There was no big moment in the last two weeks that caught my eye, content-wise. With that in mind, I'm going to take a look at an ongoing piece of content marketing from the king of pimpin': Snoop Dogg.
Now you may think that this is a joke. The guy with the gangsta image who curses way too much - what could he know about content marketing? Sit back and let me show you how the Doggfather schools content marketers with his laidback, easy approach.
As some of you may be reading this at work, I want to start off by saying that there are some videos where you'll push the play button here, and there WILL BE PROFANITY. This is your NSFW warning on all content with a play button.
What is Snoop Dogg's content marketing plan?
For those in the hip hop community, Snoop has been running one of the most successful content marketing campaigns over on YouTube. It's called WestFestTV, and it has been running strong since Snoop joined Facebook in 2008.
The feature program that he updates every week is called GGN. The double Gs are for Dogg, the N is for news, and the program hypes itself as the go-to source for 'Hood News.'
Here's a sample video below. Again, NSFW warning:
If you watched that, you would have noticed some keen content marketing as Snoop:
●Featured the products on his on shelves right now in the foreground - keeping the products he's selling on his fan's minds.
●Links to his Snoopermarket.com website embedded in the video.
●Includes pop-ups to subscribe to his channel - a big success with over 1.1 million subscribers.
●Uses banners on planes and blimps flying in the background to pimp out more of his products.
You can't underestimate Snoop. He has known how to make a dollar since he was in grade school, and he's now making it online in his way with his voice.
What I like about Snoop's WestFestTV
YouTube is Snoop's place for keeping his brand in people's mind. GGN may be the content he keeps updated on a weekly basis, but he's not afraid to expand into other areas. Other series that he has on the go are:
●GGNimation
●Tha Eastsidaz
●#7DaysofFunk
●#UnderGroundHeat with the latest hot tracks
●His #NoGunsAllowed movement
●Even his work on that goofy movie Turbo has it's own playlist and place on WestFestTV
All of the content on WestFestTV is shared across Snoop's various social media channels:
4 weeks til episode 100 #UndergroundHeat Shout 2 @DOC_EmanuelS @indianblue23 @Dynamic_EQ top doggs! http://t.co/uAEY2brwRD
- Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) February 8, 2015
The last bit of fun to look at is Snoop's online app, the Snoopify app. He made the rounds on TV media recently to promote it, and if nothing else it's good for some fun one day. I don't think it's making him Kim Kardashian's mobile game money, but it's fun:
The mainstream media is always ready to write Snoop off. But your Dogg just keeps doing his thing, even investing in the king of the user-curated content platform Reddit last year.
What I don't like about Snoop's online content
That's a tough one to ask. There's a part of me that wants to see Snoop succeed as much as Dr. Dre or Jay Z, who have major mainstream appeal. What's holding him back form that is, well, did you actually watch that video with the big NSFW warning above?
Snoop's greatest strength as a content marketer is also his greatest weakness - he holds nothing back and speaks in his, and his audience's, voice. There will be 'f' bombs. He'll use the n-word liberally. Marijuana references are frequent - he is selling a 'herbal' vaporizer after all.
His Twitter feed could also use some cleaning up. It looks like this a little too often:
This may be a lesson to all those content marketers out there who blindly link social media accounts, push content out over one but don't look at how it impacts another. That is not a good look for Snoop's Twitter and it won't be a good look for yours.
At the end of the day, it's hard to argue against this statement:
Snoop still has his mind on his money, and his money on his mind...
And his exceptional online content marketing helps him do this.