How I Am BUILDING MY BRAND Organically in 2021 with YouTube, Blogs, Medium and More 🤑

I think we can all admit 2020 was an interesting year to say the least. Hopefully with the worst behind us, we can look forward to a successful and promising 2021.

I spent the latter end of 2020 studying up on my real estate knowledge and brushing off my marketing skills in hopes that I can help myself and in turn help you. Today, I want talk about not only what I plan to do in 2021 to build my brand, but also what I think you can do to build yours. I’ll also include some helpful resources that I’ve been tuned into. Pretty much everything I am about to go into can be used towards any business or brand. Let’s break this down into sections.

BRAND REFRESH

I personally like to take the beginning of the new year to strengthen or polish up my brand. This may mean: getting a new headshot, freshening up my social profiles, and/or recording a new introduction video to reintroduce myself to clients and potential clients. To be honest with you all, I’ve fallen a little behind as far as getting some of this stuff done before the new year this year. I was so focused on studying and building the business that I felt like I didn’t have time.

BUT what I have done is brainstormed behind the scenes on how I want to attack the year. That’s really where this article stems from. I’m still finalizing some of the specifics, but I am stoked to really get going!

My goal this year is to finalize a full circular strategy that feeds my brand and my pockets. Each platform building off the other.

YOUTUBE

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: YouTube has the potential be a life-changing platform for you brand and business. I’ve watched people grow and blossom on the platform, and this year I’m going to do the same so I can show you proof of that. I plan to continue to make videos that I feel passionate about as well as begin to create more content that brings educational value to my fans, clients, future clients and family.

I can’t always tell you prior what my personal projects will be (because I don’t even know), but I can tell you the types of videos I plan to start putting out immediately.

REACTIONS

The goal with reactions is to react to relatively popular content that is already being searched by a lot of people. If you make a relatively professional reaction, create a good thumbnail and use the right tags, you WILL get those people’s fans checking you out.

Here are some examples for both music and business:

Graham Stephan | Cole Reacts | Meet Kevin

PODCASTS

To put it simply, podcasts help everyone involved. YouTube is about watch time. So the more time people are on your channel the better. You want YouTube to like you and YouTube loves video podcasts.

Outside of that, if you bring on the right guests, they will promote the podcast for you which brings people to you for free. And lastly, you are building your relationship with your fans with this long form content. There’s no better way for people to get to know you than to sit with you through these hour long conversations with a variety of people. People watch you over someone else because they LIKE you. Podcasts help people like you.

You can also eventually make money off podcasts and if you put them on Apple Podcasts etc., hey you never know, you could blow up.

TEACHING WHAT I KNOW (DESIGN, VIDEO, MARKETING, REAL ESTATE, PERSONAL ISSUES)

After 5 years of running businesses and 7 years of studying marketing, I think it’s really time for me to start to give value to the one’s who need a different perspective. I think once you study marketing and business long enough, you realize you are truly never an EXPERT. But I know I have the knowledge to help people so this year that is my focus.

When you give, it always comes back one way or another. I’ve learned this over and over again. Be a giver. And that works the same with the YouTube Algorithm. People are searching YouTube University for help and education 24/7. I’m just going to give them my perspective in hopes that it helps. We will see!

JOURNEY OF LEARNING

Unless you are just some guru who never learns any more, you are going to be making mistakes and learning a long the way. People love to see growth, and I believe documenting the journey is important. Sometimes I don’t even put out things until that mini journey is over. Then, I make content around what it was like going and getting over certain hurdles.

For me, it’s important to share the struggles because it makes the WINS that much more powerful.

This was my biggest learning video of 2020.

COMMUNITY MENTOR

For the business folks reading, I believe being a community mentor is the biggest asset you can have in your artillery. That’s why I’m doing it! This can be connecting with business owners / people or highlighting your city in any capacity. Show people how you are out and about while also creating valuable content for people coming to the area or currently living in the area.

One example of this is a medium article I wrote about Columbia’s coffee shops. For a while, it was #1 on google when you searched for Columbia coffee shops.

Another example is this REAL ESTATE AGENT, John Pena, who is killing it on making videos on El Paso, Texas.

Why these videos and why youtube? Youtube has some of the BEST organic traffic. Not only is it owned by Google, but it also is one of the BIGGEST search engines in the world by itself. People in every walk of life and business are searching to learn anything and everything on YouTube. Having a consistent and steady YouTube channel, builds legitimacy for yourself and if you do it right, exudes authenticity. It’s How You build relationships before you meet someone. If you get monetized, you can even make money from Youtube. The possibilities are limitless.

Blog / Medium

If you’re reading this, you are probably on my blog. For me, YouTube and my blog will go together seamlessly. That doesn’t mean that EVERY Youtube video will have an accompanying blog post and vice versa, but it does mean that it gives ANOTHER opportunity to reach someone organically through SEO and Google search.

Follow me on Medium here. 😉

Ultimately, why this makes sense is I already have to script my YouTube videos SO why not just spend a little extra time to go more in depth and format a blog post. It’s pure LAZINESS if I don’t. Much like YouTube you can connect Google Adsense to your Blog and begin to make some “passive” income off of ads on your blog. All it takes is for ONE of these to take off to start to gain serious traction. Stay consistent and Don’t give up!

FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

I was watching a video by Sophie Lee on blogging when she said something that stood out to me. She mentioned that Instagram was SO much harder to grow on than blogging or YouTube. It really clicked to me that sometimes we (I) try so hard to BLOW on IG or Facebook when we maybe are allocating our energy to the wrong place. I think I’m going to do a whole video on this in the future.

Bottom line is for me I’m going to be posting on both IG/FB consistently so it’s there, but I’m not going to be spending a ton of time trying to grow specifically on this platforms. I want my blog and youtube to send people to my IG and FB organically.

On the other-hand, I will be using IG and FB for paid advertising opportunities once I have a budget to push people towards blog, youtube and email list. Doesn’t it make sense to push people to the places that actually make you money?? Of course you can make money on FB / IG, but organically, these other options are the way to go in my humble opinion.

PINTEREST

I am no Pinterest expert by any means, but I do think Pinterest can be super beneficial. I’d like to include my blog posts on Pinterest in hopes that it send more people to my blog/youtube ORGANICALLY.

Pinterest resources: Cathrin, Sophia

Google / YouTube Ads:

I’m going to have to get back to you all on this. I know these are powerful tools, but I’m not ready to spend money on them currently. I’ll plan to check back in in 3-6 months.

Be Authentic & Relatable

If you are growing in your realm, I think it’s so important to be authentic, relatable AND professional. You aren’t a know it all or untouchable. You are learning and growing and dedicated to helping your clients succeed. Make that shine through your marketing material with no matter what strategy you implement and you will WIN.

Other Resources: Mike Sherrard, Meet Kevin, Graham Stephan, Bryan Casella, Sunny Lenarduzzi, Gary Vee, Tom Ferry (ALL CAN BE FOUND ON YOUTUBE)

If you have any questions or thoughts on what I should write about next, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m excited to keep growing with you all!

Thank you,

Cole | @thecoleconnor