Gary V: 319,216 Views in Two Weeks

 

In today’s email I’m continuing on with my series of lessons about Gary V. 

Today I am focusing on his comments about getting early onto a social platform. As you may know, he’s huge on getting a presence on new social platforms as they emerge. 

Sure, it means you might waste time and resources on platforms that fizzle and die. But it also means you might get early enough on a platform that becomes a monster, such as Instagram. 

Which brings me to my journey through Italy last year. 

Picture the scene…

I am on the bullet train from Rome to Florence. I am listening to one of Gary’s podcasts and he’s harping on about Tik Tok. I think to myself “man, what a waste of time – that’s for kids”. 

But then I realised something truly epiphanous..

I realised I have been LATE to every social platform. While Gary has been early… and on some of them, he dominates. 

So I figured, “let’s do something different”. And decided to create content for Tik Tok. Nothing over the top mind you – just guerrilla videos on my phone. 

No prep or planning. 

And you know what? 

One video got 319,216 views in days – days!

Since that that number has doubled yet again. 

Did we get any clients out of it? No, of course not. It’s Tik Tok. 

But it illustrates an important lesson…

When you’re early to a platform, organic reach is insane! The only way I could get that reach on LinkedIn or Facebook is if I amplified the content. 

Of course, I also had to deal with snarky comments from my young nieces and nephews who spend time on the platform lol. 

But it’s an interesting lesson to think about. 

We all need to make a judgement call to determine if it’s worth the effort to create content for emerging social platforms. 

Before you say “no”… let me lay some numbers onto you…

  • Facebook: 3.5 million fans
  • Instagram: 7.9 million followers
  • LinkedIn: 4 million followers
  • YouTube: 2.6 million subscribers

What are these stats?

They’re Gary V’s. 

Which means they’re bigger than mine. 

And they’re probably bigger than yours. 

So think about what I’ve said in this email 🙂