You are NOT Gary Vee or “Insert Industry Guru here” .. and that’s OK.

October 19, 2021

I was having a meeting with one of my team members that help with our agency's marketing efforts this week. And we were talking about our social media strategy and plans. Reviewing what has been working and what hasn't. Planning our next moves.

But at one point I said something along the lines that we can't compare ourselves with Gary Vee. Or another popular social media mogul I respect and follow, Chris Do. We can be inspired by them, but we're not going to BE them right now. Or expect to be any time soon.

They are a different ‘thing' than we are today. They are way ahead of us; established with a lot of momentum with a large established team to help curate all that content. Could we grow into their influence stratosphere someday? Maybe! But we have to be realistic.

And we have to understand, where we are is where most people are.. and many would still love to be.

The Numbers

We can't expect to drop a post that would instantly get 100s or 1000s of engagements. That's true for the established influencers on the web. We aren't them.

But I have noticed (and we've only taken content seriously at the time I'm writing this for about 10 months) that over time we are seeing the same names liking and following us. Engaging with us. It's a slow build.. but it's building!

And for us, at this point, the numbers and engagement matter less; it's just important we're consistent with our marketing efforts and getting the results that are important to us. Though small and probably not obvious to the outside observer, it's actually having an amazing impact on our business. It's been a great door opener and networking tool.

What Matters – Quality & Results

Quality IS Important

You just have to follow Gary Vee for a while to know that volume trumps quality. For him.

But it really depends on how you define quality. In my opinion, Quality in terms of ‘it being pretty', I would agree. But we have to focus hard on the value of that content. And it has to speak to the small audience that we have attracted. We can't just post.. whatever. That is my point. 😉

Our Results.

Another point that I've made with my team is that we may go through periods where it doesn't seem like we are making much of an impact. But the fact is, WE ARE.

Do you know that new client we got last week? That intro call we're doing tomorrow… that's a result of our marketing efforts! We may not have those things every week, but enough.. for us.

The results of an individual post on the social web don't matter. It's the long game that we're measuring and benefiting from.

What matters (to me and my agency) is that we are attracting the business we need right now and taking care of our clients and customers; that we're retaining them. Period.

And this year has been a banner year for us in this department! Our business has tripled from a year ago. And our ‘presence' on social media – even with a small audience – had a very real, measurable impact.

All we do right now is content and social marketing. It's done well for our agency and is influencing our growth in a positive way.

As an aside: I also thought of a great analogy for our social media results. Back in the 1990s I was in the restaurant and hospitality business. I was a bartender for years.. and we would always try to predict the business and numbers we'd have each night.

There were days that were completely unpredictable. We would be dead.. and couldn't figure out why. Or we'd be slammed and.. couldn't figure out why.

Same with social media.. you can be providing the same level of quality and marketing efforts day in and day out.. post after post. Some will just do better than others.

(Matt's random thoughts)

Remembering the WHY

I made the decision for my agency earlier this year that we wouldn't have a ‘spend' in terms of advertising (this year). My goal in 2021 was to create and execute a content strategy.

That's come in the form of daily posts on multiple social platforms. Unique content, graphics, carousels.. video clips, and more.

“The Builders” podcast is an important part of our content strategy and focus.

This blog is an important part of that strategy.

But the ‘why' has NEVER been to build a HUGE following or get as many likes as possible.

Our WHY is simply to use our content as a networking tool – to engage with people, start conversations, and get ‘more' business. For us, more business has simply meant more clients and projects that are significant to us (our agency)! Not Gary Vee.. Chris Do.. or Elon Musk.

And that has happened in the form of referrals and gaining more contacts.

And it's happened ‘enough'. As I mentioned earlier our agency has grown a lot this year. And in fact, we're ahead of my goal and projections! So I'm not complaining at all.

Our recent focus is simply to continue doing what we're doing.. slowly tuning and improving what we're doing in terms of content. But also, simply taking care of our business and clients. Getting better at that side of things.

The rest.. I'm letting it happen organically this year. And it's been amazing!

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Know YOUR why.

Make sure you have the right WHY.

Make sure that you aren't comparing yourself to others that are at a different stage than you or have different goals or ideas about what success is. That has a completely different business model!

Choose a path, measure the results as you go.. and if it's working for you, that's all that matters!

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