Respect the Platform

By: Quantal Langford​
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This blog post is from a recent episode that I had released recently sharing a few insights on building your brand platform. ​

There’s a few things that you will need to consider and you will either fit in one of these categories:

1. Either partnering or creating around a platform (via social media, speaking engagements, workshops, etc.) 
2. Building your own platform to invite others ( vlogs, interviews, shows, podcasts, events)​

This really depends on the context of how you want to create brand awareness and relationships. And everyone is different. For anyone starting out with their creative/entrepreneurial career I highly suggest figuring out ways to partner with more established brands to help expose audiences to your brand/product or service.

And this won’t happen overnight.  Building great, authentic relationships with others that may have a larger platform is imperative. It really comes down to what value could you provide them that would help them. Is it producing a creative or promotional piece for someone’s event or giving them access into your audience base? Or even creating a vlog highlighting that event and send them the finished piece for them to use for promoting. 

Upfront you may not get anything. But if we have our sights on the longview and the journey itself, then it may come back to you. On the backend, as a potential client or some new opportunity, simply because you put yourself out there giving value to others when you didn’t necessarily have to. 

Many of us get in the mindset of feeling like if i do this for free i may not get anything back in return. And coming from experience, you always get something back in return. It could be a referral from the one you helped that will get you to a larger client. You just never know. But if you’re in the mindset of creating value consistently. showing up everyday ready to create, share, and express-your brand will grow daily and the opportunities will show up to your doorsteps.

The other option is building your own platform. Do you have an idea for a facebook live or YouTube show, a podcast or a new vlog series? If you feel like you don’t have the network or opportunities to build your brand on someone else’s platform. Then create your own. 

Invite others into your ecosystem. If you feel you’re not confident to build your own content, interview others and build content from that. Maybe do a day in the life of you or someone you would like to promote. Today people don’t want to be sold anything. People want three things from any content: Inspired, Entertained or Informed.  They want content that connects to them emotionally. If you can provide all 3 of those things within the basis of your content or the platform you’re building then you’re on the right track. 

To push further creating live events allows a wide range of audiences to be pulled into a platform where they can be exposed to your brand as well as others. If you’ve been to any conference it’s always a wide variety of speakers, sponsors, and vendors all under one platform. This goes for any event. If you have the capacity to create your own event you’re pretty much inviting anyone that aligns with that brand to play under one roof. I know as sponsor or vendor for a few events I’ve personally been able to reach more people and increase my personal brand awareness. From there I can invite them into the other brands and properties I have that they can get value from. 

From there you can connect them to your website where you can promote your offerings or services as well as signing them on your newsletter and nurture that relationship more. 

Either route takes time but one thing is for certain: Respect your platform. If you want the opportunity to jump on someone else’s platform to promote your brand-then what value can you provide the one that’s in control of the platform? ​

If you want to create your own platform: Don’t make it about you. Bring others into your platform-you help enough people, that energy always comes back. Many times not in the way you would want it to like a new client or project. It may come through as a referral to a larger opportunity. 

And as with any platform-there’s steps and levels to it. What happens when you try to jump over steps to get to a platform? You may stumble and fall. So respect the platform. Take it step by step. Give value. Nurture relationships and be authentic.

View the full podcast episode.