I’m not sure who whispered into Will Smith’s ear(I think it was Ellen) and convinced him to check out a little thing called SOCIAL MEDIA. But boy are we glad they did! Will Smith has been on the Instagram Platform for a lil more than a year now, and in that time he has managed to gain 27.1 Million Followers and has thrusted himself back into the culture thru the social platform.

With only a year on the platform compared to other profiles that have been around for multiple years, one could boldy say that Will Smith has one of the most rapidly successful accounts in recent social history.

But what makes him so successful on the platform? Is it the fact that he’s Will Smith, well yes, but theres more to it than that.

Yes he’s a famous actor and people want to see his life, for those who don’t know Will outside of movies, may not realize the real life will is an incredibly profound, intelligent, open minded, person with a whole lot more to offer than just movies.

Thru his page he has shared various tidbits, funny moments, jokes, raps, performances, motivational speeches, family moments, etc… but no matter what he is posting, he is always will, and he’s geninuenly having fun with it.

And thats his secret.

Now-a-days everyone and their mother is trying to get something out of Social Media, but how about trying to contribute to the platform without expecting or even wanting anything back. Have you ever noticed that a lot of Self Proclaimed “Influencers” profiles look like shit(fake personality, low quality content, lacking), yet one of your friends personal accounts who doesn’t “try” at social media is wildly successful? I notice it all the time. It’s because your friend who doesn’t “try” is being genuine, real, or as the kids like to say, keeping it 100.

Most people/influencers that try to use Instagram to grow a following end up failing because there goal is to be famous and they try too hard and they stop being themselves and they start being what they think it takes to be an “influencer”. It becomes a very selfish thing very quickly that hinders you from providing real value to users thus never creating a community. People see thru bullshit.

Will had the luxury of already being “on” by the time he created his page, he didn’t have those worries, he could just be himself, but others, just as famous as him, are not doing as well as he is, and some of them have been on the platform much longer than him. Why?

Like I said, Will is having fun with it, I don’t think he had any ulterior motives when signing up for Instagram, I don’t think he thought he needed to get any more famous, and I don’t think he thought he needed more money thru paid partnership(tho it can never hurt), and sure he’s made a few sponsored posts and plugged some things for people close to him and things he believes in, but for the most part its free plugs. He’s incredibly genuine, which always goes a long way.

He also creates a lot of high quality content, and I’m not talking about the will smith content I’m talking about how it is captured, edited and published by his filmer Westbrook. Some pictures, BUT MOSTLY VIDEOS.

So what am I saying here?

Well, all of this was to re-enforce the idea that Creativity is King, and Content is Prince. You can be doing all the right things on social media, SEO and marketing wise. But if you have shitty content, you have shitty content.

So the best practice in which you should learn from Will Smith when it comes to running a successful social media page is:
HAVE FUN WITH IT. BE GENUINE/REAL. DON’T WORRY ABOUT POSTING THE RIGHT CONTENT THATS GOING TO GO VIRAL, JUST POST CONTENT THAT REFLECTS YOU AND THE COMMUNITY WILL COME. I PROMISE.

In other words, don’t expect for your Instagram page to make you famous, and it just might.
In other words, when you stop trying to create the perfect piece of content, is the moment it will form.

P.S To all celebrities, you need to get on your Will Smith Game, you have the funds to pay someone to follow you around to constantly document and then edit that footage into high quality content, if you actually run your page, thats great, your a step further than celebs who don’t, but take it a step further, start including more videos instead of just pictures, take it a step further, instead of just filming those videos in selfie mode on your phone, hire someone to film you (like I literally just said)..

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Traits of a Successful Page
*Have Fun with it
*Don’t worry so much, Don’t try so hard
*Be you, genuine, real, tell your truth.
*HIGH QUALITY CONTENT
*Consistency