These days a good business also has to be a media production business as well. A social media strategy should be essential to all businesses and with media rich channels like YouTube, you can become a celebrity in your niche.
A classic example of this is Melissa Maker from Clean My Space. Melissa is a cleaner. She cleans houses. However she has leveraged the power of YouTube to become a celebrity in the cleaning space.
So much so, that she is now making more money from speaking engagements and advertising than from actually cleaning. It’s never been easier to build an impressive presence in your niche.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Know you niche
For Melissa, it was home cleaning. What’s your niche? Identify what your niche is. What can you comment on and what can you provide plenty of helpful advice about? Generally it will be what you are currently paid to do.
2. Select a channel for your message
Melissa chose YouTube. This is ideal for such a visually relevant topic as demonstrating how to clean. If it’s visual then YouTube makes sense. You could also incorporate Pinterest or Instagram. If you are explaining details or interviewing experts then a Podcast might be the ideal medium.
Whatever channel you use, make sure it all leads back to your website. This is your home base for all your media content. So use these available social media channels but also capture email addresses and bring them back to your website for more content.
3. Create useful, valuable content
This is the step that ensures your content will be shared and re-shared. It has to be useful for the audience. The trick in all this is to not to chase sales; it is to position yourself as the expert in your field. By doing it this way, you will attract higher quality sales than you’ve had in the past. People will see you as the ideal provider of the service or product.
Some people worry about what they can create content about but if you are already being paid for a service then you do have valuable knowledge and expertise. The trick here is to break it down to bite-size pieces for your audience to consume regularly.
4. Deliver it regularly and consistently
People like people they can trust. Deliver your content at a regular time each day, week, fortnight, month – whatever suits you. Just stick to it and maintain it. Melissa Maker sends out a new YouTube video every Saturday at midday. People know to expect it and it is delivered. They trust her and know they can rely on her. This regularity of content helps build your subscribers. They know to expect your content and by doing it regularly the word will spread and your numbers will grow.
5. Spread the word
Winking at someone in the dark is the same as creating content that no one sees. You know what you are doing, but no one else does. Once you have created the content you need to share it. You need to Tweet it, post it on LinkedIn, share it on Facebook, email it. Collaborate with people who have the same audience to ensure more people see it.
People will respect the fact that you are staking a claim to a niche and putting your name to it.
If you follow this process you will build your brand, your credibility and eventually be seen as a star in your niche. The key here is being prolific. Stick to a strategy and keep generating content. It won’t happen overnight. This is a year long strategy at least. The more regularly you create content the quicker the result will be. It could take a year though. But don’t let that put you off – the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time to plant one is today. So start now.
Geoff Anderson is owner of Sonic Sight, a corporate video production company. He presents on using video in business and is the author the Amazon Bestseller “Shoot Me Now – Making videos to boost business”. To find out more about Geoff and to learn about the 5 Mistakes to avoid when making videos, visit www.sonicsight.com.au or visit www.geoffanderson.com.au
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