5 min read

💌: Discord, YouTube SEO, & Lil Nas X

💌: Discord, YouTube SEO, & Lil Nas X

What’s up! It’s hard to believe we’re now in August. July was a whirlwind for me with selling and buying a house, moving, and trying to get adjusted and settled. July was also ridiculously hot here in North Carolina, so I’ve been trying to perfect my iced coffee technique. Thanks to everyone who bought me coffee last month for providing the beans for my experiment(s).

an image of a pour over coffee setup in a kitchen

Alright, let’s get into it!

Social Media & The Creator Economy

  • Later just published an article highlighting 8 ways to authentically get Instagram followers in 2021. Spoiler alert, tip number one is to post consistently. If you’re having trouble with that, one tip I can offer is to take what an approach similar to Jerry Seinfeld. That is, post about “nothing” aka those mundane moments of your day you don’t think anyone else cares about, but everyone somehow relates to.
  • I don’t think we’ve written about Snapchat in this section yet. But guess what? It’s growing faster than it has in years. They’re up 23% year over year (users) and 116 percent (revenue). The latter number makes it a faster growing business than Twitter or Facebook. So, you know, Snap to it.
  • Most of that Snap growth is from advertising sales. Turns out Twitter did $1B just in ad revenue last quarter, while Google just posted that their advertising revenue was up 69% from last year, and YouTube was over $7B. It’s safe to say that ads aren’t going anywhere, especially since that’s mostly how big tech makes its money.
  • Instagram finally lifted the time limit for reels to 60 seconds. A little late, but great for users who’ve felt limited — especially because it hindered the ability to simply copy over a TikTok.
  • Twitter has been on a buying spree lately (see earning post for the reason) and this week acquired Brief, which is a news app. It remains to be seen as to what the plans are, but this seems like it could end up being part of the Twitter Blue premium version.
  • Pinterest is a platform we probably need to start writing more about. This week, they launched a new feature that makes pins shoppable for creators. This allows creators to use pinned items to generate affiliate revenue and partner for sponsored content.
  • And on that note, Pinterest can be a legit place to market your business. Here are 8 strategies to do just that.
  • Last up is something I don’t even need to add commentary to, as the title sums it up perfectly: If you really value creatives, then pay them that way.

SEO

Advertising

Psychology & Branding

  • This week in buyer psychology, let’s look at The Rule of Three. That is, if you make at least three positive claims, it gives you a bigger chance of maximizing how persuasive your message is. Somehow 3 ends up being the ideal number in many scenarios, it turns out humans just like the number three because it’s the smallest number at which we start to identify patterns. Once you hit four or more, we become skeptical.
  • Lil Nas X just might be one of the best marketers on the planet. Releasing a video which parodies his court case with Nike and also serves as a trailer for his next music video? Pretty damn good way to build some hype. He’s a master of turning backlash into positive fuel for his brand. As a bonus, he also launched the Bail X Fund, which is a crowdfunding effort that pays bail for people in need.
  • If you’re a B2B marketer (like me!), you’re probably always trying to strike a balance between marketing that reinforces your brand, and marketing that drives demand. If you’re part of a small team, the balance is even more delicate. LinkedIn recently published this guide to help with that balance for B2B marketers.

Reader questions

One of my readers and friends, KidEthnic (go check him out, he’s ridiculously talented!), replied to an earlier email and had a great idea to start a “reader questions” section of the newsletter. You ask me your marketing questions, and I’ll answer in the next newsletter for everyone to see. His question was about Substack. Specifically, is it a platform creators should use to build an audience?

The short answer is yes, you can confidently build an audience, and substantial income from building a paid newsletter audience there.

The more complicated answer: it depends. They got into some controversy recently for paying writers a guaranteed income. There’s also the issue of fees if you’re running a paid newsletter.

I almost used Substack for this newsletter, but decided to go with Ghost — which does many of the same things, and more.

And now, it’s your turn! Reply and ask me your marketing questions, and I’ll get to them in the next editions of the newsletter.

That’s it for another week! Y’all try to stay cool until next week.

-- Forge

If you’d like to support the newsletter, here are the top ways to do that:

  • Share this newsletter, either by forwarding to someone or sharing the website to your network. We’ll soon reach 100 members, and I have something cool planned for all of you in the first 100 😎
  • Buy me a coffee
  • Become a founding member of Forgematic — it helps the continued creation of the newsletter, and you’ll be getting some cool extras in the near future like access to the livestream!