K atie c ouric

Quick Tips and Recap

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• Strategic alliances can take you to where an audience already exists
so you don’t have to start from scratch.
• Partnerships help get messages and brand awareness out there in
larger ways.
• Find strategic partnerships that drive growth. You want quality, not
quantity.
• Find the superconnectors you can reach that will connect you to
other people.
• Put yourself in your partners’ shoes to think about what could be
valuable to them.
• Be creative when approaching partners. Think about your unique
offering and how it matches with the needs of the person you’re
approaching.
• Work on a share-for-share basis.
• At first, look for partners who are attainable—they don’t have to
have a much larger following than you to help you.
• Create or join engagement groups where you share and create
content with others. Content goes viral because a huge number of
people share something at the same time.
• Look for headline-grabbing partnerships.
• Licensing other people’s content is a good, cost-effective strategy to
help you grow.
• Build a massive following and then approach content partners to
license their content for free in exchange for exposing their brands
to your newly built audience.
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1
 “Dua Lipa’s New Rules Music Video, The Confidante Miami Beach Part of the Unbound
Collection by Hyatt, Winner in YouTube Partnership,” 10th Annual Shorty Awards,
http://shortyawards.com/10th/dua-lipa-new-rules
.

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G
CHAPTER 7
GO GLOBAL (AN OPPORTUNITY)
oing global can be extremely valuable. Today there are 323 million people
in the United States, yet there are 7.6 billion people in the world. The
biggest celebrities and influencers always have a global plan for building an
audience in other countries—it’s a great way to scale into a true megastar.
Emmy Award–winning producer Mike Jurkovac agrees. He says that the
Black Eyed Peas became one of the biggest bands in the world because they
knew how to connect with an international audience. When they went to
Brazil, will.i.am would wear the national team’s soccer jersey. When they
were in Mexico, Taboo would have a Mexican flag. They are the only group
in the world that has sold out the Stade de France, all eighty thousand seats,
three times. Even Jay-Z envied their success, saying, “If I was as big as you
guys are outside of the United States, I’d be really happy.” If you
understand how to leverage a worldwide audience, it can significantly
broaden your opportunities both across the globe and on your home turf.
I’d like to point out, however, that although going global provides an
amazing opportunity, it’s not necessarily right for everyone. Through the
extensive testing I have conducted in research for this book, I find that
emerging markets are the next big thing in social and digital in terms of
scale. But if you’re an e-commerce company that only sells to the US
market, then going global is not a top priority and you’re not going to need
to acquire an audience and followers in emerging markets.
However, even if you don’t sell products abroad, having a worldwide
audience can still help build up your validation and credibility metrics.
Having a large following, regardless of where the followers come from,

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gets people to take you more seriously. Going global is often a great
opportunity to scale very quickly in a short period that also allows you to be
unique and stand out.
Country borders especially don’t matter as much if you’re an actor,
director, musician, or artist. A musician can sell music anywhere. 
American
Idol
finalist Jasmine Trias only sold fourteen thousand copies of her album
in the United States but went platinum in the Philippines. If she hadn’t
thought globally, she would have missed a huge opportunity to continue her
dream of being a professional singer. And if you’re an actor, keep in mind
that 60 to 70 percent of box office revenue is generated overseas, meaning
international sales are actually more significant than domestic ones. If you
can walk into a studio or casting director’s office and say, “You know, India
is the third largest box office market in the world with $1.9 billion in sales a
year.
1
And I have X number of followers there,” that should make you
stand out and give you some clout. If you have an audience in valuable
international markets such as Mexico, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Poland, or
Turkey it can absolutely help separate you from the crowd and at the very
least make you look smart and driven. The film industry is making a lot of
money off those territories, and some films only survive because of their
international box office numbers.