“5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Successful Service Based Business” With Jonathan Maxim
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I run a scrappy group of marketing experts, often called growth hackers — known for innovating edgy sales and marketing strategies. We’re 100% diverse, with New Zealanders, South Americans, African Americans, British, Israelis and of course, local Americans — with offices in Los Angeles, New Zealand and UK.
As a Managing Director, my main responsibility is client’s getting ROI from their marketing, followed closely by building a rich company culture of candor, innovation and contribution.
My career started at San Diego State University, where I first majored in graphic design, then went on to study marketing through their Masters in Business Program. From there, worked at a Fortune 500 company as a marketing strategist, then founded a fitness rewards app, Vea Fitness, which grew to 25K runners worldwide. After exiting that in August 2017, Kale and I came together to found K&J Growth Hackers, where we took these crafty and effective marketing strategies, that were developed on a slim budget but garnered crazy results, and began applying them to other businesses, eventually doing growth hacking for some of the largest companies around today, including the social media platform Tiktok, which gained over 100,000 installs using our proprietary Instagram DM strategy, and opened private messaging divisions in UK, USA and Brazil. Since, we’ve launched two in house eCommerce brands, Rugby Bricks and Friendly Paws.
Since launching February 2017, K&J grew from $5,000/mo in revenue to over $500,000/mo in August 2019.
It really all started when I quit my corporate job and took on creating a mobile app, what I consider the hardest endeavor of my life. But the low lows allowed me to unleash my greatest potential, and learn that no one of us is better than the next.
Among all the lessons, the greatest lesson was that in business, our ultimate goal is to serve and create value for others. Understanding and appreciating that allows us to enjoy our work more, produce better results and ultimately live an amazing life ourselves.
What was the “Aha Moment” that led you to think of the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?
Kale and I were competitors. We both pitched a client, and were fighting for the same contract. Without knowing this, we’d been introduced online, and setup a call for the following week. When we got on the call, we realized we were rivals, in a sense. But instead of getting defensive, we thought of how we could build something even bigger if we teamed up.
And K&J is born.
Since, we ran the business for 2 years without ever meeting in person because of the physical distance between Los Angeles and Dunedin, New Zealand. Since, we have served over 150 clients together, including the one we were competing for, which turned into a long-time K&J client.
Both of us being meditators and heavily focused on presence and mindfulness, we did our best to look past our perceived differences, and focused on how we could create exponential value by combining our expertise and networks.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
There are so many “funny” things that happen in business, most of which are scary or might feel backbreaking at the time.
The story that resonates most with me is the second client we took on. It all looked perfect on paper, but we had no sense of work division among the team members. We all thought the other person was working on (you name it) and ultimately accountability was lost and the campaign fell apart.
It’s laughable now, but at the time felt very scary. Our second go we had screwed up. Not a moment of promise, that’s for sure.
We headed the lessons the universe imparted on us as best we could, and started building extensive systems and job descriptions to make it 100% clear who worked on what, and when. Since, we’ve become a very process-driven business.
Thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main focus of our interview. Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven business” are more successful in many areas. When you started your company what was your vision, your purpose?
Our company purpose is woven throughout the organization. It’s not written in a “handbook” and we don’t force anything down anyone’s throat. Instead we try to live by example. Our company is anchored on truthfulness, accountability and wellness.
The things we’ve done to live a beautiful life as founders, while going through the immense stress of starting a business are what we try to inspire among our team members, clients and the community.
Our purpose is to improve our clients’ profitability in a substantial way. So they can determine the path that they want to take in life and business, but do so in a way that is determined by them, not their company’s revenue.
Beyond building marketing campaigns that generate great revenue and ROI, we lead retreats, events and create thought leadership content to inspire and educate.
Our events and retreats are for high-earning entrepreneurs, and we teach them the fundamentals of mindfulness and living a purpose-driven life. This includes yoga, meditation, journaling, sound bath, hypnosis, shadow work, fitness, and diet.
What do you do to articulate or demonstrate your company’s values to your employees and to your customers?
We offer countless resources, experiences, events and even coaching to those who are open to learning and improving.
Some of the resources include:
Beyond the tangibles, we ardently live out our values. Early on in any client relationship, we have a detailed onboarding experience that sets the expectations and accountabilities on each side, covering things like communication patterns, what’s okay and what’s not okay, teach them technology adeptness, how to handle conflict, when to expect results and so on.
Once that foundation is set, we have clear and open communication, often times integrating into their companies very deeply, using their Slack and messaging platforms, and setting up systems to help both sides succeed. We even offer our paid resources free to clients who are eager to learn.
Do you have a “number one principle” that guides you through the ups and downs of running a business?
Mindfulness, without a doubt, is our guiding principle. This powerful concept opens up candor, trust, presence, managing tempers. It allows us to close feedback loops fast, resolve conflict, and more importantly, unlock amazing opportunities on and off the mat.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
One client asked us to run a 6 month campaign in 1 month. They offered handsome pay, but the deliverables were almost unimaginable. Normally we take 1 month to recruit 10 influencers, which requires interviewing over 100, honing the list to 40 keepers, 20 ambassadors, and 10 final partners. In this case, we recruited 200 influencers in one month.
We strategized, researched and built for the first two weeks, then launched in week 3. After launching over 1,000 social media posts, we were only to about 2% of our goal by week 4.
We found out later, the client had already marketed to all these audiences and they were stale.
Among 5 agencies on the project, 3 refunded six figure payments (without prompt) and lost a lot of money. The fourth was forced to refund.
K&J somehow survived the gauntlet, and delivered 85% of the client’s goal on day 30 of the campaign. The remaining 15% of goal was delivered within 3 days of the due date.
Being the smallest agency on the project, if we had missed this, we would have folded as a company. And put 14 employees out of work, and their families would have been financially impacted.
So, how are things going today? How did your values lead to your eventual success?
Things are robust. Currently, client results are better than ever, which is the backbone of any successful marketing agency.
One eCommerce client reduced their cost per customer acquisition from $30 down to $4.66 for a $65 purchase, which increased their ROI dramatically.
Another eCommerce client gained $14,000 in sales for every $5,000 spent in month 1.
So we’re expanding our team to better accommodate more clients, and ramping our own marketing which has been fruitful.
The other factor for success has been that both founders ourselves, and have two other companies that we own and have grown from the K&J systems and growth tactics that are operating with 6 figure margins.
Most importantly, we’re making more and more client’s dreams come true, and pocketbooks full.
Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a founder or CEO should know in order to create a very successful service based business? Please share a story or an example for each.
Great question. Here’s our top 5:
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
It would be easy to say someone like Tim Ferriss or Ryan Holliday, who wrote the narratives we live by and do our best to improve upon.
But the truth is, negative experiences shaped our company more than positive motivators did. These are the moments where we’re forced to learn, persevere and get creative.
That moment when we had spent $50,000 on media, gotten almost no results and were challenged to refund out of our own pocket, was the moment where we were forced to dig deep.
I attribute our greatest successes to a creative team, more than any outside force.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I would teach people to meditate on a mass scale. Meditation takes many forms — prayer, formal meditation, even something like road biking.
The act of removing distractions and taking quiet time allows us to silence our active mind, listen and observe — and notice things exactly as they are, rather than how we feel they are.
It fosters empathy and compassion, but also empowers us to be direct, honest and non-reactionary. This is something I think could resolve international conflict, reduce crime and improve life quality in a dramatic way.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
My personal handle on Instagram is @itsjmaxim, my partners is @kalepanoho. You can also find us and connect on Linkedin. We publish most of our content and free resources there, as well as invite to events and retreats on our social channels.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
The 5 Things You Should Really Be Focusing on If You Want a Successful Business
Discover which basic business skills you need to stay focused on early in the game to earn your business success with ease.
January 1, 2020 6 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The following excerpt is from Debbie Allen’s book Success Is Easy. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | IndieBound
It shocks me to see how many entrepreneurs continue to get in their own way by focusing on the wrong things in business. There’s no reason to make success hard when it’s easy.
Don’t focus on what you don’t know at first you’ll just get frustrated and stuck. Focus instead on what you can do and keep going to gain momentum. This means focusing on the easy parts first, then coming back to the more difficult aspects of building your business. Hopefully, by then you’ll have built up enough momentum that it won’t break your productive focus.
The following are some of the basic business skills (especially soft skills) that drive you to success with ease. These basic skills are what truly set you up for success.
1. Focus on what works for easy success. Many entrepreneurs believe they’ll succeed, but they lack the basic business skills and common business sense to back up that belief. They waste a lot of time focusing on expensive details.
For instance, when I work with entrepreneurs in building or reinventing their businesses, I help them develop or re-create their branding. Occasionally, I get a client who gets stuck on such details as perfecting the font on the logo when he should be focusing on areas of the business that generate profits. People like this make it hard for themselves, instead of making it easy by trusting the process.
Obsessing over perfection or the wrong details isn’t cost-effective. You must learn how to prioritize. Know how much time to spend on each aspect of your business, and don’t waste time on less important tasks.
2. Avoid “Squirrel Syndrome.” It’s not uncommon for a business owner to spin their wheels and lose focus. When this happens, many people start looking for the next bright, shiny object to grab hold of. This is called Squirrel Syndrome.
The Squirrel Syndrome may cause abrupt dashes from one idea to another or one project to the next. When this happens, you become unfocused and may even become frantic about not getting things accomplished. The result is, you delay or never complete important projects to reach your goals.
You can avoid Squirrel Syndrome by learning to recognize when a squirrel shows up in your life. Refocus by taking the time to define the project or direction in which you need to go. Then stay on task and turn off all distractions. Remember, every time you stray off course, it takes that much longer to reach your goals.
3. Focus on activities that create results. Focus is one of those basic-but-critical, habits you need to master if you want to be successful. Improve your focus on the day-to-day basic business activities you do best, and from which you produce extraordinary results. If you don’t, you’ll create higher stress levels and may experience burnout. When you spend most of your time and energy doing the business tasks you’re brilliant at and allow others (like employees or subcontractors) to do the rest, you reap the biggest rewards.
For example, don’t try building a website unless you’re a webmaster, and don’t try learning technical skills if that isn’t the best use of your time. Outsource those things instead, and focus on running your business so it can grow and prosper.
4. Multitask mindfully. The key to multitasking is to do it strategically and mindfully. Mindful multitasking means that you check in with yourself and determine how you need to focus in each new situation.
Mindful multitasking allows you to stop reacting to distractions, such as the automatic reflex to answer the phone or read an incoming text. It allows you to focus on the actions that provide the best results and disregard everything else. After you set your intentions for the day, create a to-do list that you can tackle using mindful multitasking, allowing yourself to be present in each action you take for the day.
5. Focus on developing one big project at a time. Don’t try to start multiple projects at once—it fragments focus and time. Entrepreneurs are creative people, often with many good business ideas. And it’s hard turning off the desire to act on multiple ideas at one time. But if you split your attention between more than one big project at a time, you’ll run into trouble completing anything at all. You’re going to need all your energy and focus to get your one new project off the ground.
Here are five ways to remain focused on whatever your task at hand may be:
1. Write out what you need to accomplish each day so you don’t forget important tasks. When a new idea comes to mind, don’t stop what you’re doing. Simply make a note of it and come back to it at a more convenient time.
2. Focus on your overall ideas and then implement an effective action plan. Keep your top three goals in mind and commit to achieving them each week. Write down the specific actions you need to take to achieve those goals.
3. Tackle creative work first. Mindless work will drain your energy, lower your focus, and waste your time. When you start with creative work at the beginning of the day, you can work on the most complex projects when your energy is highest before moving on to simpler tasks, such as answering emails or returning calls.
4. Understand what’s worthy of distraction. Don’t allow last-minute, nonemergency issues to kill your focus. Stay on task and stick to your commitments. Prioritize other tasks and put together a timeline so you’re not needlessly distracted.
5. Unplug from email, social media, and phone calls. Take a break from all outside distractions and focus on the task at hand. You’ll get a lot more done when you’re not constantly interrupting yourself.
10 Important 2020 Social Media Trends You Need to Know
Want to succeed on social media in 2020?
Then you need to know what trends will matter most this year.
While the technology we have access to has never been greater, the competition has also never been higher
Plus, there is no shortage of platforms where you could be investing your time.
But in the end, it all comes back to your audience.
Are you getting in front of them where they’re spending their time?
Are you giving them what they want or need, at the right time?
What matters to them?
These are the questions we all need answers to – and these answers seemingly change every year.
So I asked some really smart people for their thoughts on social media marketing in 2020.
Here are 10 social media trends that will matter most to marketers, brands, and businesses in 2020, according to 34 experts.
Want all the social media trends now? Download our ebook: The Biggest Social Media Trends of 2020, According to 34 Experts
Trend #1: Connection + Community + Experience
In 2020, the big trend will actually be a return to the basics.
Lisa Buyer, CEO, and Social PR Consultant, The Buyer Group, said that it is no longer enough to provide a service your customer needs. Self-serving social messages won’t cut it in 2020, either.
“The new mindset is this: The relationship we build with our customers is more important than the products and services we sell them,” Buyer said.
Part of the “back-to-basics” approach to social media means you should step back and think about two things, according to Michael Williams, Senior Social Media Manager, Jellyfish:
“When it comes to creating content, brands need to counteract the social media noise, think ‘less is more,’ and create messaging that actually resonates with their key audience(s),” Williams said.
That all starts with the connection.
“People are looking for connections on a personal level with businesses and brands that feel like part of their community,” said Mary Davies, President, Beanstalk Internet Marketing. “Businesses will need to put more effort than ever into being more of a helpful, understanding ‘friend’ in a community than simply a service/product provider.”
Elena Salazar, Digital Marketing Manager, VMware, said smart brands should aim to make their social media social. It may seem obvious, but there are still a lot of brands that don’t respond to comments on their posts, she said.
“It is important to listen to your audience and provide value to them as opposed to solely using your social media channels to promote your products/services,” Salazar said. “With more and more competition on social media, truly connecting with people will help humanize your brand and gain the trust of your audience (which will help your sales!).”
Part of that means spending more time building engaging content and being more engaged, said Amanda Webb, Digital Marketing Strategy Specialist, Spiderworking.
“This is one area where SMBs can still win,” according to Webb. “Social networks will also recognize engaging pages and give them a lift in reach. This engagement will help when you create ads, too.”
Erin Jones, Founder, RepBright, expects to see an increase in the value of authentic engagement in 2020. After all, social media was never meant to be a platform for push marketing, and users have shown that they value engagement and interactions with brands.
“People want to feel like they know who they’re spending money with, as a result, brands will need to step up and provide an environment for their customers to do so quickly and easily,” Jones said. “Making them feel like they’re part of a group that they want to be in will ensure brand loyalty and great social media engagement.”
That means community will also be key.
That’s why brands should create their own groups on Facebook (and specialized LinkedIn groups), rather than just having a company page to get likes or follows, said Krystian Szastok, SEM Consultant, KrystianSzastok.co.uk, tells.
You have the power to build a strong community around your brand and create movements that have an impact beyond increasing sales, said Lenka Koppova, Freelance Social Media Strategist & Founder, Cambridge Social Media.
“The reason why I call it community, is the ability of brands online not only to educate and entertain their audiences but also to engage and facilitate meaningful interactions among their followers, users, and fans,” Koppova said.
Davies believes that, in 2020, we will see the group and like-minded community spaces dominating more and more, which means a much heavier workload for marketers and brands.
“Groups and communities require a lot of time to manage, as they really are all about the personal communication, not just posting and waiting for the comments to roll in or paying for an ad and waiting for a click,” Davies said. “Leaning on influencers and experts will continue to be a major factor in social media, especially in these community-minded groups.”
And don’t forget to focus on creating experience, said Brie Anderson, Program Director of Digital Marketing, WSU Tech.
“Brands should focus on their groups, direct messages, and comments as the conversation is key to community and experience,” Anderson said. “Giveaways and automated shoutouts don’t cut it anymore, brands are going to have to have a vested interest in their customer base and engage with them online.”
Companies that adhere to the principle of “people not just pixels” will reap rewards in 2020, said Mel Carson, Founder, CEO & Principal Strategist, Delightful Communications.
Trend #2: Authentic Influencers
Influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere; in fact, it’s maturing, said Erin Fredregill, Founder & CEO, Robe + Signet.
“The key is in creating a crystal clear influencer strategy that thoughtfully integrates with your overall marketing strategy, establishing a thorough influencer vetting process and providing a brief that clearly outlines your brand’s goals and content guidelines while still allowing micro-influencers to direct the narrative in a way that feels authentic to their audience,” Fredregill said.
Kendall Bird, Social Media Manager, DKY, believes influencers who are authentic will be more powerful than “power influencers” (e.g., Kim Kardashian), as these authentic influencers will share content they care about and actually use on a regular basis.
“Social media users know what a forced relationship with a brand looks like, and they’re tired of seeing these interactions,” Bird said. “I encourage brands and companies to look for influencers who will authentically use their product or service and share it with their audiences.”
For smaller organizations or those in the B2B industry that may be struggling to see how influencer marketing can be implemented to reach their goals, there are a few places to start, said Anastasia Warren, Senior Social Media Manager, KoMarketing Associates.
“Look into industry event speakers or ambassadors to see who your target audience is paying attention to on social media and on the floor at industry events,” Warren said. “Additionally, look internally at how employees can step into thought leadership roles and become the voice of an organization through engagement and amplification of messaging.”
In 2020, our concept of influencer tiers – major influencers with millions of followers all the way to micro-influencers in the 1,000s – will expand even further because it’s becoming easier for everyone to be an influencer, as Kevan Lee, VP of Marketing, Buffer, points out.
He said businesses can take advantage of this by doubling down on employee advocacy (more on this in Trend #5) and user-generated content (see Trend #10).
Trend #3: Diversify with TikTok, Reddit & More
Emma Franks, Sr. Paid Social Account Manager, Hanapin Marketing, expects diversification to be a primary trend in social media, especially on the advertising side. Diversification is also beneficial for risk mitigation by reducing dependency on Facebook and/or LinkedIn.
“Facebook is no longer the one-stop-shop it used to be. Younger demographics are favoring the sister platform of Instagram, as well as TikTok and Snapchat,” Franks said. “Every ‘early-mover’ advertiser who embraces smaller networks now (e.g., Twitter, Quora, Reddit, Snapchat) will enjoy an environment of relatively low cost due to lower levels of competition.”
Speaking of TikTok – Brandon Doyle, CEO & Founder, Wallaroo Media, said getting onto that platform now is key.
“Organic reach on TikTok is like nothing we’ve ever seen. It’s better than even the early days of Facebook,” Doyle said. “Create content that will resonate with your target audience, but be willing to test and iterate over time to see what works best. We’ve seen incredible results for our clients. The ad platform is early-stage but the ROI there is great, too.”
Debbie Miller, President, Social Hospitality, expects more marketers to start exploring ways to take advantage of TikTok’s advertising platform to reach engaged Gen Z consumers.
“It could also be worthwhile to locate the platform’s top users to endorse your brand if they’re a fit,” Miller said. “This younger demographic is highly engaged and trusting of the opinions of their peers.”
Another platform companies need to put on the radar in 2020: Reddit, according to Brent Csutoras, Adviser, Search Engine Journal.
Many companies have found marketing on Reddit difficult and intimidating. But consumers’ use of Reddit is growing rapidly and view brands on Reddit as more authoritative (likely due to the difficulty and commitment required to be successful on Reddit), he said.
“It has never been a better time for brands to establish themselves on a platform that is largely responsible for creating much of the internet culture we have come to enjoy today,” Csutoras said. “With over 430 million monthly active users and about 32% of all Americans on Reddit each month, brands need to take a serious look at making Reddit a part of their 2020 plans.”
Trend #4: Reimagine Social Analytics
The era of reporting on vanity metrics seems to be nearing its end, especially on Facebook-owned platforms.
Anna Bredava, Marketing Manager, Awario, noted that this should make social analytics tools even more useful to marketers, as we analyze and report on our social media successes and failures.
Sam Ruchlewicz, VP of Digital Strategy & Data Analytics, Warschawski, agreed. He said as the amount of money being spent on social media (ads, influencer programs, organic programs, etc.) increases, so will the scrutiny of those investments by both marketing leaders and the C-suite.
“Smart marketers will continue investing in measurement and analytics programs that go beyond the standard vanity metrics and toward meaningful metrics that more accurately align with larger organizational/business goals,” Ruchlewicz said. “On the analytics side, it has never been more important for marketers to create their own source of truth and do their own math in terms of quantifying outcomes, especially when it comes to measuring incrementality. As machine learning continues to evolve, the brands with the best data will rise to the top – so make sure you have the infrastructure in place to do that.”
So that leaves us with an important question to answer: how will analytics measure reach in a like-less world and correlate activities of potential customer to marketer objectives?
“Deeper, inferential metrics will be needed to describe how social media influence consumer behavior and local commerce,” Pierre DeBois, Founder and CEO, Zimana Analytics. “Social media platforms must refresh their analytic dashboards to provide more transparency behind the measurements.”
Trend #5: Use Employee Advocacy to Your Advantage
Your employees are more important to the success of your company than you think, said Ted Rubin, CMO, Photofy.
“Brands that are winning this new journey are providing large quantities of fresh and relevant content for shoppers to use when they actually need it,” Rubin said. “Empower your employees and they will power your brand.”
Employee generated content helps build brand trust and reinforce relationships, as Kendall Bird points out.
“I encourage all companies to think about employee advocacy, even if it is starting on a smaller scale with employees sharing blog content to their social media networks,” she said.
Trend #6: Get Creative: Stop Being Boring!
Boring brands are everywhere, with their boring social media content.
In B2B tech, for instance, Mel Carson is always looking for more creative ways to stand out in a sea of blah, blah, blah. For instance, showcasing what it all means with dynamic examples, which may be:
Who wants to go to a brand page and just see a bunch of ‘buy my stuff!’ posts or boring posts that don’t apply to their life or solve their problems?
Nobody, that’s who, said Chris Sciulli, Digital Marketing Lead, The International Society of Automation / Owner & Author, SmokehouseSEO.com.
So, in 2020, start being interesting and stop using your social media as a place where you stand on a box and shout ads at people.
“Nobody cares about your ads unless you have shown your worth by providing quality consumable content,” Sciulli said. “Nobody cares that you just got a new drinking fountain in the break room. Put yourself in the place of their visitors and think about what they would want to see and interact with.”
Trend #7: Stories 2.0
Smart brands/businesses would do well to ensure they have a solid Stories strategy for 2020 with daily images, micro-videos, and content that audiences value, said Mari Smith, Social Media Thought Leader & CEO, Mari Smith International, Inc.
“Follow those accounts leading the way,” Smith said. “Get creative. Be sure to always tie to the bottom line and add your CTAs.”
Sarah Clarke, Media Strategist & Founder, Dufferin Media, believes the consumption of ephemeral content (social media content that is only available for a limited amount of time and then disappears) will continue increasing in 2020.
“Stories are a perfect way to get the attention, for a few valuable seconds, of an audience that loves authentic creative content,” Clarke said. “Stories are a great way to add a touch of humanity to your social media using emojis, videos, and stickers.”
Smart brands and businesses will make this a greater focus in their 2020 marketing strategy if they want to have a higher level of success reaching their audiences, and increasing engagement, Clarke said.
Trend #8: Use Social Media as a Discovery Engine
Are you using social media to drive direct traffic and branded search? If not, you should be in 2020, said Mark Traphagen, VP of Content Strategy, Aimclear
“Ahead-of-the-game brands will add paid and organic social posts using arresting creative, emblazoned with a brand name along with ‘money’ terms and phrases prominently displayed,” Traphagen said. “The objective is driving top-of-funnel seekers to brand-specific search – low cost on the social end; incredible potential value on the search traffic end.”
But that’s just one way to use social media as a discovery engine. You can also use social media to point to private messaging and text message clubs to stay in touch, said Virginia Nussey, Director of Marketing, Mobile Monkey.
She expects more brands to develop high-value, high-transparency, highly personalized VIP access programs.
“Check out Gary Vaynerchuk for a first look at how this is working,” Nussey said. “He uses the opening of his YouTube videos to share an opt-in text message phone number. The text message club starts with an automated welcome message. After that, Vaynerchuk personally sends motivation and lifestyle messages to the community with a text message blast tool. The strategy is part automation, part personalization, and a 100% scalable brand connection.”
Trend #9: YouTube & Video
Video may not be a hot new trend, but it remains an important trend in social media.
As Joe Youngblood, Founder, Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, put it: 2020 is the year that video content on social media is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have.
“Data has suggested for some time that consumers who view online videos are more likely than their counterparts to make a purchase,” Youngblood said. “Consumers now appear to expect video content from a brand they are going to do business with. If you haven’t started experimenting with video, now is the time to get going or you’ll risk falling behind the competition.”
Oh, and don’t forget: YouTube is a social media platform. And it’s bigger than Facebook.
“In 2020, the biggest trend that smart brands and businesses should focus on for greater success is the emergence of YouTube as the leading social media platform,” said Greg Jarboe, President & Co-founder, SEO-PR.
Why YouTube in 2020?
In the full ebook (download to see it all), Jarboe lays out all the latest juicy data and stats, which include this important fact: YouTube is the #2 site on the web (behind only Google), while Facebook ranks fourth, according to Alexa.
Trend #10: Leverage UGC
The content your audience creates is invaluable to your brand, according to Kristi Kellogg, CEO, and Founder, Dazzling Digital.
“Your customers (and potential customers) find content posted by their peers far more influential, trustworthy, and compelling than the content a brand creates itself,” Kellogg said.
She said every brand can take three steps in 2020 to get more user-generated content (UGC) and earn more social proof:
This only scratches the surface of what you’ll find in our new ebook, The Biggest Social Media Trends of 2020, According to 34 Experts. Ready for more?
Click here to download The Biggest Social Media Trends of 2020, According to 34 Experts
You’ll get more uncensored and unfiltered insights and tips straight from these marketing experts on how to succeed on social media in 2020:
Past Editions of Social Media Trends:
Image Credits
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita
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