Putting out content is vital for Pro Nail Artists; their Instagram pages serve as a portfolio. Pro photographer and YN Creative Director, Gio Soto discusses how to generate more content on a consistent basis. Gio is a recent LA transplant from his hometown of New York and worked at the mothership of content output, VaynerMedia. So there’s no doubt he knows a thing or two about how to create volumes of content and the importance of posting. To see how the world looks through Gio’s creative lens, follow him on IG: @gioxsoto
START OUT CRANKING
I was a bike messenger. In that world, you have to really hustle and be motivated. So when I started at VaynerMedia, I was part of the influencer marketing team. This was a group of people whose sole purpose was to source 600 individual influencers a day. Me being me, I went for 900. It was a great way to learn how to trust myself early on and learn how to make decisions fast (Approve or Deny) on potential influencers I spent six months on this team cranking out these kind of numbers. Then it got to a point where we had more influencers than we could be used on the campaign.
VaynerMedia has a very strong culture. You either vibe with it or you don’t. If you are a fit, it’s like going to an intense college or boot camp for media. I went in there, basically I like to create stuff. I like to post stuff on social. I like to build my brand. Then they teach you...so if you like to do that, now do it at 700 mph and on a larger scale for a world class brand. I went from Influencer marketing, production,to an art director . You are moving fast. You’re doing it on your own. It’s a true crash course. You are getting reviewed by the top people in the industry. You are getting hard knocks teaching. You either learn from it or you don’t.
SOCIAL MEDIA STRUGGLES
Struggling to post just once a day is a natural side effect of social media. It happens. It’s really not that deep. The thing you have to know if that you shouldn’t let yourself get paralized. You are the cause of your own paralysis. Perfectionism is a huge part of that. So don’t look for perfection. My first 20K posts were bad. Now I’m at 60K+ and it’s so much better. You can do the best work and have the best photos (in my case) or most creative nails; but if you’re not posting in today’s world it doesn’t really matter. You don’t exist.
If you’re a beginner nail pro terrified of posting your work the best advice I can say is stop being scared and don’t judge yourself. You have nothing to lose. If you’re worried about not being good enough, just start out by documenting your process. Be sure to cut the engagement with negative people. Think about Beyonce. She’s incredible now but she didn’t start out that way. Forget about any of the pushback from other people. I got pushback when I started doing art when I was in school or when I was bad at grade school. I chose to do art; I felt that’s what I needed to do. I can understand why it bothers a lot of other people. For me, I don’t get bothered by it. It challenges me. I think to myself, let me try harder so that I can show you what I’m really doing.
SCROLL FAST, A 2019 ENVIRONMENT
Oh my god my nails don’t look good. I’m not going to post it. When you compare a beginner who doesn’t have anything to lose compared to a multi-million dollar company who has everything to lose. So if that mentality was sufficient and right, YN would be making one movie a month and not doing anything or expanding. That mentality is not the way it works in a 2019 environment or the world of social media we live in. You have to put out as much as possible. Sometimes, there could be one thing you need to change. Still you have to just post. The only really strategy you need is volume of content. People scroll so fast, faster than we imagine. It might get a 2 second look and then people move on from there. Share it and put it out there. People will move on to the next thing.
YOUR OPINION DOESN’T REALLY MATTER
You’re either going to push yourself to be better or literally kill yourself in that respect. You cannot stop yourself from posting because you don’t like the photo or are too critical of the work. This is being trapped in a safe zone. Don’t judge yourself. Scroll through the first hundred photos of most social media accounts. The firsts are not good and their last thousand are better. Today, the posts are even better. Remember that it’s a process. Everyone has to go through it. You have to start from zero. If you want to be a sick DJ, a pro basketball payer, or ridiculous nail artist. You start from zero. Forget about the freak talent outlier like LeBron James. In this environment, in order to grow yourself, your brand, your business, you have to share your content. It needs to happen. It’s how marketing is done today. It’s not just non-committal “social media”.
CONSUME OR CREATE.
I feel like there are two ways to use social media. Consume it- scroll all day long, judge and talk about what you see. Or you can use it to create, which I did. Once you get in the zone of “I am here to create and not to consume”, it’s a different part of your brain. You have to just put that out there and not judge yourself. The more volume you create; you get used to the pace of posting. You get ok with this might be ok. It becomes part of your day but you have to practice. You can be the best. But today if you do not post. You do not exist. Why do my best work and hang it in my basement where no one can experience it.
MOVE FASTER THAN YOU THINK & OTHER SURPRISES
Let’s say you want to get going and start really posting in 2020. Don’t wait for perfection because it’s never going to come. Your nails do not need to be perfect. You don’t need the best computer or gear. You can’t overthink it. It will get better with practice and trusting the process. It’s in constant motion. You have to get on it before the net new hot platform comes along and you lose out. It gets better by doing it. In order to get to wherever you think you want to be, a more advanced place...you just have to start. Start someplace and from there you have to test and learn. Don’t be scared to go live. Face the fear and post more in the formats that scare you the most. You may learn that your followers might like when you shoot videos. Don’t be afraid to try different things. I’m always surprised by what people actually like when you move beyond the inner dialogue that goes on in our own head. There is no way to learn unless you get out of our own comfort zone. So stop thinking about it. The things you like the least somehow end up getting the most likes. You are at the mercy of the platforms. Sometimes It could be an analytics thing or backend thing. It could be just one of a million things we don’t have control over. Just take the photo or live post and do it without thinking.
BOTTOM LINE
Nail pros, you just have to start posting. Put it out there. Post. Post. Post. There it is. If you want to begin with just one thing to improve your content volume, practice just putting it out there. When it comes to a platform like Instagram it’s a quantity game not a quality game. Talk about your day. What’s going on. Shout out a greeting. Add a GIF. If someone’s can post a picture form their morning commute of their acai bowl on their stories and their getting hundreds of thousands of views. If that’s getting views, what makes you think your amazingly crafted nails won’t? It’s a quantity thing.
Here’s an easy way to increase your volume. Document your day as it’s happening. Everyone can document. It’s not that hard even if you are paralized by fear. This is what documentation can look like in 7 simple posts:
Good morning.
Woke up like this.
Had this for breakfast.
Have a client. Super pumped.
Here’s a selfie.
What did you think about the new Beyonce track? Post a poll.
Having coffee.
Headed to lunch. Super Hungry.
Share some of videos that you like in your stories.
It will become easier to be more authentic, to be you, with every post. Now what I post is more me. Have fun with it and the randomness of it. It’s so important to remember it’s a volume game. Take it from us, it really works. Seriously, it works. It works for us and it can work for you too. The only thing you need to do is just do it. We’re expanding and Gio joined our team because it completely works.
**This is an adaption from our YN Biz Talk playlist, “Posting More Nail Content”.
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