After reading my last article, you will now know the steps required to transform yourself from a specialist to an authority, if you didn’t read it, I recommend you do. Now, let’s go one step further, and transform from an authority to a celebrity.
As usual, let’s start with some definitions. An authority is someone who “has the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience”, whereas a celebrity is someone who is “famous and well known”.
So, why would you want to become a celebrity, does that mean you’ll have paparazzi in your back garden every day or fans going through your rubbish? Not quite, what I’m talking about is becoming a celebrity in your field. It’s a level above being an authority, being an authority is great don’t get me wrong, but being a celebrity is better. It’s being one of the cool kids, everyone wants to hang out with you, be involved with you, work with you, do what you’re doing. All this translates to more money, because if people know who you are then you can charge more, a lot more.
How do you become a celebrity then? Firstly, you need to focus on your image and your brand, how do others see you? You have to be authentic with this though; if you’ve tried to rip ideas off of someone else people will see through it (taking other people’s ideas and adding your own twist is fine though, not everything you do has to be 100% original). Your brand is very very important, for example, your social media is expected to look nice if you’re a celebrity, you’re expected to have a nice header on let’s say your Twitter page. This may seem like a minor thing and that’s because it is, but if you go onto someone’s Twitter page and their header photo is a low quality blurry image then that doesn’t strike you as someone who is a celebrity.
Social media is key to this, for example, if you go on a ‘celebrities’ Twitter account, you don’t expect them to have 11 followers. So make sure you work on building your social media accounts so that they convey the right image. Don’t worry though if not every account you have has loads of followers, as long as a few do, you’ve generated enough social proof to be seen as a celebrity, so if you have a lot of followers on Twitter and Instagram, it doesn’t matter if your Facebook has less, you can always pay for more later (espically given that it’s harder to build them on Facebook without paying, whereas on Instagram and Twitter there are more effective ways of building your following for free). So make sure everything you do, and particularly your social media conveys the right image.
This is something which is difficult to explain because your image and your brand are so personal to you, what fits for one person may not fit for another, but basically everything you put out where people are likely to see it you need to think about how it will be perceived. Everything you do will have some effect on your reputation and image, so you need to decide whether it enhances it or damages it.
Also, I can’t emphasise enough, when it comes to your brand, BE AUTHENTIC. You need to make sure you show your face and name though, people need to see the person to become fans, not just a logo, people want to be fans of human beings, so make sure they see that you are one.
Next you need to market your image, because you can have the best image and brand in the world but if nobody knows about it then it’s pointless. You need to find ways of getting your message out to people. I gave lots of ideas for how to do this in my last article, the link for which was given earlier in this one, so I won’t cover them again, as it’s just more of the same really. I will say though that this doesn’t necessarily have to be done on a big budget, or any budget for that matter. You can build up your social media for free, you can self-publish your own book, you can put helpful videos on YouTube for free, you can appear as guests on radio shows and podcasts for free (you can even do TV interviews), you can write guest posts for people’s blogs for free.
However, if you do have a budget then paying for promotion, such as Facebook ads is great, but you don’t need to have a budget to become a celebrity in your field. It’s worth pointing out that how much you spend doesn’t guarantee you’ll become a celebrity, there are other more important factors, such as your brand, authenticity, and how good your content is. The more ways you give people of finding you the more likely they will, and the more times they see you, the more likely it is they’ll stop and think ‘who is this guy’.
Think about celebrities you’ve followed or taken an interest in, a lot of the time you didn’t do it the first time you were exposed to them, you were exposed multiple times. So make sure people are exposed to you as much as possible. Relationships with other celebrities, in your field or out, are key too, this is basically the same as developing relationships with other authorities, which I talked about in my last article, but you do it with celebrities instead, so I won’t repeat myself.
Make sure you’re not just attending other people’s parties though; celebrities don’t do that. Celebrities are the party. Speaking at other people’s events and writing for other people’s blogs is great and you should still do that, but you need to be hosting your own events, conferences, writing your own book, creating your own blog. All the things celebrities do which give you value, you need to be doing to give other people value.
The next step is to make sure that you’re constantly and consistently putting out new content for people to consume, as if you’re not, your fans will soon get bored and check out someone who is. I’ll say again, all your content does not have to be 100% unique, in case you’re wondering how you can do that indefinitely, you could put your own twist on something someone else has done, or build on some of your own previous content. The more content you put out, the more you have to build one and the easier it is, and you just build this ever-expanding web where everything links to everything else.
I should point out though that you can’t put out content and nothing else, your fans will want you to reveal some personal stuff occasionally, whether it’s something interesting in your life, a quote that inspires you or a video you found online that you think is funny. How much you do this is up to you, just remember when we think of celebrities in a field we don’t just think of someone who only gives great content, we think of an awesome person who also gives awesome content.
Put your personality out there, and don’t be held back by worries that you’re boring or any other excuse. The reality is that most people are afraid to put their personality out there so as a result it’s very very easy to be liked if you do, because people just appreciate that you’re genuine when most people won’t be. Make sure that you’re consistent too, as anytime you’re not undermines your brand, and not just with your personality, with everything, even if it’s just doing a blog post every week, make sure you do it.
Engagement is key also; you have to engage with your fans/audience as much as you can. This doesn’t mean every single person no matter what, but do the best you can, it takes 10 seconds to reply to a nice comment on your blog, or thank someone for a share on Twitter, and people will appreciate it and like you more as a result. Plus, the more you engage with your audience the more likely it is that they’ll give you ideas for what to put out as future content, for example if certain questions seem to come up repeatedly, do a blog on it.
Engaging is a great way to come up with ideas and find out what your fans want you to be doing next, what they want to see more of, and what they want to see less of. The more you engage with and help people, the more raving fans you will create, and the more money you will make. Make sure it’s easy for people to get in touch with you, don’t be someone everyone can see and nobody can speak to.
Giving back is key also. When we see someone with a large number of fans and large amount of influence, we expect to see them giving back. How you want to do this is up to you, even if it’s just giving cool stuff to fans that win competitions (which will also make them engage more). The more people see you give back, the more they’ll think you’re awesome, so the more they’ll consume your content or spend on your products (especially if they know a portion of it goes to a good cause, as they’ll feel good about buying). Be a go-giver, not a go-getter,
Every time you give back, you’ll be rewarded tenfold, because your fans will love it. So it’s in your own interests, do it for selfish reasons if nothing else motivates you to give back. To quote the late great Jim Rohn, “when somebody shares, everybody wins”. Don’t forget though that if you’re consistently giving lots of genuinely helpful free content, you’re giving back.
Also, make sure you value your time. Don’t waste time doing stuff that isn’t useful; celebrities don’t do that. Your time is valuable, make sure you and other people aren’t able to waste it. There are lots of ways to do this, from simple things like making lists of the most important things you need to do, and doing those before anything else, only checking emails and social media at certain predetermined times, and only letting people come to you with queries and problems at certain times. This way, you have time to work on yourself and doing things a celebrity should be doing.
So, in conclusion:
- Focus on your image and your brand (social media is key)
- Be authentic and genuine
- Show your face and name
- Find ways of getting your message out to people
- Make sure people are exposed to you as much as possible
- Be the party
- Make sure that you’re constantly and consistently putting out new content
- Put your personality out there
- Engage with your fans
- Make sure it’s easy for people to get in touch with you
- Give back
- Value your time
Do all this and I’m sure that at some point I’ll be thinking ‘who on earth is this person, I need to check them out’, along with everybody else.
-@thesamball
Leave a Reply