Brendan Kane, growth strategist, keynote speaker and author of One Million Followers: How I built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days, joins me on this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Brendan has been using social media for corporations and celebrities for 15 years. He took the methods he created for major clients and applied them to people starting from zero who want to bring value to the world.
• The content you generate solidifies your brand credibility and your position as a thought leader. It does not generate leads; it puts you in front of your client. Its real value is in brand-building over the long term.
• Andy suggests if you are unsure about creating content, start by sharing relevant content on LinkedIn that represents your point of view.
• Mindset is the starting point. Why are you creating content? Why are you building a following? What does your ROI look like? For Brendan, the goal ROI of getting a million followers in 30 days was to publish a book.
• Brendan’s efforts led to closing a literary agent, publishing the book, and speaking around the world. That opened up the opportunity for press and podcast interviews such as Accelerate, which may lead to more revenue.
• How does this help you to increase your sales, or to get your next speaking gig, etc.? If you hate social media, don’t use it. If you can’t enjoy all the work and dedication that goes into it, you will ultimately fail in social media.
• Brendan never sells. He communicates how he provides value. He tries to understand how the person on the other side of the table perceives their job, their goals, and their obstacles and he speaks to them in that language.
• Brendan tells of when he reached out to the head of media at Disney and offered value to her with specific projected numbers of savings and performance. He did business with her at Disney and later, at Xbox and Fox.
• Bad behavior on LinkedIn backfires. It is not a pitching platform. Use it to network and provide value that solves problems. Have a point of view to build your brand but, first and foremost, provide sharable, educational value.
• Run your social media as celebrities do. 1. Understand your ‘why.’ 2. Run a competitive analysis. 3. Test your content. Learn for yourself what principles work before or instead of outsourcing your media account.
• Engage on LinkedIn with likes, comments, and shares and drive engagement for your content by tagging people for comments. Better engagement makes your content rise on the platform. It has to be great content to engage.
• Platforms weight video heavily but it comes down to compelling content that resonates. If you’re an amazing writer, write. If you’re an amazing photographer, share your photos, if you’re great at podcasting, podcast.