#AskGaryVee Episode 186: How to Grow Your Snapchat Following & Paying for Social Media Usernames

said we are now charging for your
username would you pay to keep it matters to west at Jimmy Kimmel think it
matters like what are they gonna charge like if if if I dot com came out it was
the next big thing I want to be on it worth banker or if if the snapshot even
came around and said look we were out and we all know the names and if you
want gary b ecause you’re one of the people that we’ve deemed 50,000 people
that has a reasonable to them that we’re gonna charge you a hundred bucks a year
for it you know I actually don’t think it matters meaning what I paid sure what
a lot of you pay it no would hold back the after winning maybe I don’t think
any would ever take the chance to not become a big platform because a lot of
people wouldn’t sign up for it because those people were upset that somebody
was charging for them the and so I think the PR standpoint and a branding and
positioning standpoint most absurd if they do if they have the best product in
the world you pay for it nobody knows what would I pay Rachel
actively probably yeah probably and I wouldn’t give a crap about it like you
know what are they going to charge you can’t charge enough you know what i mean
they’re not the internet they’re not gonna meaning like every one of them is
too smart and is too big of a business to sit there and say ok like why would
they charge Facebook makes a billion dollars a quarter you think they want to
take the vulnerability to make an extra fifty million dollars top-line revenue
and listen to me and I’m not dressing and you theres just sometimes not a good
understanding of Big Mac pro-business behaviors like let’s just bring it down
you think Facebook how much revenue think this will be able to make and
charging for the exact what’s the most you think somebody can charge a human
forget about pepsi for the need for a year and let’s get to it what a month for over 500 bucks big
fucking deal in the scheme of things I’m in the top 10% of 1% I don’t know of
humans with fan bases right like there’s no money in it so like the problem that
a lot of people do is they think about it too much of a micro level there’s no
money in its own level up thinking Jimmy and crew like cool yes but never happen
because it would break the border ability is so much greater than the top
line revenue when they’re making revenue in other areas theoretically yes no it doesn’t matter I
mean the question matters you may appreciate I think it’s a good
opportunity to lessen up for the masses of like you gotta understand the reason
we’re good salesman as i understand what person wants another reverse engineer it
right this money it’s a business that money is not more valuable than the
vulnerability that they put on their other monies to I’m spending more money
on a Facebook ad today on Facebook and charged me for the year for the name so
why would a credible and believe me getting emotional that they pulled the
rug from underneath me and left a platform right kind of thinking yeah
garry so has this credit copeland here

with beautiful st. John’s Newfoundland
and Labrador Canada behind me a question for marketing professional services
professional services firms if you’re trying to establish legal firm real
estate sales team a consulting practice better suited your brand and your new
company or a better suited focusing on the people with the skills they’re
providing value to your clients the firm or the person thanks for your thoughts the answer is it comes down to you as
the head of that organization to make that decision on what you’re better at
if you if you market the people you have an ability that the person has the
equity and they can leave right like this is not the NBA where they’re
locking these contracts they have nowhere to go you can go that person
that can go and started her own firm and you don’t get any economics that’s why people don’t
promote the people underneath them quite a bit I think the mistake because if you
show that you’re an organization that promotes people the next group of people
want to come in and most people are risk-averse enough like their risk
tolerance is so low they don’t want to start a business they just like to be a
top earner within your organization but I think you could both you know like I
promote brand in and when he was at one library and other people online library
like more and more people now they feel like we’ve got a grasp what we do are
going out and speaking on offense executives for Boehner media but I also
you also promote the companies themselves so the answer is both but I
think it’s about self-awareness an operator if you think you’re better at
working people than you are working a logo in an organization should spend
more time on that if you think you’re better at doing it for around a logo or
name that people cuz it’s awkward to you than you do that by trying and mixing
the two weeks since Josh asks his Twitter making a comeback with the
recent addition of Jess I mean I think

with their recent addition of GIFs?” – I mean, I think that’s
a narrow question. I think Twitter is
potentially making a comeback because they have a new
CEO which gives them new direction. And not that I’m mad at
Dick or Ev or the people that have run it in the past, I think it’s just anytime
you have a new CEO, if one deems something not working that it’s got the potential to work, right? I think the GIFs, I’m not letting that go, and many other things, extending the character limit, making
the feed act differently, these are all debates
and actions that we’ve seen from Twitter in the last 60 days that are promising. Because it shows maneuvering
with the product, which I think has been the vulnerability with the business. And so. I don’t think just with
it, definitely not, as a proxy to what’s going
on overall at Twitter, I think, potentially. – [Brit] Another video.
– Videos.

– Hey Gary Ginner, Chad J. L. D. here and I have a question for you. About Snapchat. Because of you, I have
been snapping my face off. And loving every second of it. DRock at John Lee Dumas. And I would love for you to share with us, how do we grow our Snapchat followers? You’ve answered this question before, I haven’t loved any of your answers. If you could go deep, break it down, we’re VaynerNation. How do we grow our Snapchat followers? – J.L.D. wants to grow his base. J.L.D., excited, I think
I’m actually going on your podcast today,
which you’ll probably air as the book comes out. That’s later in my day. J.L.D., listen, I’m
sorry that I’m not giving you a good answer. The answer is you have to
use every other channel. It’s using every other
channel at its hacking. You’re doing it right now,
you threw up your Snap code, because you’re hoping a bunch of people in the VaynerNation stop
it, take a picture of it, and add you as a friend. You’re doing exactly the right thing. Which is, you’ve got to use
other people’s platforms and other, you know, collaborating. Literally, emailing
everybody that you know or messaging them on Instagram, if they’ve big Instagrams,
assuming that means they have some sort of community on Snapchat. And saying, “Hey, how do
I take over your channel? How do I, give me a shoutout.” It’s literally endorsements
on other people’s Snapchat. Or, listen, man, make your podcast over the next six, seven, weeks, pounding Snapchat. Interview people about Snapchat, interview Snapchat executives. Make your world about Snapchat. I’ve won because I’ve branded, you’re looking for a tactic. You’re looking for a sales tactic. Right? A transaction. Oh, go do this, buy
this search term, right? Like, you’re looking for that. You’re looking for, maybe
you should buy the long tail, term on Google as a
Google AdWord that says, “Who should I follow on Snapchat?” And then maybe you’re the first result. That you paid for. It’s me, follow me, right? That will work, probably
cost a buck or two. Per follower, that might work. But I’m doing it in
marketing and branding. By being about it, ’bout it, right? By being about it, and
by talking about it, and by being out there,
people are picking up on that behavior, they’re
writing about me being in there. And yes, I sit at a
high level in marketing but there’s a lot of people… D.J. Khalid wasn’t, he was a DJ. He went all about it, now
people give him exposure. Right now, because
there’s no functionality within Snapchat to growth
hack or pay for ad spend or any other functionality
to build your user base, you have to win on
marketing, not on sales. J.L.D., there’s too many people in 2016 that have become “internet marketers” and it’s all about arbitrage. Facebook ads, Pinterest
ads, Google AdWords, affiliate marketing, email marketing, landing page optimization. It’s all about tactics, it’s not about marketing and religion. The reason I’ve done so well on Snapchat is, I’m a marketer, right? I built Wine Library
on marketing, not just transactional couponing
and Google AdWords. I’ve built myself in marketing. Coming. I’ve built myself in
marketing, by building my brand and that’s trickled down. It’s not just transactional. I sell a lot more books
than a lot of people because it’s not the tactics,
it’s the overall brand. It’s really the thesis of
jab-jab-jab-right hook. Those jabs are branding,
I’m bringing value. And so, there’s tactics,
like you just did, J.L.D., but there’s also branding. And you have a platform, you
have a successful podcast. Make your content about that. And then there’s a lot of
tactics like I mentioned earlier in this rant, as I wove some
tactics in there for you. But you’ve gotta level
up your thinking, bro, I’m not kidding. You know, you’re gonna razz,
I’m gonna razz right back. You gotta think marketing versus, you know, you’re more
than welcome to go out and do guest blog posts
on a ton of business sites about why you think Snapchat’s important. And now you show up in a
lot of distributed places. With a call to action
to, oh, P.S., by the way, follow me on Snapchat. So there’s a lot, you may not like the answers because you
may not want to do them. Or you might not like this answer because marketing’s a lot harder than a growth hack or an execution. It doesn’t take away from the
fact that it is the answer. The reason so many people are asking me how to built a base is
because it’s not easy. ‘Cuz it’s branding and marketing. Not sales and transactional. I’m excited right now,
because that was actually a very important answer
to a lot of questions that have going on for a long time. Too many people here are playing checkers when the game is really chess. Branding and marketing is different than transactional, affiliate, it’s math versus branding. It’s quant versus qual. Snapchat is in branding and qual world. And that’s just too hard for most of you.