Matt Steffanina breaks down why creators should have an online platform
From your basic top eight from Myspace to private Facebook Groups We've all been part of a community using social media. Through the years, social media platforms allow creators to create thriving communities both privately as well as in public posts.
With a growing number of issues, social media is slacking in the role of a community-building tool and administrator it was once. As a result, creators and business owners across the globe are starting to see the shortcomings in this regard.
The outage on Facebook in 2021 could be the reason behind this initial change in attitudes. A short six-hour period when the platform was down led small businesses and creators alike to lose access to their audience and website traffic, causing widespread revenue loss. There have been reports of losses up to $5,000 dollars.
To understand the importance of hosting a community on the back on social networks, we had a conversation with the master of online communities himself, Matt Steffanina. He is a world-renowned choreographer and the founder and owner of the DNCR Academy.
Since the launch of his YouTube channel in 2009, Matt has grown a small following of more than 30 million fans across all platforms. Matt is famous for his dance performances with artists such as Taylor Swift, Jason Derulo, and Meghan Trainer, not to mention the appearances he has made on TV shows such as So You Think You're a Dancer.
Through his YouTube dance tutorials and in-person classes, Matt formed a tight-knit community of enthusiastic dancers but when the pandemic struck and classes for #IRL were stopped, YouTube simply wasn't cutting it for a method for him to engage with his fans or earn an income. That's when he turned towards online training and an online community to make a lasting impact on the people he was able to reach and build a sustainable business.
Check out our Q&A with Matt to find out how he has grown a wildly successful business and online community--and why he believes this is the way to create controlling their destiny.
Note: Responses were lightly edited to improve clarity.
Give us a quick elevator pitch of your identity and the things you do.
Hello, my name's Matt Steffanina, and I'm a music producer and choreographer located in L.A. However, the past 12 years of my existence have been primarily performing and dancing. I started in the industry working with artists, but throughout the process I started my own YouTube; posting videos of my life, classes, and my tours. In essence, I was following my journey, vlog style. One of the tough challenges of being a professional dancer, especially 10 years ago, is that you depended on your agent or artists to provide opportunities. There was no method to generate opportunities as an artist. In my early days I was always waiting on the phone to get an opportunity to be auditioned. At first, YouTube was a way for me to stay productive and keep improving my abilities, as well as to promote myself as a dancer. I didn't think I could have imagined it would do what it did. In the year I was on, I grew about a million subscribers. That in the moment was quite very impressive. From it, I ended up getting opportunities working with Ja Rule and Taylor Swift, and Meghan Trainer.
The other thing I was passionate about was the teaching aspect. At the start, I created a second [YouTube] channel called dance Tutorials Live, where people could learn how to dance. I built a following of dancers from all over the globe. The most rewarding part of everything that I've accomplished is listening to the tales of my students' successes. These stories are truly amazing since, back then, I was just recording tutorials at the local studio on my tripod. I didn't realize that I would make any kind of impact It's been quite a crazy journey, to say the least.
Have you ever thought about your YouTube channel evolving into what it is? Did you plan to take it to where you are now?
No, there's no way one could have predicted the way it did. When I posted my first videos, it was back in Virginia before my move from Virginia to L.A., and I was just looking for ways to get inspiration and meet other dancers. At that time, 14 years ago I was one of the first dancers on the platform. I could never have imagined the changes that would occur. Today, the channel boasts thirteen million users and 3 billion views. My first video was released and was viral, I remembered that people were commenting from all over the world, and the concept of someone watching from another country seemed unimaginable. I didn't understand it, but it's now the norm performing shows all over the world, thanks to social media and the ability to put my dancing out there through the web.
Take us on a little piece of your timeline. Tell us, what blew up first? Was it your YouTube channel? Did it become your job?
People always think that success in the mainstream and Hollywood industry can lead to the success of online advertising, however this isn't the case as one would imagine. I was doing The Tonight Show, So You Think You're Good at Dance, The Amazing Race as well as other shows. I had a number of television shows that are traditional but they weren't converting into long-term successes. They were short-term opportunities, nevertheless, amazing.
What really gave me the long-term success in my career and the ability and the ability to continue this for over a decade is establishing a network.
The group really grew out of my dancing tutorials. It was not my intention, but it turned out to be the best option I could have made; being an excellent teacher and teacher in the field as well as pushing the group forward is much more challenging than being a good dancer. It was really my work through tutorials, and by teaching students on the internet that helped me build a solid community that's still going strong until today.
Are you able to take us through the process of starting DNCR Academy? How did you turn it into an actual company for you?
I launched DNCR Academy right at the time of the outbreak. It was something I wanted to create for several years due to a few reasons. It's a subscription platform, that allows people to study dance instructions. It's an elevated experience past my YouTube video. When I upload content on YouTube, I upload [contentin a somewhat irregular manner, and the quality isn't always the highest. This means that we aren't able to invite numerous guests or even teachers. However, a large portion of dancers are enjoying the YouTube tutorials and want to get more training. This is why I started DNCR Academy for the people who are more focused. Through it, I'm able to bring in great instructors such as Bollywood, shuffling, and dance fitness teachers; styles that I'd never normally perform on my YouTube channel. On the platform [DNCR Academy], it's completely acceptable and amazing to be able to provide a variety of diverse styles to our students. In the early days of COVID I realized that I could not travel and had the opportunity to devote my time to thisendeavor, so we took two months to built out the platform on . It was the month of June in 2020. Now it's been three incredible three years. I was thinking we were a strong community on YouTube, but this took the most powerful of this solid community and put them into an environment of bubbles. Everyone is supporting each other. Not only do they have the support group, which is studying with other people all over the world They also have an emotional support system with friends that are pushing one another. This has become an extremely positive aspect of my life, and I think for all dancers at DNCR as well.
Can you tell us more about the community , and what was what drove you to start DNCR? Did the community exist prior to the DNCR Academy, or did it develop in conjunction with the Academy? Did you foresee that being such a big element for the Academy's success?
I really felt it over COVID. It seems like a lot of individuals experienced it. It was difficult to be inspired. It was difficult to begin the routine when you're in the house and you don't have access to anything. Dancing is in particular a community activity. Dancers can dance on their own, but the thing that I love about dance is the feeling of being in a dance studio with my fellow dancers and the energy that comes from that. If all of that goes away, it's tough to find motivation, even for me as choreographer. I was unable to get the motivation I needed to continue, and so I thought that should I go through this, I'm sure someone else who is struggling in the same way and may gain from a community that is tight-knit. There was already a community in a sense because of the YouTube tutorials, but as I said, there wasn't consistency, and to achieve anything it is my opinion that the number essential thing to have in dancing] is consistency with your practice. This community has enabled us to hold regular challenges every month, which I think is the best aspect we could have done at DNCR. This isn't just posting tutorials however, it's an effort to focus on one aspect that we're all going to tackle with each other. Everyone is working to perfect this technique and plan to submit our video by the deadline. That's where we found enthusiasm; it was the joy when you see all your fellow members uploading their videos and the cool and even constructive feedback received from them. It's about being an active participant in the community and truly helping each other grow. This was the part that was challenging to achieve via YouTube, as it felt as if everybody was doing these [the tutorials] by themselves. The community allowed us to all be in this together. It made a difference, I think for myself as a choreographer and for the students being proficient in their learning.
Have you heard any stories of customers from your local community that you remember? Which person in your group has made an impact on you?
One of my most loyal customers is a guy who goes by the name of Ray. He's from Washington D. C. He's a lawyer and he started dancing in his 40's. He'd come home each working day with his lawyer suit on and take the table out of the way to allow him to practice his hip-hop dance routines, and he ended up dancing with his children. They made a ton of videos, particularly over COVID and learning routines together. The result was him appearing to a Disney Channel show, and winning the show. The guy here at 40 years old was the only person who had never attended a dance class in his entire life, found his passion in the community and became an inspiration for the members of our community. This kind of success is really important to spotlight because I began from scratch. I didn't start dancing until the age of 18, however, the majority of people do not see it and most of the time, they have seen me on stage alongside famous people and in music videos, so it's more difficult to understand the struggles that I had to face early. Whereas, if you watch anyone who is currently traversing the processtogether] and watch their journey through to the other side of an amazing experience-- it's truly inspiring. It really moved all of us in our community. There are countless stories like those, but Ray was an exceptional one.
Are you using your community and social media audience to test out new concepts or products you've got for your company?
One of the things that we're always working on is helping more people. What can we do to reach out to many more individuals? The dancers who would like to master this skill is quite small, so we want to offer the type of training on the platform that can get someone to an elite level. We also aim to make it more accessible for the individual who just wants to master a routine here and there, someone who wants to attend a dance club and feel confident. We're also working on a wide range of activities that deal with fitness through dance. I used to be an exercise instructor and really believe that dance is one of the best means to keep healthy both mentally and physically. We're even starting a wedding course because I get many requests to choreograph weddings, but , alas, do not have time for it and so this course will take you through everything you need to know. We're trying to make it more accessible to requests I've been getting throughout the years. I've always stated that if I had the time and energy to accomplish this that it would be wonderful and would help many people. The next step is to create the time to offer these courses.
Could you provide us with the most basic overview of what your strategy for social media looks at present? What have you changed from when your first appearance on YouTube?
The platform has seen a significant change in the last ten years. It's changed with the multiple generations of YouTube and social media generally. Early on it was not a competitive platform and I simply uploading my classes. That was literally it. Then I started to see the revolution of vlogging and connections to creators. I decided to start vlogging behind the scenes which was incredibly successful between 2016 to the year 2019. We then began taking on more challenges, like learning a routine in only ten minutes. Those did really well.
When COVID hit in 2020, we began to see success with TikTok and other short-form media. Things changed a lot then. I would say that tons of dancers' viewers moved to short form, TikTok in particular, because dancing was so widespread in the area. My videos were still posted videos on YouTube however, a large portion of my content was focused on short-form videos like fifteen-second dances rather than forty-five seconds to minute-long dances.
What's interesting about social media, which people do not understand unless you've been around for several generations of it, is that there's not going to be an answer that just works forever--because regardless of the field you're in, if you find something that works then eventually everybody is going to copy it, and it's happened in the case of dancing. Videos of dance classes began to explode and the social media got flooded by dance instructors sharing their dance classes. This led me decide on my next move. This became copied. It's a constant game like in any other industry where you have to keep reinventing and innovate and come up with creative strategies. One method of identifying those ideas that work is to shoot darts at the board. Most of them won't work, but that's how you find the one idea that everyone really enjoys. It's difficult to know, so we really do adopt the mindset of If I've got the idea to do something, then I run with it. I say let's do it, and if it fails then great. Then we'll look at something else. It's probably the most effective advice I can give anyone who is trying to create content. Don't be apprehensive and don't think that just since something did not perform the first time that it's not going to be successful the next or even third time. Sometimes you have to tweak the idea, shape it and suddenly it hits.
This leads to one thing we didn't cover that is social media algorithms. How much have algorithms played into your strategy? Do they impact the ability of your strategy to reach an target audience?
If you've ever had the pleasure of using Instagram, I think it's one of the easiest to find. I recall a moment that I had the opportunity to post a tour flyer that might get 100,000 or more than 200,000 views, and thousands of feedback because it was being shown to my 3.9 million followers. However, if I shared that flyer today, it will probably get just 10% engagementas the algorithm has been changed. So you have to get creative.
Instead of a flyer now this is a video where the dance is happening and city names pop on the screen and viewers can click to the caption for more. It's up to you come up with different strategies to work within the algorithm, because, at the end of the day, there is no way to influence the algorithm. So we watch many things (metricsrelated to time retention. YouTube has changed from being more of the search engine and has become more of a click-through rate-focused platform. Do your title and thumbnail sufficient to grab people's attention? The title and thumbnail could be the most impressive video ever made and if the thumbnail and title aren't grabbing individuals, then the film will fail. If people watch for the first 10 seconds of an video but then move away, YouTube is going to tell you that everybody is loving your thumbnail, but the video's not working well, and we won't present it to your subscribers. This is exactly how the algorithms work in the present. With that said, strategies have become more about concepts. I'm pretty certain that we can make engaging video content, however, if the content is learning a routine quickly it is possible to find a million possibilities to pack the title and thumbnail, as well as the length of the video , as well as its style. Each of these factors can impact the success of your content. I was averaging 30 million viewers on a video for about two years. That's insane. For those who know about monetization because of copyright issues with music, I was not in a position to make money from those videos, but as far as expanding my channel was concerned was concerned, that was stupendous. Things have certainly changed since then in particular due to TikTok as well as Instagram being the main players in terms of the market portion.
Since you bring up the possibility of monetization, did it at any time affect your decision to start DNCR Academy, or was the sole purpose of moving offline from the internet?
The thing is, whenever attention shifted from YouTube and then to TikTok and Instagram and Instagram, the numbers across the board on YouTube decreased, which was my primary method of funding paid for the videos, and that's all through and monetization...
At the time of COVID people were looking for to see more content However, there wasn't any monetization occurring within the channel. It was feasible to scale it, and so that was one of the things that I loved about DNCR. Today, we have subscribers that pay a monthly membership fee so we can take these money and invest them into production and new courses. In essence, it's all my goals to accomplish which YouTube monetization wasn't providing enough revenue to achieve. It was therefore a great option financially to expand the content of my tutorials as well as the platform as well as to offer students what they wanted for.
How can you cope burning out that is a part of all of social media's content production?
I don't feel like I'm that old, but on social media, I've been around since the dawn of time. It's amazing the number of generations that have passed and gone, and the reasons why people become tired is due to a few aspects. I believe they set their expectations and schedule a little too high and heavy in the beginning. In particular I recall a time between 2016 and 2017 when all of my buddies decided to create daily video blogs. If you've attempted vlogging every day is a slog. The workload to keep up with editing, filming, and coming up with ideas daily is impossible. The channel I've had always kept at one or two uploads per week. A level that I was able to keep. I made sure that I was on the road. I also ensured that I had the time off. If there wasn't a good tune that was released one week or I was not feeling motivated to dance, I cancelled my class. I ensured that this [creation of content] was something I was able to do regularly, which has helped me maintain my longevity.
One thing I've tried to do to prevent burning out is to establish realistic expectations for myself. In the beginning when you're just beginning out, it's better to focus on one or two platforms. Make it easy. With YouTube you can upload two times a week, and then make edits to the content, and then cut the content to make it shorter for posting the content on Instagram as well as TikTok. Make it easy to manage. It's better to work slowly, but still have the spark of enthusiasm and the determination to keep making content 5-10 years from now, then go really hard for one year, burn yourself out, and then fall off. The key is consistency. It's a game that will last for a long time even though it seems as if things are moving in a whirlwind.
Have suggestions for designers who are trying to use social media to increase traffic to their website or other products, or perhaps setting up their own communities?
The most important thing is to figure what you would do if you were your viewers, or your client's position, what could inspire you to leave a platform and join a subscription model or a course. I think a lot of instances we think "I'll do this and that' and we're thinking of it from our perspective. This is why I take a lot of surveys--I ask my followers frequently what direction do you wish to follow the next time around or what you would be the most excited about. Sometimes I'm thinking they'd like to do this incredible choreography that is difficult and complicated, and they're like "Look Bro, I'm just looking for some moves that I could show off at a gathering.' And I'm saying 'Okay, this week we're going to master moves that we can perform out at parties. It's great to put yourself in their shoes.
Another thing is giving the value. If you're able to offer value without expecting anything in return, without asking for any kind of compensation, and build that confidence, trust, and community, then when you do provide a free offer or a course, there's already this trust. You've already offered value, and made your customers' lives so much better through what you've provided and they're more than willing to join in and become a part of it. It's true that sometimes we make the mistake of trying to get the sale earlier than we need to build relationships with customers. And that's one of the best advantages of social media. you can be present with your followers every day in whatever way, be it dancing tutorials or sharing your day-to-day life, while also building relationships, building community, and the next thing you know, 'Oh I forgot to mention, if you've loved all the things you've done, here's this thing where you can go on a further level.' That's a really simple transition to make instead of meeting them at the start and trying to put them into a group right immediately.
The majority of creators within the space think that really the only way to make money is through brand and affiliate deals on social media, which you've obviously proven to be incorrect. What do you suggest to young creators about expanding their revenue streams?
Yes, affiliate and brand marketing are a part in the overall puzzle. Monetization is another element to the piece. However, it is best to would like to take a piece from social media platforms which also generate incomesince, at the end of the day there is no way to predict when the algorithm or the rules are going to alter. And that's something that I've learned over the years, as there were times when I was making most of my income via YouTube and was earning the majority of my money through live events and tours in other times, when I was making most of my earnings from TikTok and Instagram, and now, it's . At different stages in my career, that thing has switched several times. And If I'd put all my eggs in one basket, and was in the waiting room for brand deals or YouTube to change their algorithms so that I could monetize more heavily and earn more, I'd be trapped. were stuck.
Start building a community. Then, you can begin the process of moving your members away from social media towards a subscription-based service like , where you control the content and members. Now, you don't have to depend on an algorithm that serves the community with the content you have. It's just, boom, in DNCR and users can get access to it at any time they want. This gives power back to the creators. The world is rapidly changing and it's more difficult than ever to rely on brand deals and monetization in the absence of knowing which social media platform will take you next.
Do you want to share with us the role has helped you be in control of and take ownership of your own destiny as a creator?
It [] allowed us to place video content that is safe and the rules never change. That's probably the most important thing. As I mentioned earlier that there was a period where I had 30 million viewers per clip on YouTube. Now, with the exception of perhaps MrBeast and a couple of other instances, it's virtually impossible--even with a channel of 13 million users. Only a small percentage of those subscribers are served my contents. It's crucial to, as you're building your community, transfer them to somewhere you can use them as well as access you consistently. On a basic level something like an email list and a text-based list are excellent however, being part of a group off of social media platforms is the most powerful method to keep in contact as well as to build a passive income as you create, particularly when you're working with subscriptions. It's an excellent option to know that your friends are together in one location where you can speak to themand for them to connect with you, but also for an ongoing stream of income.
What's one tip you'd provide to an entrepreneur who's just beginning in the space?
I'd suggest you heavily research your field. Before you ever upload a single piece of content on TikTok, go and watch one month of videos on Tiktok. It is possible to tinker with your ideas and create content but I see a lot of time wasted due to people not doing their research prior to. If you love fitness and would like to establish an online fitness business Find the top 10 people who are in the fitness industry via social media, watch ten hours of their content, and get an understanding of how it functions and create your content strategy starting there.
It's true that right now you can access greater information than you've had, especially via YouTube and TikTok The answers are all there. It's not necessary to completely re-invent the wheel completely and perform the most challenging fitness routine you've ever seen before, right? However, you must come up with a method to accomplish it in your style and in your own unique voice. It's possible to do that by researching people who you admire, and taking the best things of theirs, adding in some of your own stuff as well as forming your own content strategy. It's important to realize the need to be humble enough to admit the things you've never thought of. That's what I'm doing right this moment. At least once a year, I take a few weeks where I pretend like I'm not a professional while I look. What are the kids on TikTok who are 14 and blazing up with a different style that we OGs in the field don't understand? It's easy to think that a dance is silly or whatever however there is a rationale that people can identify with the dance, and I must understand the reason it is I can improve myself not just creatively, but also for my company. Spending a significant amount of time in the study is essential as you develop your strategy for content, and when you've finally got your strategyin place, it's up to you to go hard.
Make your own destiny digital products
The economy of the creator is set to witness a surge within online communities as of 2023. Social media platforms are aware of this and respond with developing their own community features.
But as Matt said, in order for creators to reach their audiences in a significant manner and earn the income they desire, they have to take their audiences off social media.
"Brands and affiliate marketing are just one of the pieces of the puzzle. Monetization is another piece. It is important to make use of social platforms that are in turn generating income as, at the conclusion of your day, it's impossible to have any idea when the algorithms or rules are going to alter. This is something I've learned over the years since there was a time that I made the bulk of my money from YouTube or TikTok but now it's ."
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