By Manoj Aravindakshan
I had the pleasure of attending the two-day Nas Summit Asia 2024, a part of the 11th Singapore Media Festival, last weekend (Nov 30-Dec 1, 2024). While the focus of the Summit was on content creation- more specifically, video content creation- and targeted mainly at content creators, the event also provided a platform for businesses and brands to understand how to best leverage the explosion in content creation to fulfill their marketing objectives. Here I present some of my observations and key takeaways that should benefit you whether you are a content creator or a marketer on the business side.
The state of social media
Nuseir Yassin, the founder of ‘Nas Daily’ and the Nas Company, the organizer of the Summit, shared his insights on the current state of social media and its implications for both creators and businesses. The main ones include:
- Social media is confusing, and it is like “quicksand”. I take that as a warning, rather a mere word of caution, to not be over reliant on social media platforms for our business. Visibility on social media does not give one ownership of the audience and so it can be lost rather quickly.
- There are seven platforms that really matter, give and take one or two based on the geographic market being targeted. These seven platforms are: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, Linkedin and TikTok.
- Linkedin will become more important, especially with the growing use of video content on the platform and the new ‘Videos’ tab.
- TikTok Shorts is great for ‘Virality’ ; YouTube and Facebook are the best for monetization by ads; and Linkedin and Instagram (mainly for B2C) are best for supporting the business. For content creators looking to rely on brand deals for their revenue, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are the ideal platforms.
Lessons on how to succeed with content creation from Nas Daily
In a separate session, Nusseir walked through- in an impromptu fashion, I must add- his Top 10 lessons from the success of Nas Daily in their journey as travel vlog to start with and their subsequent transformation into a technology company.
- Find your ‘edge’ / differentiator: Notice what you are a little bit better at than your ‘friends’ and competitors and double down on it.
- Take a serious bet: Identify what the most important trend(s) is likely to be over a 5 year window and pursue one of those with focus and passion. For example, the bet could be on something to do with AI or as Mark Zuckerburg famously took a bet on mobile content consumption.
- Commit to something difficult: In Nusseir’s words, “the world likes to see you suffer and rewards you for doing something hard”. There are no great rewards for doing the easy stuff!
- Make people cry: Sustained success in content creation comes from being able to make people emotional or connecting with your audience at an emotional level.
- Prepare for the exponential: Our brain thinks in a linear fashion, but results on the Internet take on an exponential trajectory. Think in terms of the power of compounding in financial investments and make the prospect of exponential results be your hope to pursue on the content creation journey.
- Build a great team: Remember the old maxim – ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. The absence of a team will impede your ability to grow and scale.
- Don’t treat your ‘channel’ as the destination: Your channel is a stepping stone, not the destination and your content is only a means to an end. “The media itself cannot be the business; for example, don’t be like Buzzfeed!”
- Use two engines to drive growth: Your media and organic content is a trust engine. Use paid ads as a sales engine. Don’t combine the two as that can lead to issues with reach, erosion of trust and a poor audience experience.
- Love the haters: As a content creator, you cannot please everyone. Receiving hate is par for the course. However, the haters can actually prove to be quite valuable in strengthening the connection with your core audience. So, welcome the haters and be wary of indifference from your audience.
- Grab the opportunity to ‘rule the world’: There isn’t a better time than now to be a content creator for how it can influence society. “The US has just elected a Content Creator President!” says Nusseir to drive home the point.
Consistency with content creation and focusing on building a loyal community
It was fascinating and mentally stimulating to be around a bunch of content creators (and those aspiring to give vent to their creative aspirations) from across the world and in diverse sectors, from oil & gas to astrology!
Some of the people I had an opportunity to interact with included doctors & dentists; fitness instructors; fashion designers and models; a Slovakian motivational speaker; a regional Managing Director of a public-listed media company; a Palestinian chef from Israel; an Israeli-entrepreneur with a successful exit in the eye care business; a risk-manager by day who is establishing a business selling ‘Indian clubs’ as a means to promote strength and conditioning; an ambitious and amazingly self-confident Puerto Rican based in Thailand who is committed to becoming the Governor of Puerto Rico one day!
This eclectic mix told me that there is an insatiable need and appetite for “content”, leaving a thriving creator economy at least for the near future. But the two keywords that I took away from the event were: ‘Community’ and ‘Consistency’.
Building a loyal community is critical to creators – and I’d say, businesses leveraging content- to make themselves immune to the whims of ‘media/platform algorithms’ . And, this can happen only by consistently delivering value.
It is by no means easy, but then, as they say, anything worthwhile takes hard work.
Manoj Aravindakshan is a digital and content marketing consultant and the Director of On Target Media, a Singapore SEO agency.