Further Notes on Build In Public

Hello beautiful people.

Continuing here my ramblings from the last post on building in public.

At its core ‘Building in Public’ is a person, company or product making their decisions and actions transparent to their ‘audience’ or ‘customers’ as opposed to working in stealth mode and hiding all the ‘juice’ for later. Stealth of course, is a much less vulnerable method, that gets you nowhere. Kidding. It works but it is a different approach for a different product. What it lacks early feedback and criticism. Very important parameters for early development.

I am also realising that not only does Building in Public allow for less resources to create more impact, there is the added benefit of serendipitous encounters and happy accidents by sharing the thoughts and processes openly. At least I hope that it does, now that I am doing this haha

But to be fair, there is no one size fits all. And that is exactly the mistake I have been making so far — Taking suggestions and anecdotes at face value. For example, I would post whatever I was working on randomly with little thought to time, caption, or layout because I read somewhere that ‘fast’ and ‘more’ is more important than anything else in this space.

And I am sure it works for certain types of accounts, but in the case of monkeyverse, my thinking had to be more nuanced. I am only now learning to tailer the advice to fit my needs.

— What a FAIL!

To be honest, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted out of social media other then shiny new clients. The meaninglessness of cheerleaders would baffle me. I kept feeling like ‘what am I supposed to do’ with someone clicking a heart shaped button on a digital screen. I am not saying people shouldn’t like my work. I hope they do. I have half decent skills and have had the opportunity to work with interesting people and projects. So why not.

But I felt there is something incomplete in the picture. A feeling of being unfulfilled in a very inexplicable way. It is only now that I am realising that it was my lack of understanding and strategy, and not the other way around. What is a person going to do if I don’t give them options to do anything? If I post an illustration with a caption that says hash tag illustration, then chances are that anyone looking at the illustration is only going to tap that effortless button and move along.

But let’s imagine for a second, that I, in my celestial wisdom, had written a note/comment/caption that either made people think about something, anything, or asked them to visit the website. Then I would improved my odds of engagement — They can either DM or comment or click a link. So there. This is a simplistic way of putting it but I do get that the problem is not with the platform or cheerleading, it is with my ability to use the tools to my own advantage.

Like I said in the last post that this old approach will not cut it anymore. On reviewing Instagram, ArtStation and my Website, my take aways are that my goals, strategies, messaging and consistency need a surgeons meticulous dressing.

First, there is very little readership and engagement of the visuals and stories that I create. My marketing goals are not clearly defined and so they lack any structured approach. There is no consistency with any outreach, which means no one knows what to expect. There is little to no brand awareness for either monkeyverse or Bandar Chhaap.

Surprisingly, it is also unclear if ‘monkeyverse’ is an artist or studio; solo or a team; even the nature of work is hard to tell besides the tag line, Visuals and Stories, and to that there is a predominance of visuals over stories. And if a person has never visited the website, they would not be aware of the different offerings.

— Tip of the iceberg all this, I would say. The problems require a deeper dive.

Thankfully, these are solvable problems. I have been fishing for advice from a multitude of people; Josh Specter & Kevon Cheung of note among them. Based on their suggestions most of my pillars and thinking need grounding in data to properly calibrate the nuances.

And painfully recognising my own limitations and those of my resources, it is crucial that I first describe the product properly. Yes, there is The Thousand Arms, and Signals, and Petrichor, and Bandar Chhaap. But what is the point of it all? So grant me my vanity for a few moments and let me explain the visions of monkeyverse and Bandar Chhaap.

// — Vanity and hubris start here — // 

I want Monkeyverse to become a studio that addresses critical human issues with the intent of affecting positive change by bridging gaps in understanding and awareness through storytelling. I have always believed that stories create cultures. And cultures create myths. And in that I want us to be an instrument of change, through initiatives that focus on uncovering tales at the intersection of traditional knowledge, entertainment and speculative futures.

By the same token, at Bandar Chhaap we are anti-mass production, anti-assembly line and anti-forgettable-line-of-products. We are about choosing fewer, better things. We are an argument against convenience culture. Our belief is that things made with patience carry a different kind of energy. We reject the disposability — of objects, of traditions, or practices, and of stories. We aim to work with an array of traditional disciplines and materials to create products that are organic, sustainable, hip, nostalgic and grounded.

// — Vanity and hubris end here — //

— There I said it!

Obviously, these sound like high minded notions at the moment; and very, very blue sky. The reality as it unfolds sits squarely between this very blue sky and the raging seas of truth. Sinking in the realities of early stage startups, with lack of funding, resources and market reach; most days everything seems like ephemeral letters on a screen. Honestly.

— But we march on.

1/ Get people to read, share and subscribe to The Thousand Arms, Signals, and Short Stories.

2/ Onboard customers and get them to buy products from bandar chhaap.

3/ Repeat 1 and 2. Over and over.

And I know you might laugh, because I would too, but I have it all so upside down that both of these goals are currently presented through websites M and BC. Which literally makes no sense. Because no one knows they exist!

While writing this I painfully realised that I don’t have many of the answers, but an early list would include goals

— To drive traffic to those projects and products
— To generate brand awareness
— To understand and reach a target audience
— To connect with the target audience and collect feedback
— To establish partnerships and a community
— To build and launch products with momentum and excitement
— To make that proverbial —— ‘money’

And speaking of answers, I am sure as I work through these with more insights the next steps will reveal themselves. To start, as on this page in public lab Kevon mentions a sequential hierarchy of outreach.

1/ Channels with an existing audience. Referring to: forums, Slack groups, Discord groups, or paid communities
2/ Channels where you build your own audience. Referring to: Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, newsletter
3/ Channels for search-intent content. Referring to: webpage, blog posts, videos

And it looks like I have it ass backwards.

— Who would have thunk!

I started and have been most consistent with (3) webpages and blog posts, and less consistent with (2) posting on Instagram. But in my defence, the blogs bring nuance to this approach. It is a rather complicated product and like I said before, there is no one size fits all. I would rather write these long form blogs right now and slow down and fix the issues then continue with my mistakes.

If I was to approach this as per Kevon though, I should start in more intimate spaces like Reddit and Discord, where people engage more. And along with that I might share relevant posts with a curated list of emails and phone numbers. And maybe attach a call to action in there.

For Bandar Chhaap, the approach differs. Depending more on Ad spends, putting up stalls and approaching local influencers and online marketplaces. But I will break that down another time.

All of this said, the elusive structured plan seems far ahead. And a bit scary. And my overthinking mind is ready to make up failures so it would be wise not to think too far ahead. If you have been on a similar journey and any of this made sense, or if you have any suggestions, you should know I respond to all my emails 🙂

That’s all I have for today. Until next time.