Getting someone to pay for content or products online depends on:
—depth of relationship between creator & consumer
—relevance & expense of product
Usually, that requires multiple interactions to build trust & most likely....
1/8
...shifting consumers from shallow platforms to ones w/deeper loyalties (like dating—>cohabitating—>engaged—>married—>house—>kids)
Shallowest to deepest social networks:
TikTok
Pinterest
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
YouTube
Podcast
Newsletter
Paid (Patreon/Substack)
2/8
Depth varies by creator, user & network + there are multiple connection types (eg friend vs follow)
Depth is driven by
—interaction duration/frequency
—uniqueness & utility of content
—attachment to creations vs creator
—availability of substitutes
Brands use other criteria 3/8
If every Instagrammer died & was replaced by similar-looking ones tomorrow, few would stop scrolling. Brands know that.
Pinterest fully devalues individuals for posts/objects & pinboards/collections. Creators are a conscious afterthought. It assures loyalty to the platform.
4/8
A typical content creator funnel might:
a) grab people on TikTok or Twitter w/clips or threads
b) transition them to Instagram or YouTube
c) then podcast or newsletter
d) finally, convert 5-10% of (c) to paid
This will vary by content type (art, text, video, audio, etc.)
5/8
Product purchases are a bit different.
Products that lend themselves to visual presentation, targeted properly (fun, compelling demo videos), can convert on shallow platforms. Many successes have appeared on @SharkTankABC. Instagram or Facebook work best, maybe Pinterest.
6/8
Businesses can get leads from LinkedIn.
YouTube & podcast product sales are mostly expressions of trust & loyalty to creators, since the same ads appear on many shows & discount codes are a pain.
I also did a ~3-hour, 9-part series on media strategies on my Patreon (Patreon.com/McFuture), but knowing how social media conversions work, you can start w/the free podcast/newsletter at SteveFaktor.com.
When success outpaces mastery, it clouds the path to full potential.
I recently saw a comedian whose career just took off. S/he has every ingredient - talent, perspective, drive & intelligence - to be great. But isn't, yet.
There were lots of funny lines & good premises, but the delivery was all one-note & too dark.
Same way horror & superhero movies need comic relief, s/he needs to modulate the dark with some light, master tonal variety & infuse intimacy & vulnerability into the storytelling.
3/5
Redistribution demands a fundamental re-calibration of education & life skills that can help you fill days in ways that *feel* meaningful & can take up a day.
But it still requires MARKETS. They provide pricing & essential value signals—even for simulated meaning.
3/4
Hardly Rosa Parks, but I guess she's performing some sort of service for somebody. For the children? Everything is always for the children...until it isn't.
I really do resent always having to be suspicious of everyone's motives - public officials, media and other institutions. I'd much rather just trust their integrity, competence and expertise. But their history warrants scrutiny. So here we are.
I lived in NYC on 9/11. My mom worked at WTC & was rescued by a guy who pulled her into a subway station as the first tower was collapsing. She was missing for 10 hours. We feared the worst. Cell towers were down. She trekked through subway tunnels to Brooklyn.
🍡
The heaviest relief came when we finally reconnected. It never came for so many.
As the smouldering stench that permeated the city for months subsided, so did their hopes.
You'll hear plenty of platitudes today. But I try to take one lesson from that experience each year...
This year, that lesson is "freedom", but not in the way you think...
The same people who created the Taliban & Al Qaeda manipulated an emotional nation into a preposterous idea: imposing our definition of freedom on others - with war.