Sponsored by RockWater

VidCon week is here! And if you’re not headed to Anaheim, what are you doing with your life!?

Unless you’re in the South of France right now, in which case, please invite me as a speaker next year.

Every year I get LinkedIn messages from a handful of industry folks who are attending for their first time, so I put together some of my top advice to share with all of you.

And, if you still don’t have a ticket but you’ll be in the area, get 10% off using code Ranta10 at this link for an industry pass!

Also in this edition:

• How to build a framework for content creation

• Snapchat launches even more highly requested creator tools

• Austin Null Gets It

• YouTube adds $55b to the U.S. GDP

• Job ops from Xponential Fitness, Sega of America, and Dr. Squatch.

• …and a dank creator economy meme by yours truly!

Let’s get into it.

NEWS:

VidConning For Value

Never. Never. NEVER go to a convention without a strategy.

It’s a waste of your time and your company’s money.

Even if you end up finding value, it’s a lot of unnecessary risk.

And VidCon is so massive and multi-faceted, it’s 100x more important to have a strategy.

Because I can’t even count how many people told me they didn’t find value from the conference, then when I asked what they did the whole time, they inevitably say, “Went to panels and walked the floor.”

Hot tip: those are the two least useful places to do business at VidCon.

So here are my top 3 tips based on who you are and what you want to accomplish.

CREATORS:

1. Make Content: You’re going to be at a convention where loads of creators and wannabe creators are trying to to make good use of their time. Make it easy for them. Build a format where you can feature people positively, tag them, and build connections based around the thing you absolutely know you share: a passion for content creation. For example, do an IG story series with selfies of everyone you meet with tags. Super easy. And if you’re lucky enough to be a featured creator, use the VIP area and do actual, honest-to-God videos that are simple for others to jump into like lip-dub TikToks or simple dances.

2. Talk to old people: A lot of creators go to VidCon and just talk to other creators, get drunk, and try to hook up. That’s all well and good, but every grey-haired person at that convention in the VIP areas are there because they control the levers of true power within the creator economy. Those are the platform heads, the big brand spenders, the agencies, and the venture capitalists. Put on your big boy/girl pants and introduce yourself.

3. Know your metrics: When you’re talking to spenders as a creator, they know that you’re passionate about content, love your audience, strive for authenticity, consider yourself an artist, blah blah blah. Talk to them at their level. What makes you different? What are your audience demographics? What are some metrics behind your most successful brand campaign? Pitch yourself like a business, not like an artist. It’s a given that you’re an artist.

CREATOR REPS:

1. If you rep a top creator, stay by their side: VidCon is client poaching city, and when a manager or agent sees a top creator standing alone, they’re going to take that opportunity to talk about how awesome they are and how not awesome you are. You don’t have to be a babysitter, but make sure your talent knows this is what other reps will do, make sure you’re with them at their major events and parties, and be the voice of business so your creator doesn’t have to.

2. Know who would likely spend with your talent and find them: There’s a lot of hand-raising on LinkedIn right now. These people want to fill up their books with meetings at VidCon. If you rep creators that could work with them, buy them a coffee, know why your talent is perfect for them, know their brand or platforms, and go in for the kill. If they’re speakers on panels and didn’t respond to your connection request, go to their panel, introduce yourself after, and give them a non-business card leave-behind (business cards don’t work anymore, so best to get on text if possible).

3. The real convention is at the Hilton, Marriott, and VIP creator area: That’s where creators are staying, drinking, and mingling. Go to the panels you need to. Drop into the industry lounge to check out the scene. But every major deal I’ve closed over the past 13 years at VidCon has been poolside at the Marriott, in the bar area of the Hilton, or in the all-access VIP areas (if you’re lucky enough to get a pass, which will be on the floor this year). If you don’t know where to go next, go there and mingle.

START UPS / BRANDS / PLATFORMS:

1. Have three different pitches: Don’t pitch a creator like a VC. Don’t pitch a VC like a brand. Don’t pitch a brand like a creator. Know what you want and curate your pitch to nail it quick, then dive in if the signals are right. Remember, creators wants fortune/fun/fame. VCs want fast, derisked financial returns. Brands want big numbers for low budgets and to know they’re not working with pricks. Get good at code-switching fast.

2. Know when to walk away: If you’re a platform trying to pitch creators and you find yourself cornered by another platform trying to pitch creators, find a nice way to excuse yourself, shake hands, and walk away. Your time is valuable at these conventions, and too many people allow themselves to be cornered at parties with people that are more interested in mingling than working. Or if you want to mingle, go for it! It’s okay to do a little time-wasting too (for your sanity)!

3. Connect with the connectors: The most valuable people at VidCon won’t be the CMO of a Fortune 500 brand. They won’t be there and, if they are, they’re unlikely to remember you. The most important people to get to know are the people that walk into parties and everyone goes, “Hey! It’s ____! Legend!” These are the people who know someone everywhere. They’re the people that, if you get in their inner-circle, will be your shortcut to networking success.

There you go! Good luck and I’ll see you around the food trucks!

SPONSORED BY ROCKWATER

RockWater invites you to our flagship annual industry party, Night Before VidCon.

​Join us for a premium exec networking experience in LA on June 17th before everyone migrates down to Anaheim.

It’s the must-attend exec networking event of the year!

We’ll have an open bar and 250+ execs across the creator economy, tech, and digital agencies.

• ​​​​DATE: June 17th

• ​​​​TIME: 530 to 830 pm

• ​​​​WHERE: Santa Monica Rooftop

• ​​​​HOSTS: RockWater | Creator Economy Jobs

• ​​​​WHO: Execs in Creator Economy, Tech, Digital Agencies

• ​​TICKETS: $40 

​​​The event will feature the builders and capital allocators that are propelling our industry forward. As always, the winning formula is friends old and new, good drinks, and a comfortable space.

​​​​Please sign up via the event link to be considered for a ticket.

GROW 1%:

Phil Ranta’s weekly social media growth newsletter with one actionable tip to grow.

This week’s ‘Grow 1%’ is titled A Framework for Frameworks and teaches you how to think about building processes around your content creation.

Here’s an excerpt, and you can read the entire edition in the link above:

I live my life by frameworks. But that's not special. You probably do to.

Frameworks are just systemic structures.

You probably have a framework for paying your bills: you receive your bills, check for accuracy, pay through portals or by check in the mail, and then ensure they are paid.

But in social media, frameworks can be used to simplify the complex and optimize the sloppy.

That's why I have a framework I use to develop frameworks for my clients.

Not all social media posters can operate in the same way.

For example, a news creator has to be able to respond to events on a moment's notice. In contrast, a MrBeast-style competition creator likely has their editorial calendar solidified months in advance.

So, I break down social media efficiency frameworks into the big essential buckets, where, depending on their platforms, genre, format, time allowance, team, etc., they can make their lives as simple as possible.

The 5-step framework for social media frameworks goes like this:

Ideation: The most essential part of the process, so it requires the most consideration. Where do you get your ideas? Is that the most efficient process for idea generation? Do you find more success by understanding current trends? If so, where do you get those trends? How do you map out and/or store your ideas? And how do you double-back on ideas if you're stuck? And, perhaps most importantly, is your metadata package compelling enough to drive attention (ALWAYS pre-determine titles, thumbnails, headlines, etc.)?

Continue reading here.

FAME & FORTUNE:

Snapchat, the now and forever most slept-on platform for creators, rolled out more creator tools including auto-saving stories and timeline editing. The monetization is bonkers, so I’m glad to see the tooling is catching up!

Creator economy OG Austin Null launched We Get It, an influencer marketing creative agency and consultancy that brings creators into the process earlier. This addresses a painpoint too many have faced and too few have tried to address: brand vision and creator brand misalignment.

Famesters released their annual Mobile Apps Industry & Influencer Marketing Report showing creators are now a key driver for mobile installs. That’s the good news. The bad news: 76% of app brands have installs at the key metric for campaign success.

YouTube is claiming its creators added $55b to the U.S. GDP in 2024 and accounts for the equivalent of 490,000 full-time jobs. Absolutely believable given the brand marketers, editors, studios, and more that are often left out of creator economy revenue estimates, which are usually focused only on ad and marketing spend.

INDUSTRY HIRING:

Xponential Fitness needs an Influencer Marketing Manager who doesn’t mind fighting with their auto-correct when typing their company name every day.

Sega of America, Inc is looking for an Influencer Coordinator. But only if you can get past the lava level in Sonic Spinball.

Dr. Squatch wants a Senior Partnerships & Influencer Manager that doesn’t blush when they have to type Sydney Sweeney bathwater in a corporate e-mail.

MEME ZONE:

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this edition, give it a share and if you get someone to sign up, I’ll send you my ‘10 Rep-Friendly Ways to Monetize Today!’ deck!

Until next time, protect yo rep.