Social Media and Content Marketing Hacks From Clinton Senkow

Let's do it.

Okay, so are we recording? Can you check for something.

With your hand on your heart? Please tell me.

Welcome to the Askavi Arya Show. How are you doing?

I'm doing great. Thanks a lot for having me.

Avi, you know what the first thing I wanted to ask you? I know we've been planning this interview for a very, very long time because of time zones or whatever. It took time. All great things in life take time and so this is one of them. The first thing I wanted to ask you was how do you remain so fit?

How do I remain so fit? That's a good question. Honestly, the number one thing that I actually like to tell people when it comes to fitness is what you eat is actually more important than what you're doing exercise wise. I feel there's so many people out there that say I work out five times a week or six times a week, but then they go and have a burger after their workout or they're eating bags of chips at night or they're eating ice cream every second day or whatever. It is something that I like to do. And it's just how the way that I live my life with my wife is. We generally like to eat quite healthy throughout the whole week. Yes, we still like to have sweets or ice cream and stuff like that here and there. But something that I've just found over the years is when you keep your nutrition really solid, it gives you a better foundation than just the whole. I'm going to go for a run every morning and feel like I should be in shape now. I feel like the food aspect of wellness and nutrition is way more important to kind of keep you, I guess, physically looking and obviously mentally focused as well. So, yeah, I'm not like some crazy person who works out for three hours a day or anything like that. But I played high level hockey my whole life and I've always been an athlete and a person that's always been into fitness and health and sports. So yeah, it's honestly just a way of my life now that I enjoy and it's just kind of come second nature, I guess.

Lovely, lovely. I love that. And since you spoke about your wife, tell me, how is it to build a business, go global with a business because now Influencer has a global footprint. How is it a business having a partner by your side, which is also a responsibility because you're responsible for another person in your life. But it's also, you know, it's also 1 in 1 is 11 like they say. So how is it With a great partner like, you know, your chemistry is so very evident. You know, when I see your posts online. How is it to grow a business with somebody by your side?

Yeah, that's a great question. Honestly, it's great to have kind of like a yin and a yang, I guess you could kind of say, you know, mix and a mash. You know, there's things that my wife, I'm very, very happy that, you know, qualities that she has, you know, really being able to bring me down to earth sometimes. Sometimes, you know, when, you know, going through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and building a business, you know, it's nice having someone there to talk to, you know, someone there, you know, to voice their opinion on something. Because, you know, being an entrepreneur, you know, the reality is, is a lot of the time you're by yourself. Yes, you're talking to your partners, yes, you're talking to your clients, you're talking to, you know, employees or whatever it is, but there's still a lot of time where you're by yourself and, you know, so it is important, I feel like, to have that partner. And I'm very, you know, very happy and grateful to have a partner like I do, and that supports what I do and supports my dream and supports, you know, the mission and everything that we're doing here at Influenceive to really, you know, impact as many people as we can, you know, and really just inspire people to, you know, live the life that they've always wanted to live and to notice that, you know, there are other people that are in similar positions as them. It doesn't matter, you know, if you have $5 in your bank account or you, you know, you have. This is your third business, and it's still not working out. You know, there's always. There's always someone out there that, you know, can relate to that story. And that's what we're, you know, we're trying to do it at influensive. And that's what I feel like with my wife is she's really good to just bounce things off of. And I feel like there's just a really good balance there that, yeah, I'm grateful to have because I know I wouldn't be here, you know, I wouldn't have the same mental state, you know, if my wife and I didn't have someone by my side, you know, like I do right now. So I'm definitely very grateful.

How lovely. How lovely. Thank you for sharing that with us. You know, shift gears and talk about, you know, coming to influence it, which is becoming. So you're in Canada right now?

I am, yes.

Sitting in Canada. You have been able to make a global brand and reach millions of people. You know, some of the articles that you guys write and people who contribute, you know, they have thousands of shares and so it's. And you cannot do, you cannot engineer a business like that. That just happens because of the real impact, the emotional connect that people feel with the brand. So how did you. Was there still a strategy behind this business or you just said let's go with the flow and let's see what happens?

Well, yeah, honestly, I'm never going to take just all the credit for it. It's, you know, it's Brian and I and all of our team of writers, contributors, you know, it's all of us that are really, you know, pushing towards, you know, just really trying to reach as many people as possible. And I think, you know, there's not like any one massive strategy behind it, but I feel like there's a bunch of little small ones. I think the best answer to your question, you know, is just the fact that, you know, Influensive is meant to be a platform, a brand, you know, that is relatable to people, that can teach people different skills. You know, we're not just focusing, you know, on the Elon Musk's of the world or the startups that are raising, you know, $150 million. You know, we're showcasing other entrepreneurs that are just like you and I, that are just, you know, like anybody on the street that are, you know, building successful businesses, you know, that have went through their ups and downs, that have went through their trials, they've went through their tough times and now they've made it out on top. So we really want to always continue to have content that's relatable. And I think just everyone, the thing that we've really found is we've really started to develop that kind of cult like following. And with that cult like following is really whenever we're coming out with something or whenever we think we're going to enter a new industry or hey, how about let's create some content around that. We notice that there's kind of just like a flock of people and that's just taken time, that's taken consistency on everybody's part, from our contributors down to Brian and I and the content that we choose to push out to the different types of partners and people that we're talking to and collaborating with. So I think just that overall mission of, you know, this isn't about, you know, the almighty dollar. This is about impacting as many people as possible. I think that's what's really started to resonate with people. And the fact that a lot of our content is relatable is super, super key. And when you can read something and be like, wow, that's very close to the same situation I'm in, or, wow, like, you know, I went through that five years ago, so I know what you're talking about. Or I can relate to that. That just provides a whole other level to the reader and to the user. And I think that's something that we've done really well, that we want to continue to do, you know, moving forward.

Lovely, lovely. So I wanted to, you know, again, like, shift gears and talk about what has been your for. For everybody who's going to be watching this show, what your sort of social media strategy. I mean, like, there are so many things you can do on social media. So when you guys started versus now, can you give us some real insights into maybe Facebook ads or YouTube ads, or you went to some influencers to say, talk about influencer, give us some inside stories on how you built influencer and took it to that level?

Yeah. So honestly, when it comes to social media and when it comes to growth, I've helped here and there in certain areas. I kind of call Brian kind of like the growth ninja. He's very good at growing things, and that's kind of been an area that he's focused on. But really, the main thing that I always like to tell people about this when I get asked this question is really, where are your strengths? Finding where your strengths are and really testing and trialing things and not being afraid to throw something out there and see how it does. It's funny, on our Facebook page, we're getting up there with hundreds of thousands of likes and followers and fans, and the reality is sometimes I'm like, hey, this post or this article is going to be so good. Like, it looks really good, it sounds really good. It's going to go viral, it's going to go awesome. And it doesn't. And then we put something up that we're like, oh, this is pretty cool, and whatever, and it just catches fire. We've had posts and videos that have got millions of views reaching 50 million people on certain posts without boosting them. And the reality is it's just some things just catch fire. And is there a formula for that? No. But something that we've realized is you got to Be consistent with the style of the content that you're putting out there. If your users get used to certain types of quote pictures or they get used to the same sorts of videos or the same sorts of articles, they're going to know when they come to your destination that, hey, I know what I'm gonna get every time, or I know what I'm gonna get. So when you stay consistent, I think that's super, super important to grow a following because I know what I'm gonna be getting every time. If you're just throwing up random things all the time, then it's hard. But I think also when you kind of get that consistency down, you need to test stuff. You need to test stuff. You need to, you know, try something and be like, hey, I'm gonna put this video here. Let's do something maybe a little bit funnier and let's try and see. Maybe your audience will like something that's funny. So, you know, maybe let's be more serious, you know, let's do this. And really, when you test all those things and see what works, that's what you should then be focusing on. I feel like too many people are like, I need to focus. I need to post five times on Facebook, minimum a day or whatever it is. When, you know, some pages or some people might be more effective if you only posted two or three because they're so high quality and they make sense for your community or for your following or sometimes maybe it makes sense to do 20 posts a day. But it's really. I wouldn't say there's like a hidden formula for growing social. I think it's just really that whole consistency factor and having your following and your fans know what they're going to expect every time that they land on their page, rather than. It's kind of like, I don't really know what I'm going to get. If they know what they're going to get, they're going to continue to come back.

Lovely. Lovely. So tell me. So you're saying that obviously test, test different formats, test different things, you know, different content types. But also, you know, like, I remember speaking to Brian when we met after the social media mastery, social media world. We went for dinner and one of.

The things he said, San Diego, San Diego.

One of the things he said, I take every video and every piece of content like a baby and, you know, you have to nudge those babies a little bit. So I support them with a couple of dollars here and there on Facebook and. And then they, you know, they find their way into this, into the world, into their world. So how important is. With all the content that you guys are writing, I'm sure you have some great, you have great contributors, great writers, great editors, people who are filtering stuff, screening it and all of that. But how important is. Because organic is dead. I mean, I say organic is dead. And you know, we're celebrating the fourth death anniversary of organic, God bless its soul. But so how important is paid, you know, social media, 100% paid now for you guys.

Social media's. Honestly, I'm a firm believer that there's still organic, you know, there's still organic traffic. By all means, it's not everything is paid. You know, I don't think really do you need to, you know, when you catch fire, do you need to take some money and throw that gasoline on the fire to make things ignite a little bit more? Of course, I think that's, I think that's kind of a given in the pay to play world of social media nowadays, right? If you want to grow really, really fast, super quick, you're going to have to find different types of growth hacks. You're going to have to find the right types of people where you can learn the right tips and tricks and hacks and whatever it is. But then you're also going to need to have some money. It's not free. It's not just going to magically happen overnight. It's going to take several months, it's going to take several weeks just to really even figure out what, what is going to work. Because, you know, it's the same as any type of client. In any type of business. No client is the same. So no Facebook page or Facebook community or following for any business is going to really be the same because there could be a totally different formula. You can't really replicate things. So you really got to. There's going to be a couple weeks of really testing things out. But in terms of just kind of the whole arena, I think organic is still there. I think organic traffic is still there. But you have to do it in a genuine, you have to do it in a consistent way that people know what they're getting when they come to you or when they come across your profile. So I don't necessarily think pay to play is the only thing moving forward. If you want to grow at a super, super high growth rate, yes, you're gonna have to pay for it. That's the reality. Every, you know, every platform out there right now, social network starts off free and Then, oh, you, they start lowering your reach and then you're like, well, crap, like I'm not reaching as many people anymore. So now you're like, oh, I gotta throw in five bucks here, five bucks here, whatever it is, right? So. So I think really, you just gotta. Yet again, it comes down to that consistency factor and the content that you're starting to push out. I think that's what's really important is the quality of the content. Who you are, what people can expect to get on your page, I think is what's so important. Because when you know and when people know what they're gonna get, they're gonna know when they visit you that they can come and get inspiration. They can get information about XYZ or whatever it is.

Perfect. I've got last two questions. One is five years from now, where do you see yourself? I can see you not changing physically. You will remain as.

Looking younger, hopefully.

Or getting younger for sure. But in terms of business, you know, do you have a, do you have a plan? Do you have a vision for that?

Honestly, five years from now? Yeah, I always kind of like to think, you know, in the future and kind of see what things will be like or, you know, have somewhat of an idea. But the thing that's so crazy is just like the world, entrepreneurship, business, technology is moving so fast right now that it's like, I think in five years, maybe I'm going to be one place, but I could honestly be 10 times that or I could be nowhere near that. But in all honesty, in five years, yeah, I'm still going to be an athletic, healthy guy that likes working out and that's going to be building businesses. Will I still be building influenceive? I hope so. If not, I'm sure there's going to be some other type of venture or something that I'm going to be involved with to really focus on and do some cool things with. But yeah, five years from now, hopefully have a couple kids. Really building and growing the business with a couple little kids running around will be fun.

Then I've got two of my own, 7 and 11. I can give you some tips on that.

Nice. Yeah, I love it. That's perfect. Yeah. I have seven nephews under seven and one niece under seven. And I'm the youngest of five kids, so I'm used to big families. I'm used to kids like, give me one on each arm. Let's do it.

Nice to hear that. Okay, so my last and final question, which is the most important question, which is that when do we see you in India?

When can you see me in India? Well, hopefully here in February. That's kind of what the plan is with this awesome Influencer trip and everything that you're putting together. That's kind of the plan. I know just even with Influencer, we do have a following over in India and I would love to just continue to grow and build connections over there because I think there's a lot of potential in India and I think it's still relatively untapped in some areas. So I'd love to be someone that can go over there and be a good resource for people and businesses in India but then also help further our brand and get us out there more, to really get more capture more of that Indian audience because from my understanding there's a thirst for entrepreneurship, there's a thirst for knowledge, you know and we really have all that, we have all those, we have all those areas that we can really touch there for, you know, for people in India. So I'm excited, hopefully early 2018.

Excellent, excellent. We look forward to having you here. And I think that brings us to the end. You know we asked for 15 minutes, I think it's about 15, 20 minutes. So it brings us to this interview. Thanks a lot for your time. I'm going to just stop recording for now and just want the recording. Okay. And have you been able to say hi to Prasanna?

Yeah, hi. I said hi to him. Yeah, just a little bit. Yeah.

And that's our very own drock. Hi. And so it's late at night so most of the people have left but I'll still show you around a little bit of the Internet.

It.