Visible, Authentic, & Authoritative

If you’re a fighting game content creator, what are your goals? Is it a certain follower count, subscriber count on Twitch, subscriber count on YouTube, is it a reliable, full-time income? What are your goals? Before you make ANY videos, this question must be considered, because the answer will determine the strategy and tactics you employ in order to reach those goals.

In the absence of a goal, let me suggest one that’s just a small piece to a larger puzzle: to be as visible, as authentic, and as authoritative as possible. Okay, that’s three goals. Stay with me. Over the course of this blog post, I’ll break all three down, their value, and share a personal experience that supports these ideas.

As visible:

The marketing rule of 7 suggests that a potential customer needs to encounter a brand's messages at least seven times before making a purchase decision. How should that inform your strategy as a creator? It means that your content ought to live as many places as makes sense, in a way that makes sense given the platform. One longform YouTube video can be broken down to several shortform videos. That same video can be cut into several clips that are posted on X, whose mission is not only that the audience migrate from X to YouTube, but the clips should stand alone, generating interest and discourse as its own form of content. If you’ve got a website, the video can also be transcribed and turned into a blog post. And in the definition earlier, I mentioned “purchase decision.” Even if there are no products or services that you’re trying to drive your audience to as a creator, you’re still trying to motivate a viewer to become a subscriber, or convert a viewer into a Metafy coaching client, or a Superchatter, or Bit gifter. This can happen once and only after the audience member engages with your content in meaningful ways, through different means. Be visible.

As authentic:

You may not feel like it, but your story carries weight. Your story lends you credibility. Your story helps you create distinction in a social media landscape occupied by thousands of creators. The moment that you sacrifice authenticity in order to chase trends or what you may perceive the path to success to be, you give up your edge in the battle for people’s attention. Your content, the way you present yourself, the way you engage with social media, cannot be some manicured, curated, version of someone else’s path to success. Be you on social media. A caution, however, towards being a brand risk, spouting incendiary takes whenever possible, this is certainly not the path to success. But also don’t be afraid to weigh into the current FGC discourse. The scary thing about authenticity is that it’s a double-edged sword: you being you will attract people as much as it alienates people. Be so confident in the creator you wanna be that you’re not swayed by people who may never meaningfully engage with your content in the first place. Hone your voice, develop it, work on your craft, and be incredibly in tune with who you are. Be authentic.

As authoritative:

Work so that when you weigh in on something, it’s a measured, thoughtful, credible position. If you’re opening yourself up to the risk of being scrutinized, do your due diligence in being educated. I’m in the mid-1700 MR range in Street Fighter 6. No one can take away my opinion on character design, gameplay, archetypes, etc. But once we verge into topics of conversation that are better occupied by players of the highest caliber, I can sit that one out. As you build your ethos as a creator, it’s incumbent upon you to know what you’re talking about. It’s a fine line, as I’m sure you can see. There are scores of people who want to put height requirements to conversations where they don’t apply, but in those few occasions where the input would serve audiences better coming from more qualified voices, let them cook. As for you, be focused and dedicated to study, intentional practice and observation, reflection, such that you can truly walk in authority on various matters. If you do this well enough, your audience’s ears will perk when they see you weigh in on the discourse-of-the-day. And this is the kind of relationship you’re trying to develop across social media. “I can demonstrate to you with confidence that I’ve done the work, the research, put in the hours necessary to be able to weigh in with clarity, wisdom, and insight.” Be authoritative.

Talk to Me & the Philippou Brothers

Now, a brief personal story on how I saw this in action myself. My friends and I were hanging out, doing something I do most afternoons: watching YouTube. We were watching popular movie trailers trying to catch up on the latest releases and getting excited for what was coming up. We saw a trailer for the horror movie Talk to Me. It was so intense, so dark, that we went down a rabbit hole learning as much as we could about the film. We then came across the director’s YouTube channel. They had a couple of videos where they took the audience into the experience of being accepting into Sundance and another video where they shone light on their wide theatre release and press run. Me and my friends were so taken by how grassroots their process was, how clearly passionate the Philippou brothers were about filmmaking and this film in particular. So taken in fact that, when we found out that the movie was playing in a theatre near us, we bought tickets immediately and went to see the movie that same day. We were so taken by their visibility, their authenticity, their authority as legacy creators, that they converted us into fans. We saw the movie, and after, I couldn’t help but think about the fact that we were driven to a purchasing decision, getting up from my couch, buying movie tickets, moving the hang from my living room into the movie theatre, all because we saw a couple of YouTube videos.

Again, what are your goals?

If it’s for a reliable income, imagine that the superchatters, sub gifters, bit gifters, Patreon members, investors, are just waiting for you to build a body of work on your channel such that they’re arrested the way that me and my friends were arrested. To the point that those viewers would make a purchasing decision, deciding to invest in your and your content! If it’s to be sponsored, imagine the talent manager from your favorite esports org coming across your latest video in their recommended feed, being so enraptured by your title, thumbnail, and first 30 seconds of the video (a different blog post for a different day), that they pitch to the team to pick you up so you can compete on the biggest stages in the world. I think your goals are met on the other side of, among other things, approaching YouTube and social media with the attitude of being visible, authentic, and authoritative.