in E commerce that you should all check out. It contains both video and text based tutorials that go over the entire process of finding products to sell all the way to getting your first sales online. Now this course is free and can be [e-mail] free. Just sign up right there on the front page via email and I'll send you the course right away once again, that's mywifequitterjob.com free. Now back to the show. Yeah. And here's what I've done and I, I just focus on Tick Tock because that was the original short form, you know, platform. And they don't, they don't do as well on Instagram. But then again I don't have a big following Instagram either. And, and when I got big on Tick Tock was when I literally posted, I think four times a week. I couldn't get myself to do five times a week. Is it like three or four times a week for an entire year?

[B]

That's the hurdle.

[A]

No, but I hit a hundred thousand pretty quickly, I think.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Followers.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And so it really just is a consistency play.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I feel, and this is why we talked about this in the beginning. Forget the mic. I actually stopped using my mic recently.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Just whatever, like whenever you can just pick up your phone and film something. And you are absolutely correct about batching. I think that is the only way to stay sane doing this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So if you look at right now, I spend about 90 minutes or so on a YouTube script and then the filming part is really quick. It's usually like 15 minutes since I use a teleprompter. But with short form, if I devoted that same 90 minutes to short form, I could probably pump out 10 or so easily, which is like two weeks worth of content.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So it's really just a mindset. Um, for me, like I focus more on long form because that is, I know it's already generating me results. It's not only generating money, a lot of money actually, like a full time salary in addition to email subs. So that's you, you got to choose. So what I've chosen to do is to break up my long form into short form using AI tools. Not a great solution, but you know, it allows me to post every day.

[B]

And that was the overwhelming consensus at fincon as well. For people who were breaking up their long form into short form is that using AI, the results were not the same. It is better to film organically. You can use the same exact content as the long form and just break it up into bite sized pieces. But doing it from the original video is always going to be less effective. But if that's the only thing that you can do, then do it right. Like you might as well spread the net wide if you're already working on the long form. I think if you're starting with short form, and I don't necessarily think that's a bad place to start because you will probably experience some quick wins, which then if that's what motivates you to do the next thing, then I think that's great. You definitely want to be filming those on their own.

[A]

Yeah, for sure. And then for short form, the first three seconds are like the most important. And we talked about popping in with your finger and whatever it is that.

[B]

You do, whatever gross thing you do.

[A]

That's why I think the AI version doesn't work as well, because if you're taking clips from your video and granted, people like Joe Rogan can pull it off, right? Because if you see Joe Rogan, you're. You're gonna watch it. But yeah, for. For a regular person, it's not going to work as well. But. But if that's all you've got, then it's better than nothing. Like some of my videos that have been just clipped off of AI, some of them have hit like 100,000 views.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So not bad. But the frequency of that happening is obviously going to be a lot less than if you just record from scratch.

[B]

And you already have a following on TikTok. So, like, if that's your getting started method, I don't recommend it. And I have a good example of growth on TikTok. So our friend Liz, who created the Chrome Extension Influencer Fruit for Amazon Influencers, had a little bit of downtime this fall. She didn't have a lot of updates to the extension, and so she found herself with like some extra hours in her workday. So she just said, I'm going to create content on TikTok. And she created all sorts of content. There wasn't. She wasn't even niched down. And I think niching down is really important at some point, but I think when you're just getting started, it's better to put content out there than to be. Because we get a lot of people that are like, I don't know, should I do this or that or this. Do it all and see what hits. Right. And. And she was. A lot of it was around her. She likes to lift heavy weight, so a lot of it was on weightlifting, but a lot of it was also on, you know, stuff around that. But then also like, oh, where did you get that plant in the back of the video that you just made? And she was putting up, I want to say, maybe one to two videos a day right. On TikTok. And she went from about 1500 followers to 10,000 in about four and a half weeks. So like a huge Gain. Right. Like that's an enormous change in your account. Right. Over a very short period of time. So I think that consistency and frequency is really important. And now she's sort of figured out what works, what doesn't work, and she's honing it a little bit more based on what she's seeing with her audience.

[A]

There's this girl I follow, and it's completely random. It's. It's a story about her taking care of her pool. And okay, it starts out disgusting, like there's algae. The pool is like black.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And it's just the adventure of her cleaning up her pool. And for some reason, whenever it comes up on Tick Tock, like, you want to see the end result.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

And she's got a ton of followers. Yeah, yeah. It's crazy.

[B]

So. Yeah, yeah. So I think consistency, frequency, I don't think you have to worry about anything else at this point. I don't think you need a microphone. I don't think. I think you just need to start creating the content. I do think if you're doing Instagram, you might want to focus a little more on the editing side, but in general, I think, once again, it's a frequency consistency game as well. Now go on.

[A]

No, I was just going to say make sure whatever you do, like the first three seconds, like the first sentence that you say should be interesting. Outside of that. Yeah. Create content every day.

[B]

Yeah. Don't start with your first sentence. Hey, I'm Toni from profitable audience. You know, hey, I'm Steve from. My wife quit her job. No one cares. Just start. Get them in with a hook on the first sentence. The next thing I want to talk about is the platform formerly known as Twitter, now known as X. Because you did a big experiment with X. I did what two years ago?

[A]

It was Twitter before X, back when you did it. Yeah, I did the experiment for a full year, actually. You guys, you know, I do things in years and Twitter at one point became, I think, my third largest contributor to email subs.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I kind of cheated. I. I hired someone to, to post for me probably like six times a day. The. To six times a day.

[B]

So a lot of content going out.

[A]

A lot of content going out. He just basically took my blog posts and, you know, wrote little jingles is what I used to call them. Right.

[B]

Jingles.

[A]

Jingles. And occasionally put like a, a link for an email form or something like that to my lead magnet.

[B]

You grew your, you grew your subscribers pretty significantly over that time.

[A]

Yes, I grew from like I don't remember. I think I started out with 4K and ended up at 40 something in a year.

[B]

Yeah. So once again, sort of the similar similarity is frequency, consistency. Now I'm curious because you weren't doing this yourself, but did you interact on Twitter at all with people or did he interact as you like? How did that work?

[A]

So he told me that if someone replies to me, I should reply back.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So I just had notifications on my phone and so whenever someone replied, I, I wouldn't even reply with like a complete answer. Sometimes I'd just be like, hey, thanks. Or you know, or I agree or you know, you know, something like that. But yes, it is important, unfortunately.

[B]

Yeah. So I feel like X has kind of gone through a little awkward adolescence phase right now. And I, I feel like it's either people love it or hate it. Right. I. There are still people using it and seeing success and using it to get leads and get traction for their brand. But I don't think my personal opinion is that it's not as powerful as it once was to do those things.

[A]

I don't think that's true. It is as powerful as it once was. The difference now is you have to be on it.

[B]

Well, I've always, I mean, I never outsourced my Twitter.

[A]

I mean, you have to participate with the app on. In other people's threads and that's where my whole strategy fell to crap because yeah, I'm not on it. I'm not really an ex user. I was just posting stuff and responding and you can't really get by doing that anymore unless you're someone really famous with a huge following already.

[B]

Right. So if you don't have a huge following, I do think one, one strategy with X that you can use is to be active in like other people's. Com content. Right. So commenting, retweeting, I don't know what they call it now, but like, you know, sharing people's content and getting into debates. And we know that from like one of our students, Charles, has sort of used this strategy on Twitter. He has a. He talks kind of current events type stuff. So his, his content is very relevant to a lot of what's happening on Twitter because to me, X Twitter, I'll never call it X. I'm always going to call. It's like I can't call convertkit Kit. I was sitting there with dinner with them still calling it ConvertKit and the one guy's like, I still call it ConvertKit. I was like, okay, I don't Feel bad.

[A]

I have a friend named Kit, that's why I can't do it.

[B]

But like, he, Charles has had a lot of success with involving himself in the conversation. Right. So I think once again, if you have time, you know, if you're one of these people that, you know, situation sits in bed and watches a Netflix show every night, be on Twitter too. Right. Be on your phone responding, engaging with people and you will see, you'll see some growth there and you, you'll probably see some results. But you gotta once again commit to it.

[A]

See, that's the problem. Right. So as these platforms move towards engagement, there's only so much time and you kind of have to focus on a platform.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And TikTok is not one of those engagement type of platforms for the most part. Like you post something good, you know.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Whereas Instagram, one of those engagement ones. Right. Not for real so much, but yeah, for posts. For posts. The more engagement you get, the better.

[B]

Yeah. So threads, which was really annoying me because what threads did was, you know, they came out as a competitor to basically Twitter and what they do, I don't know if you notice on Instagram is they post like the first sentence of a thread.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then they hit like, read more. But instead of like dropping down and having it on Instagram, you have to go over to threads and read the rest of it, which I find maddening. And for the last year I've not clicked over because I'm like, no, I'm not doing it. But then I was so interested in one of these articles, I clicked over, I had to like start an account on threads. I guess I already had an account because I already had a. I don't know, it was like, it connects to your stuff. So I opened it up. But that same week I had a conversation with our friend Deacon Hayes, who was taking his transcripts of his short form videos and putting them on threads and getting a as Like, I don't know what they call it on threads, but you know how on Twitter you can do the Twitter thread?

[A]

Yeah, it was ironically, it was called threads on.

[B]

Oh, is it called thread? Oh yeah. So I don't know if threads is called thread threads or whatever, but he's basically taking his short form transcript and putting it on threads and getting a lot of traction with the content. So I'd never heard of that strategy. I actually think it's pretty interesting. I wonder if it would work on Twitter too. But if you have that short form content, you can feed it into a transcriber and that would actually be a very fast thing that you could do or even have a VA do that for you to get that content to put on either X or Threads.

[A]

It's funny you mentioned that. That actually was the secret to growing on Twitter for a long time. The threads. Yeah.

[B]

But he's not creating any new content. He's just using his videos.

[A]

Yeah. It's funny. Deacon was trying to convince me to join Threads. Actually. Actually, I'm on threads. I just don't post there because he was. He was telling me it's like the wild, wild west, like what Twitter used to be and how easy it could be. And one of the reasons why I was, like, reluctant to post this episode or record this episode, Tony, is because a lot of times, like, I'm a little reluctant to do something.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, I only have so much time in the day, so for me, it's basically long form and short form. Breaking up and podcasting to be committed or on the hook of doing something every single day is hard for me.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Even if you batch record something, you still have to. You still have to post it manually. That's. That's the kicker here.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like most of these platforms, you. You can't use a scheduler. Well, you. You kind of can, but it's always better to post it yourself.

[B]

Yes. So I, And I know that's why you didn't want to record this episode, but I. I think we're talking as people who have been in this space for a very, very long time, and there's a lot of people listening who want to get into this space and don't know what. What to do first. Right.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And so I think all of these things are options to get getting started. And if you are already creating that short form video, I would test that out as a thread or whatever they call it on Threads. But anyway, I would try that because Deacon's actually, that's. He's where he said he's having the most success with, like, written content.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Is doing that on threads, not he's not doing it on X. And I didn't ask him if he wasn't doing it or if he wasn't having success. I think he said he wasn't doing it. And I, when I looked up, I.

[A]

Think he did tell me it. It wasn't working on X.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

From what I remember, and this is like a month ago or a couple months ago when I chatted with him. So.

[B]

But the overwhelming theme at fincon was that threads is the Wild, wild West. Like there's still a lot of opportunity there and a lot of like, ability to capture an audience, I think, because it's still newer, right. And there's a lot of people like us that are like, oh, I don't want to download one more thing on my phone. Right. Like, I don't want to, I don't want to have to engage in one more thing. But if you haven't engaged in anything yet, that might be something worth looking into because it sounds like there's still a lot of growth opportunity there.

[A]

So let's talk about this. So we've gone over every, a lot of things in these last four episodes. Like if you're just starting out, which one do you go with? Because there's just too much choice now. Right. So where do you start? Where would you start? Right now I know where I would start, but I'm curious what your answer is.

[B]

My answer always changes on this. I think this is such a personality based question. Like I know in my heart where you need to start is long form YouTube. Like to me that's not even a debatable topic. But if you're someone who needs some quick wins, like if you need to see results quicker or if you know that in your personality, if you don't see a little bit of traction, you will give up, you should start on TikTok and make short form because it's still fun, fairly easy to grow on TikTok and you will get some wins. But the best strategic, like if this was your money and I told you to invest your money somewhere, invest it in long form video.

[A]

What is your definition of success here? Is it getting more subscribers or is it money?

[B]

Well, I, I think it's getting the views which leads to subscribers, which leads to money. And I think the reality on YouTube, unless you are sort of this very rare overnight sensation, which is still possible, it is still possible, I think, to blow up on any channel overnight. But the reality is, and most people that we know and have talked to, and if you are starting with zero, you're looking at a year to 18 months on YouTube before you see results on long form.

[A]

I would agree with that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Whereas short form.

[B]

I haven't met someone.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, you could blow up. But what does blowing up mean, right, Money wise?

[B]

I mean, Jim made. Jim's making some money on TikTok. Did you?

[A]

Oh, is he really? No, I didn't know that.

[B]

Actually he's got 40,000 followers right now and he has like one or two videos that have made him close to two grand. Which isn't. Which isn't.

[A]

Oh, on the creator program.

[B]

Yes, on the creator program. And that to me, that is a very doable. Wow.

[A]

That means those videos have gotten about 20 million views then that's crazy.

[B]

They've gotten millions of views. Right? Okay. And so, but I feel like for that, like Jim's only been on TikTok for five or six months. So when we talk to people and people that are interested in creating content or interested in doing something online, like to say, hey, in five or six months, if you work really hard and do a lot of things right and you have the right type of content, you could be making a thousand to $2,000 a month. That's a lot of money, right? That's a lot of money. For like most regular businesses, you can't start and make that kind of money that quickly. So if, if you're, if you don't like the grind, like your personality is one that you're like, I'll do it for however long. At five years, you say five years and then you make a decision. Most people don't have that five year mentality. So if you know that like after a year you would quit, then I would say start with short form, learn how to make video, get better on camera, invest in better equipment, and then move over to long forms. Because I think Jim can move over to long form and see a lot of success. Right? Because now he understands the game. And so if that's where you are, then that's probably a better path. However, the smartest path is to start on long form. And here's why. And this, I'm giving away too many nuggets from the lesson today. Those videos that you create in the beginning that no one watches, they're not always going to stay at 50 views. Like, once you build up a subscriber base, once you build up some traction, people will go back and watch those videos will end up making you money at some point. A lot of, not all of them, but a lot of them will. And so every video that you make in the beginning that you feel like, oh, it only got 60 views, it only got 100 views, and you're feeling kind of down about that. That video has the potential to make you money long term. And our friend Andy from Marriage, Kids and Money talked about this video that I think in the first six months only got like 600 views. And he was really like kind of down because he thought it was a great video. Well, now that video has, has like 80,000 views and has made him several thousand dollars, you know, over time. But the first six months, he was like, this video stinks. Right? Because it didn't do anything. So that investment that you're making in the beginning, where you feel like, oh, this isn't working, you're just. You're just investing. You're investing in your channel, you're investing in your skills, you're investing in your ability to make content, and it will pay off further down the road.

[A]

So YouTube is what blogging once was.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

So one of the. One of the analogies I used to give with blogging was it's like a stock that can only go up with more content. Right. I mean, before all these Google updates, that was true. The more content you put out, the more traffic you're gonna get because you're building up this portfolio. YouTube is that way. Like, I have ex. I have a lot of videos. Exactly. With what you described, they started out like a dud couple hundred views. And I look back now, and when I started, some people just go through your entire portfolio. As you grow, Google will start distributing out the content to people who follow you. And a lot of those videos have tens of thousands of views now over, like, four years.

[B]

And you think about it, you made this video three years ago, and this video is still making you money today and probably making you more money today than it did three years ago. So it's. It's truly something that will make you money not forever and ever, but over a long period of time.

[A]

Actually, you know, it's funny. I was just going through this because I was debating whether to sign up for Mr. Beast's tool view Stats, and I was just kind of looking through the progressions of my videos. I think almost all of, like, almost 90% of them still get views today. Some. Some get only a trickle, but people are watching them, and it just all adds up over time. The more you have, the more people will go through your portfolio. It's. It's almost like an exponential factor in play.

[B]

Yes. And that's what I'm actually going to show that today in. In the office hours. The other thing to think about, and I think about this in terms of the old days of blogging, right? Where you talk about this video still getting a trickle of views. I can remember often in my blogging days where a brand or a news station or something would come across a piece of content that I had written two to three years previously, right. Like. And contact me based on that piece of content that wasn't getting a lot of traffic anymore. Right. But they found it either through like a search or a pin or, you know, just however. Right. They're browsing through my content, searching my site, and it led to some sort of brand deal, some sort of opportunity, some sort of, you know, trip, whatever it was. Those. Those old pieces of content still really mattered. And I think that is the same what you're saying. That's what happens on YouTube today. Those older pieces of content that you made in the beginning that were, like, causing you depression because they weren't getting any views, they weren't making you any money, are now doing the exact opposite. They're still getting views and they're still making you money.

[A]

Yeah, so. So my answer to that question is similar to yours. If you're having problems just picking up the camera and you need some quick wins and just to let yourself know that there are people watching out there, start with short form. It's a gateway drug to long form. And once you kind of get addicted to it and. And enjoy creating the content in itself, then the long form really isn't a problem. I think when I started was short form even. It was a thing, but it wasn't like a big thing.

[B]

When I first started YouTube, it was not like it is today at all. I mean, because TikTok had just become TikTok from musically.

[A]

Right. And this is 2020 during the pandemic. So I can't remember back that far, but I know I wasn't on TikTok during that time.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If even was called TikTok, you're right. It could have been called musical Ly back then.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So long form was all I had. And maybe that was a benefit to me because if I started in short form, one. One other thing that's a negative is you're used to getting all these views in short form, and then you move to long form, where it takes more time to create a video, and then you're not getting the same number of views and you're like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm not getting that dopamine hit from the short form. So, yeah, if you can start with long form, I would. I would start with long form. And it just really depends on your personality. And you're. You're right. Maybe I. I've come to know that may. Maybe I am a little unique. Like, I'm willing to do something for three years and not see any results. That's just the way I am. Like, it's like, okay, this is. Well, my wife and I watch a series on Netflix. She watches the first episode and goes, oh, I hated this first episode. I'm not going to watch the series. I will watch half the season before I make that determination.

[B]

I, I know a lot of people, like, both of you, like, I know people that are like, they don't like the first episode, they will not watch it. And I know people that are like. But there were a lot of like, remember the show Peaky Blinders?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Okay. So one of my friends recommended that to me. I feel like this was like during the my TV area era of COVID And I watched the first episode and I was like, nope, this is not for me. Like, this is definitely not a show that I want to watch. And then whatever friend recommended was like, you got to watch like the first three episodes to really get into it. I was like, I don't know if I can do. Like, to me that's a big time investment. Like, I'm gonna watch two more hours of something I don't like. But I did and it ended up getting really, really good and ended up being a really great show. So I agree, I agree that, that yeah, sometimes you've gotta suffer through the first bit to get to the good stuff.

[A]

Yeah. Just like YouTube, you know, it's. It's gonna suck in the beginning. I can already tell you it's gonna suck in the beginning. I've gone through it with, with every platform that I've ever done. It sucks in the beginning. Blogging was even worse, honestly.

[B]

Yeah. So I think the moral of the story with all content creation, if you've listened to, listened to all these podcasts in the series or in the threads, we should say in the threads of our content creation. The, the real key is, as you like to say, embracing the suck, getting it done, creating the content no matter what medium you're creating and being consistent with it.

[A]

Hope you enjoyed this episode. As you can probably tell, I've always been a little reluctant to pursue social media, but I think it's one of the best ways to build an audience going forward. For more information and resources, go to mywifequidjob.com Episode 565 Once again, tickets to the Seller Summit 2025 are now on sale over at sellers summit.com if you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton, then come to my event. Go to sellersummit.com and if you're interested in starting your own e commerce store, head on over to mywifequitherjob.com and sign up for my free 6 day mini course. Just type in your email and I'll send the course right away via email.