Branding. We have all heard the term more times than we can count. Stay on brand, protect your brand, become a brand. All of which is great — but how?
Being a brand in the age of content creation is critical. Whether you are shooting for companies, camming, doing a premium Snapchat, your own website or any combination of those, creating a brand is what will get sales.
You need to figure out what your niche is, where your fans come from, and play to it. If you are a redhead with fans that love redheads, play to your hair.
But again, how? Branding is all about finding your niche. I am a MILF, that is my brand. Whether I am shooting for a company or promoting my Snapchat on FanCentro, I play the MILF role. It’s what my fans want, and anyone searching for that content will find me.
Unfortunately, the necessary evil in this is social media. That is where you become your brand. Social media is just that: social. You need to promote your brand on all your channels: Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Whatever channels you choose to use, they always need to reflect your brand.
Companies that hire performers are looking at their social media more and more to see if they have a fan base and a brand that will help them sell the scenes. And if you are creating your own content, having a brand will help to move those fans from your social media to your paid content.
So, what do you do? You need to figure out what your niche is, where your fans come from, and play to it. If you are a redhead with fans that love redheads, play to your hair. If you are playing the ingénue, maybe you need to play up the naughty schoolgirl roles. Whatever it is, use your social media to reflect yourself.
Be careful not to cross the boundaries of that specific social media platform, which can be hard to understand at times. But definitely play your role. Show who you are on your platforms and be social. Show your life to the extent that you are comfortable, but show it in a way that plays to your brand.
I use my social media to reflect me as a mommy type. If you are playing the young girl role, show yourself as playful and youthful.
We are entering an age of content creation by all performers. To sell your content, it needs to fall into the searchable categories, which are all, once again, reflective of your brand.
On my premium Snapchat, I play the MILF role, regularly teaching my stepson his lesson. I use FanCentro to help manage my premium Snapchat. It makes it easy to manage my fans and focus on creating content that is on-brand. They also have tools that help me promote my brand to my fans and prospective fans.
The key to all of this is not to try to be everything to everyone, because you wind up being nothing to anyone. You will spread yourself too thin and never give your brand a chance. The average person is hit by tens of thousands of messages a day. To get the attention of your potential fans, you need to figure out who they are and how they relate to your brand, and continuously be promoting your brand to that fan base.
Make sure your content generally falls into your brand. Your brand doesn’t always have to fall into the traditional search categories. Maybe you are the funny girl next door, or the girl who travels. Whatever it is, you need to be pushing and on-brand with most of your posts or content. The more you promote, the more you will attract.
Even if you are shooting for companies, branding is vital. Companies want scenes that sell, and if a performer can show they have a following and a niche, they are likely to be booked for that niche regularly.
Especially new performers! If you have yet to establish your ability to sell and have no analytics to back up your ability to sell, the only way a company can judge whether to hire you is by your brand and social media.
No matter what your career path in the adult industry is, your brand is the key to your success.
One last piece of advice: Have fun with it. Once you establish your brand, explore it, and have fun with it. I do fun scenes on my Snapchat that push the MILF brand I created. If you keep your brand fresh, fun and consistent, you will see results, and the more you promote it, the more it will build!
Cherie DeVille is an XBIZ Award-winning MILF extraordinaire who has performed in hundreds of traditional studio shoots, creates her own clips and diversifies her revenue streams with potent stardom.
