What Spotify's Creative Director does to builds content that builds the community
For companies, the path to helpful video content may be a maze of wrong directions and dead end. Each time you believe you've finally gotten the algorithms working for you, the organic social media content that you've been producing is a failure.
Gavin Guidry, a video creator and creative director of Spotify explores what it means to help community members and creators, and the ways that this partnership could transform the social media strategies of a company.
"When you focus on community and build authentic partnerships it is possible to create useful video content."
Step 1: The path to be relevant has to pass through real people
Let's be honest: people trust people. And Gavin cautions us that as trust grows the social media algorithms.
Although the term "influencer" is a term which has a significant amount of baggage, there's a specific creator class speaking to a specific audience on social media. In contrast to traditional influencers, these creators avoid transactional advertising as well as their commitment to fostering community is the driving force behind viewers to their videos.
"Working with people you know who have real followings will help you market your product in a more authentic, more humane way."
Step 2: Real collaboration should focus on cultivating the community
Marketers focus on brand perception, ROI, and other measures that evaluate the success of their messaging. Creators value authenticity and connection.
However, Gavin insists that these don't need to conflict with each other. Brands should focus on finding influencer partnerships where monetizing feels more like buying an artist instead of supporting a community.
How do brands find creators to help establish credibility with their communities? Gavin gives these suggestions:
- Choose the best segment
- Find an audience that is engaged.
- Be sure to focus on the genuine user
- Accept a bold style and perspective
- Seek out professionalism
- Support someone who is passionate about their work
3. Relevance is taking video content from you-centered to the community.
Video is an excellent format to educate and engage with viewers. But Gavin believes that in order for video-based campaigns to succeed on social media, they have to center in the communities that the video content was created to be a part of.
They can build their following by understanding the creator's motivation as well as what the audience genuinely is interested in. To remain human Gavin says brands have to be prepared to get vulnerable.
What does vulnerability look like to a brand? It's about taking risks by speaking as a real human being and interacting with the community where they are physically and metaphorically. Then, and only then are brands able to establish real relationships with their creators and create video content that benefits the two of them.
"It's not about chasing the relevance of culture. It's about earning community relevance."