#AskGaryVee Episode 82: Buying Followers, Dealing with Rejection & Millennials

On this episode, I talk about music, important observations, and will ads become too expensive on social media for small businesses. You ask questions and I answer them. This is the Ask GaryVee show. What's up everybody? This is Gary V. Nerdchuck and this is episode 82 of the Ask Garyve show. All right, back in the saddle 81 after Steve, you can come in. Jeez, Steve's like, get Why'd you get all weird? Oh, I didn't want to come. You've been on the show before. Let's get in here. All right. I mean, uh, you've been on the show before. Uh, back in the main saddle 81 yesterday in my office. uh was fun. People got to see some different swag in the background asking about the Rangers fandom. Hardcore Rangers fan from '92 to '94, but then they won the cup. And once my teams win, I'm out. So, when the Jets win the Super Bowl this year, two things will happen. I will finally shave my beard. And two, uh I will no longer be a Jets fan. Let's get in to the show.

Mark asks, "Will social media marketing become too expensive for a new startup to compete with larger companies for ad spots? " Mark, the answer is absolutely. I mean, that's the whole point. That's the whole point of everything I talk about, which is jump into new places when the grass is greener, ahead of the market to create the arbitrage when it's underpriced compared to the market. Allah email marketing for Wine Library in '96 and 97. Nobody else was doing it. I was asking for it. My conversions were better. More people came. The conversion rates went down. It became more expensive and harder to get people into the email funnel. That became the expense. Google AdWords, own the word wine for 5, 10 cents. A hell of a lot better than owning it for two bucks, right? Of course, it will get more expensive. We're seeing it on Facebook now. Facebook ads to get into the feed are more expensive than they were 12, 18, 24 months ago. Even when I started this show and told you to do dark posts, it's gotten more expensive since then. So the answer and the question and the debate and the opportunity all lie in the same place which is what are you doing about Instagram and Snapchat and Mircat and Periscope and all these new things. Are you moving there when the audience is not as big? The returns are not as big in the short term. My overall plan is to go to those places, hold my breath for three or four or five or six or seven months when it's not as valuable, but be there when it does become more valuable and then ride that wave for 12 to 24 months before those platforms become and add their ad product. Instagram's ad product is still not mature yet. So the organic reach for the people that jumped on 3, four, five years ago, is it five years already for Instagram? Feels like it is. 2009 for Instagram feels right. Or 2010, trying to remember. Anyway, uh you know, for if you've been hard look, you know, [ __ ] Jerry, right? And like other people of that nature, they won. They moved quickly. They've got the biggest audience. They can command enormous dollars. So, I think the answer is yes, depending on your budgets. Um it becomes more price prohibitive. What a small startup or small business has is time versus a big brand's money, right? So, are you willing to work 700 p. m. to 3 in the morning to get the disproportionate arbitrage of new platforms to overindex before money becomes the variable? I hate when small businesses are like, "Oh, that's it. We don't have enough money to compete with the big guys. " What you have is speed and time. What I mean by that is they have time, too. But people that work in corporate America don't want to stay up to 4:00 in the morning that often. And even if they do, they want to move within the system of corporate America. and they cannot do the same things you can do. It's not that same entrepreneurial nimble system by the time they even understand what Snapchat, Instagram, Periscope, Mircat are. It takes two years for it to get approved and in that time you're executing. And so the answer is yes, but that's not a bad thing. It only speaks more to my overall philosophy of jumping into these new platforms, extracting the value before the ad product becomes mature and then using the ad product Facebook dark posts while everybody else is waiting. Now in 2016, 17, 18, when Facebook dark posts, unpublished posts, the ad product become the mainstream, that's when it becomes prohibitive for you. But you're on to the next one.

Destin asks, "The business I'm in brings a lot of rejection from family and peers. What are some ways you build confidence when rejected? " Destin, which is not Dustin and is not destiny. Destin without a Y or Destiny without a Y. Uh you know it's funny when the question was asked by India one thing first and foremost you want to make sure the way to build confidence is to be confident with yourself. I want to make sure first and foremost that you're not selling something skezy right like if everybody doesn't have confidence around you maybe you're selling something that is not the right thing. So first and foremost are you selling the right thing or are you in Ponzi scheme world you know are you in $300 ebook world? Are you in full of [ __ ] world? If you're not world, take it from somebody who hasn't been in full of [ __ ] world his whole career, but has done things that people didn't believe in. E-commerce being number one, wine library TV being number two, and then really a social media agency number three. Believe it or not, in 09 people still debated that this was a stupid idea. Uh I think that um you know, this is a tough one for me to answer because the truth is I don't give a crap what anybody else says. As a matter of fact, I'm wired a little bit backwards. I prefer that everybody thinks I'm wrong. I feed off of that negativity and I turn it into positivity, right? Like I literally actually prefer It's why I like bad sports teams. It's what it's interesting. We got to actually this worked out perfectly. The reason I really would not want to root for the Yankees anymore, I loved being a Yankees fan in the 80s because they stunk. The Mets were the team of the 80s when I was a kid. I loved the climb. Then they became the establishment and I pushed against it. It's my overall thing, right? I'm a very basic character. Like I like coming from the slums. I like being underestimated. And the second I become the establishment aka the wine world, it becomes less interesting. Advertising is becoming less interesting because I'm starting to be proven to be right and it's just not as fun. Like I want the push back. So you and I are wired differently. if you're asking this question. My question is like how do I stay underdog for longer, you know, and so I feed off of the negativity. I feed off of like you're not right, you're not right, I don't agree, I don't agree. That's not the way it's always been done. So I might not be the right person to answer this because it's always been in me. In me is the underdog. scrapping up. In me is the I'm going to prove you wrong, sucker.

sucker. William asks, "I'm growing a millennial-owned branding agency here in New Jersey. What are key factors we should be looking for when hiring other millennials as we quickly scale? " Well, great pictures. A good time to stop, especially for everybody listening. Uh, so stop your treadmill, pull over on the side of the road. I need more Instagram picture questions. Tag Ask Gary B or Ask GaryVee show on your Instagram just like this question. So, obviously, if you're listening, go and watch the show to so I can show you what I mean. But obviously, if you're watching, you know exactly what I mean. I'm going to say one more time. You, the audience, you, the Vayner Nation, Oh, go. I need a wristband, Steve. Uh, you, the Vayner Nation, uh, are the oxygen that allows this show to happen. The more you guys check out or take it for granted or get into a rut because I wasn't on for two weeks, the more likely I will stop at episode 94. So, like I really need your help here to continue the momentum. So, if you like this show at all and if you're shy or not shy either way, I basically need an Instagram photo with a question. Uh here's a link to how you asked the question and uh let's move on. Will uh I think building a millennial agency. I always talk about that fat dude that built Backstreet Boys and Insync, right? He wasn't a 13-year-old girl. He just knew how to market to 13-y old girls. I, especially with the gray hairs, even some in the beard, which is weird. Uh, I am not a millennial. I know how to market to millennials better than all of my millennials combined. Okay. So, I would say first things first, what are you thinking, IP, Papa? First things first I would say is you don't have to and this is a huge mistake that most people make. You don't necessarily hire millennials to market to millennials. Just because you're 24 doesn't mean you know how to sell [ __ ] to a 24 year old. So first and foremost what you should be thinking about in hiring people is do people actually know how to market to the age group. The reason I mentioned that 50-year-old fat white dude is he understood 12-year-old girls in pop music better than anyone. Just like this 39year-old old dude understands the behavior of 13 to 23 year olds better than most people. So, first what you should be looking for is can they talk the game to the actual audience, not necessarily are they the demo of the actual audience.

Sean asks, "What's the single most important observation you've ever made in your life? " Sean, I think the biggest observation I ever made in my life was uh I needed to really trust my intuition over what I was being sold by anybody from my parents to my teachers to the television. Um, I just, you know, I always talk about betting on your strengths. You know, for me, and you know, maybe most people are different, like everyone's different, but for me, you're asking me, the Ask GaryVee show, that's why we called it that. For me, it was just somewhere in my early teens, uh, it was just obvious to me that I was right. And I know that's an obnoxious thing to say, but my happiness and success always followed me going down the path that seemed obvious to me, yet I was confused why everybody else wasn't it wasn't besides my mom, it wasn't so obvious, too. And so I uh that's what I would say. I would say that's uh that's my answer. Um biggest observation was I was right. Don't be scared of what that meant. Um have the confidence to follow through with that. Don't hedge. Uh don't uh respect other people's points of view. Have the humility that has been uh such an important balance to the gift of the intuition. Um but never waver.

waver. Clayton asks, "How do you retain and increase followers after taking over social media from a company who bought their initial fans? " Clayton is a great question. I think is a is a good one at this point in the majority of social networking. People realize buying fans on any platform has absolutely no value. You eventually get exposed for being the scumb bucket that you are. And so uh I would say that the um the uh listen there's two different ways to buy fans, right? Like buying ads on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram to then if people are interested to follow is a smart move. Uh just buying like you know going on eBay and buying 5,000 bots makes no sense. But the funny thing is the answer to your question is the same way you would if it was zero. Whether you have zero followers for a new wristband brand or you're a coffee company that they bought a thousand fans on eBay to try to make it seem like they were somebody, your move the next day is the exact same, which is let's start from the beginning and try to make it work. So what you're looking for is engaged fans, converting fans, people that will buy your book, your wine, will watch your show, will pass it on. Like, and what you need to do for them is you need to provide them value. And so providing value is the whole game. Whether that's listening on Twitter and engaging, whether that's putting out great content, whether that's sweep stakes, entertainment, information, whatever it is, you need to provide value. You need to put out good content, you need to listen. You need to talk great, you need to listen great. You need to talk And if your Mircat cooking show is good, you win. [ __ ] you lose. It's not really complicated. This stuff is quite basic. You need to put out good stuff. And the question is, what is good stuff? Good stuff is different to everybody, you know, like like Steve, name three good music things. Musicians, bands, name three. Give me three music things that are good. Go. SoundCloud is good. No, no, no. Acts. Yeah. Things that you listen to. What are three things that you want to listen to? you were willing to give your 20 minutes. That is very valuable. And I will sit down and listen to these six songs. Name three acts. Uh Flex Pavilion. Good. Uh Matt Young, good. And Lion Size. Good. I have no [ __ ] idea who any of those three people are. Stefan, go to him. And I know there's a light, but figure it out. Good. Stefan, your turn. Name three good music things. Kanye, Jay-Z, Kanye. There you go. Great. India. Um Oh my god. I don't care. Don't blank. You know music. Go. I do. Um, the White Stripes cults and probably like the Beach Boys. Good. Let's just figure out what just happened. Three lovely people that are into very different things. They would uh Steve, what do you think about Kanye? Um, I think he's kind of a jackass, but I thought Bound Too was a good song. Good. Stefan, your overall thoughts on the Beach Boys. I'll give you some when I listen to your music. There you go. India, what are your thoughts on Lionel Richie? One of my favorites. He's great. Good. Me and India agree. So, bottom line is it's quite simple, right? What is quality is 100% subjective. There were plenty of people in Hollywood 20 years ago that said this reality TV stuff will never work. It's not produced well. It's not good. It's not interesting. There's a million people that think the Kardashians suck. they're great. There's tens of thousands that think I'm just don't realize I'm great yet. I mean, the bottom line is it's all very, very simple. Quality content is subjective. What is not subjective is what happens next. Aka, you may sit and say, "I'm putting out great content. " But after four and a half years, if 13 people are subscribed and paying attention, you just might not be that good. You might not be good at the content. getting the content out there. It's a mix of the two. I'm a byproduct of the good enough to put out content that people like, but I'm also good enough of getting it out there and using the marketing to bring in awareness. And both matter. But that's really it, right? Like that's really it. Like whether you have a billion fake fans or zero fans, aren't you in the same place? Zero fans. Yes, you are. And thus it it's like me. If I decided to start doing wine content again, right? If I decided to do that, you know, I have to start kind of over like of course I have my base. people that used to watch the show and things of that nature, but if it's not good, if episode 101 of Wine Library TV is just a disaster show, there's a very unlikely chance that it will be successful. So, the quality of the content really, really matters. And then all the other growth hacking, marketing strategies, all the stuff we talk about, those are just support systems to give that stuff a better chance to succeed. Cool. Question of the day. What are your three favorite music acts of all time? You keep asking questions, I'll keep answering them.