by Tim Staples
But despite the obvious power of these new platforms, curiously, in the early days of social media, many celebrities were slow to embrace this new social explosion. Numerous Hollywood stars were actually advised that they were “above” social media and would somehow be cheapening their brand by interacting directly with their fan base. This proved to be bad advice. The celebrities who dove into social media in the early days have reaped huge rewards for their first-to-the-game advantage. Even more significant, those who didn’t left a celebrity void in the market that allowed new voices to spring up and skyrocket to prominence.
This is what led to the birth of the social media star.
The Social Media Star
In the pre-internet days, celebrities were made the hard way. Actors, artists, and musicians would toil for years in obscurity, honing their craft and waiting for their big break in the form of a major record-label contract, a plum role in a studio film, or a guest spot on Johnny Carson. Hollywood was the kingmaker, and the studio, network, and record-label execs held immense power as to whom they would anoint as the next big thing. For a wannabe celebrity, there really wasn’t an alternative path to achieving widespread fame and fortune. They had to grind it out in the Hollywood machine and hope for the best.
The internet blew this concept to smithereens. For the first time, everyday people had the power to broadcast their message with an unlimited pipeline. Those that did it really well could reach millions and millions of people and become a bona fide celebrity, all without having to be anointed by the Hollywood star-making machine. We entered an era when “digital influencers” were being created at warp speed, often leaping from their parents’ basement to international fame and millions of subscribers in a matter of months.
Watching this happen in real time has given us an unprecedented view of how celebrity is created in the internet age. At Shareability, we’ve literally had a front-row seat and watched virtual unknowns become international megastars in the blink of an eye. Consequently, we can objectively judge why certain people have broken through the noise while countless others try and fail.
If you review the success stories, one theme becomes overwhelmingly clear and bears repeating: The most successful social media stars are the ones who clearly understand their own unique voice, and who use that voice to reach people across the digital universe.
One example of finding one’s voice is Jay Shetty.
Today, Shetty is one of the biggest influencers in the world on Facebook, sort of a millennial version of Tony Robbins if you will, at least insomuch as he shares life-changing wisdom in a way that is relatable and entertaining. When Shetty launched his channel in 2016, very few people had even heard of him. But by 2018, he crossed the 18 million mark in number of followers and drove over 3 billion views, creating multi-million-dollar opportunities in the process.
How did he become so successful so fast? Like all good overnight success stories, it didn’t happen overnight.
Growing up in London, Shetty was shy, introverted, and bullied. At the tender age of 16, he lost two of his best friends, one to a car accident, the other to gang violence. Fighting to straighten up and fly right, Shetty managed to get into business school and graduated with honors, but the corporate world was too constricting for the 22-year-old. This is when he took a monumental step—Jay Shetty traded his suits for robes, shaved his head, and traveled across India and Europe to live as a monk.
For three years, he studied ancient Eastern philosophies, fasting for days at a time, meditating for hours every day. Half his day was spent on personal growth, the other half on helping others. He worked to build sustainable villages in India and Europe for those in need and coached millennials across the globe on consciousness, well-being, and the meaning of success.
Upon returning to England, Shetty moved back in with his parents, penniless and, by Western standards, having already committed career suicide. His friends from business school were all in high-powered jobs, yet Shetty couldn’t afford bus fare. But then something interesting happened. His old friends started inviting him to speak to their businesses, to bring into the business world some of that calm and consciousness he’d acquired from his travels. As it turned out, all of his old friends were under immense pressure every day, and they needed guidance and wisdom. This was something that Shetty had in abundance.
During this process, Shetty started making inspirational videos. Though they were low-key and came from a complete unknown, they had authenticity in spades. They reflected who Jay was and the insights he’d gathered from his unique experiences. In short, he was being true to himself.
This caught the eye of Ariana Huffington, who brought him to the Huffington Post, where Shetty quickly established a loyal following. Within a year, he founded his own video agency and began to grow his personal brand.
Now he is well on his way to 100 million followers, all of whom he helps in their daily lives. His content is friendly, easy to access, and most inviting, with titles like “If You’re in a Long-Distance Relationship, Watch This” and “If You Need Direction, Watch This.” In keeping with his personal constitution, he gives all of his content away for free (sponsors support his work). He is truly offering nothing but pure value to his followers, which is why he has amassed so many. What he receives in return is the most valuable commodity of all: their attention.
Another example of being true to your voice is Richard Williams, better known as Prince Ea (who we worked with on the video featuring his poem “I Just Sued the School System!!!”). Prince Ea is a speaker and a poet who creates mind-bending spoken-word pieces on topics ranging from education to racism and the environment. He is a spiritual man with love in his heart, who preaches understanding and compassion to millions of followers—but it wasn’t always this way.
Growing up in a rough area of St. Louis, Missouri, Prince Ea dreamed of being a rapper. He wanted to gain respect and perform in front of thousands of adoring fans. After struggling with this pursuit for years, he attained some level of success and a few breakthrough moments, but he was always looking ahead, at the people who were doing “better” than he was, and trying to figure out why, so he could fight his way up the ladder. Frustrated, Prince Ea actually quit. He realized that the dream he was pursuing was making him miserable and that what he really wanted—what he was trying to find through his music career—was happiness. He didn’t really want to be a hip-hop star, he just wanted to be happy.
This revelation made him look for alternative paths to happiness. This is where his education served him well. He had received a full scholarship from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and graduated magna cum laude, with a BA in anthropology. Now he started reading about spirituality, picking up every book he could find, devouring ancient and modern texts alike.
Through this process of self-reflection, he realized that he would never find true happiness through doing anything. He determined that the act of doing is not where happiness can be found; it’s only in being that true joy and peace exist.
With this new outlook on life, and the itch for creative expression ingrained in his DNA, Prince Ea picked up the pen again. This time, it wasn’t rap that came out on the page, but poetry—modern, edgy, and thought-provoking poetry, rooted firmly in the spoken-word tradition that was at the time merely an artsy fringe genre.
But the popularity of the genre didn’t matter. Prince Ea was being true to himself, and something amazing happened: the audience responded. His spoken-word poems quickly eclipsed all the other work he had done, not just in terms of popularity and passive views but in terms of resonance. The audience loved what he was doing, they engaged with it, and they shared it, bringing him more and more followers.
Prince Ea always had the talent, but it wasn’t until he discovered his true voice that his career really took off. He has now become a major digital influencer and found his own lane to travel in, one that makes it cool to be smart. He explains complex topics in a deeply personal yet univers
ally applicable way that is emotional, intelligent, and of the moment.
Prince Ea and Jay Shetty have similarities in that they both focus on spirituality and a positive understanding of our world, but this is certainly not the only path to success. A crass, edgy, and profane voice can also do the job, as proven by Canadian Indian influencer Lilly Singh, also known as IISuperwomanII. Singh is all about conquering life and living it like a “Boss” (or “Bawse,” as she would spell it).
Her unique voice packs a wallop because she presents a genuine attitude of “never back down,” and because she is completely transparent about her views and values, taking on all comers by calling people out on their bullshit. She focuses primarily on empowering girls and young women, helping them to overcome fear at school, to challenge bullies, and to make their own way in a sometimes troubled world. She has branched out her message to take on bigoted lunkheads by sending up their ignorance in a raw, comical, and unvarnished way, with a voice that is irreverent, accessible, and entertaining. She tackles slices of injustice, bias, and self-doubt that pertain to her and her outlook on life, and her message, including a best-selling book, is resonating with an ever-growing audience.
One of her top videos is “A Geography Class for Racist People.” It was spurred by a troll commenting on one of her posts, saying: “Go bak to ur country, you terrorist paki afghan indian muslim slut #MakeAmericGreatAgain” (with all kinds of typos and even “America” spelled incorrectly).
Rather than engaging in meaningless discourse, Singh took this opportunity to pause and speak directly to her audience about the two types of people who rise up when something horrible happens in the world—“People who don’t let fear divide them, and instead choose to come together,” as she says, and “racist idiots who don’t deserve an internet connection.”
She proceeds to literally take this particular racist idiot to school, saying, “I just don’t like when people are bad at things. If you’re gonna be racist, at least do it right.” Standing in front of a world map, Singh mockingly delivers a geography class, speaking down to him as if addressing a 4-year-old, in language dripping in irony, with a few salty interludes mixed in. “It’s probably been years since you’ve had the chance to use your passport, just like your penis,” she says with a sly smile. “But don’t worry, this time you’ll actually take off.”
She points out the distance between her actual home country, Canada, and his mis-agglomeration of countries he wants her exiled to, noting that “India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are actually three separate countries, you silly American-Aussie-Brit.”
The video is a master class in simplistic sketch comedy, with expertly timed pauses and witty dialogue delivered with exactly the right amount of zing. It also aims to deliver on a much loftier goal, that of shooting down the ugly face of misplaced American nationalism, while focusing on inclusion, compassion, and education.
This tone is 100 percent in line with the Singh brand, and her audience is eating it up. With 35 million followers and billions of views on her videos, Singh is not only on the Forbes list of highest-paid YouTube stars, but more significantly she has been named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, an honor she holds in the highest regard.
The reason these influencers, along with many others, have achieved such immense success and amassed such huge followings is because they have all found their own unique voice. They speak to their audience in a way that is authentic and true to who they are.
Brands need to learn from them and to think the same way. While you can argue the validity of treating corporations as people in the legal arena, from a marketing standpoint it’s the only path forward. Brands need to think of themselves as people. They need to become unique, identifiable, definable. They need to have a clear and distinctive voice that stands out in the crowd of marketing madness, helps them become singular and recognizable, and ultimately causes their message to break through the noise.
Your Philosophy Is Your Voice
The leap from a personality archetype to a brand archetype is not completely linear, but it’s also not a moon launch. In the martini days of traditional advertising, Madison Avenue often defined brand philosophy and told the brands what to think. Ad agencies were paid millions of dollars to come up with slogans that supposedly encapsulated the essence of a brand in only a few words. Many of those slogans were marketing tools that worked so well, they became part of the public consciousness, but that doesn’t mean they truly defined the brand’s philosophy.
For example:
Tastes Great, Less Filling—Miller Lite
Finger Lickin’ Good—Kentucky Fried Chicken
Don’t Leave Home Without It—American Express
Note how these slogans simply help define a product. “Finger Lickin’ Good” tells you that KFC is so yummy, you’ll want to lick every last bit of fried chicken off your fingers—but there’s no actual information about the brand or what it stands for. All it says is “we have delicious chicken.” That worked really well for over 50 years, but in 2011 reality finally caught up with the fast-food chain. KFC dropped their famous catch phrase and started searching for new messaging, something that fit with the times. As of this writing, they are still looking.
This is not to say that catch phrases are outdated. They can still work by ingraining themselves in the zeitgeist, but today catch phrases cannot be only about defining a product. They must define the philosophy of the brand. Consumers are increasingly aware of what a brand stands for, and this core of a brand influences where they take their business more than ever before. Brands that are seen as having integrity and a social conscience are drawing far more customer attention than those that are simply product-centric.
Sometimes a great slogan can also encapsulate the spirit and essence of a brand. For example:
Just Do It!—Nike
Because You’re Worth It—L’Oréal
Think Different—Apple
Catch phrases like these convey a higher purpose. These can be used to build an online narrative and marketing strategy because they tell everyone who the brand is on an emotional and value-based level, rather than just a product level.
Note how none of these slogans even talk about, or point to, any specific product or product attribute. “Just Do It!” might just as well have been a slogan for a diaper brand, or pet food, or a skydiving school. This suggestion sounds silly now only because the slogan is so intrinsically tied to Nike in our minds that we can’t see it any other way. These three simple words, capped off by an exclamation point, encapsulate a spirit of driving forward, of pushing yourself to the limit, of going for it, whatever “it” may be. The slogan tells you what the brand stands for and serves as a spiritual call to arms that makes you feel good about yourself for choosing this brand. What it doesn’t do is say anything about shoes.
Likewise, “Because You’re Worth It” doesn’t speak to any specific product, but rather to a value. It lets you know that this is the brand you choose when you want to spoil or reward yourself, that this is the top of the line in the category, whatever that category may be, and that by choosing this brand, you are giving yourself a pat on the back and making yourself feel good—because you deserve it. That said, in the age of social awakening and social consciousness, it will be interesting to see how long this particular slogan continues to work for L’Oréal.
“Think Different” is a classic catch phrase that encapsulates the philosophy of Apple and has a very strong connection to Steve Jobs in the minds of customers. The slogan works because it’s pure and came from who they are. It is linked to a specific watershed moment in Apple’s history that helped define not just the young upstart brand at the time, but the entire future of home computing and, to no small degree, the mobile media revolution that enabled me to write this book in the first place.
This all harks back to 1997, the year Steve Jobs returned to Apple after having been exiled from the company he had helped create years earlier. His return sparked a much-neede
d and painful change. An entirely new board of directors was brought in, new products were announced, old product lines were cut, and a licensing deal with Microsoft settled a long-running legal dispute, allowing Jobs to turn his eye to marketing.
Apple’s advertising agency, BBDO, came up with the slogan “We’re back,” which everyone loved—everyone except Jobs. He said the slogan was stupid because Apple wasn’t back. He was right. They weren’t back, not by a long shot. They needed something to help them get back.
Jobs invited other agencies to pitch ideas. One of them was Chiat/Day, the team behind Apple’s famous “1984” commercial that launched the first Macintosh personal computer. They came back with the core concept behind the “Think Different” campaign. Jobs called it brilliant because he recognized it as being core to the company—what they used to stand for and what they should stand for again.
When the first Mac was introduced, the idea of a personal computer was pretty much far-fetched, unrealistic sci-fi nonsense. Computers were housed in warehouses, and only large corporations could afford them. Have one on your desk at home? Apple was clearly crazy.
Well, here’s to the crazy ones. The philosophy of thinking differently, or “Think Different,” as the grammatically incorrect campaign was named, had been a core value for Apple since the very beginning. When they initially lost Jobs, the company lost sight of that. They started licensing their software, farming out their hardware, and making dull gray boxes that looked like everyone else’s. They lost their distinctive voice. With Jobs back at the helm and in the midst of the “Think Different” campaign, they would launch the new iMac line and the iBook laptop, seeing both profits and the stock price soar. It was the comeback story of the century, and it was all because the company returned to its true voice.