In their EXPO “Entertainers Only” seminar, “How to Expand Your Personal Brand,” CouchFame’s co-owners Sammy and Bryan emphasize the value of social media as a long-term investment for passive diverse income revenues, in support of the overall success of an entertainer and her club.
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ouchFame is an adult talent agency company, run by two experts in social media, adult marketing and self-promotion, Bryan, aka “Chubby Coach,” and Sammy Shayne. For their “For Entertainers Only” social media management seminar at ED EXPO 2023, transcribed here, Bryan and Shayne provided performers with strategies in social media to boost the outreach of their personal brands.
Bryan: I want to set realistic expectations. Most of you are going to start small, and the people that hang in there are the ones that eventually cash in.
When you start out, you’re lucky to get one guy who’s super interested, but then you build from there. You get two guys, and over the years, it turns into 100 per month. Once the guys start buying it, it’s passive income.
Shayne: There’s no saying you are ever going to leave the club, but why would you not want to have multiple streams of income? Strong social media contributes to the building of your brand, which increases revenue all around.
Bryan: In advertising, we know that it takes the bare minimum of four branded impressions before somebody might even consider buying something. I’ve run ad campaigns where it took anywhere from 5-15 impressions to buy in.
A lot of people in live streaming, will go live one night, and they’ll talk to two potential customers in two hours. They’ll make 30 bucks, and then they’ll quit, and say, ‘Nobody likes me.’ But if you made 30 bucks in two hours on your first night as a live streamer, you are destined to be great, because it’s a really competitive business.
“The biggest thing that you can do to protect yourself is just simply read the community guidelines on every platform you’re posting on, and make sure you’re following them.”
– Sammy Shayne, Owner and CEO of CouchFame
Shayne: Do you have a specific thing that makes you you? Because you’re going to make more money if you find customers that are into this little thing that you’re into, this one little thing that makes you special.
Like, if you just happen to have the sexiest armpits in the world and love licking on them, you’re probably going to make more money doing that than doing a full-on orgy, just because it’s content that’s more difficult to find.
And then build that storyline up: ‘This is me, I am Sammy, and I like armpits,’ so all my social media is gonna be like, ‘Uh-oh, shave day.’ Or if your thing is, you have a million different girlfriends, and you’re seeing a different one every day, lean into that. ‘This is my playhouse. These are all my girlfriends. Who am I going to see today? Let’s do a poll. Here’s her big toe. Does anybody know whose toe this is?’
Pick hashtags that surround your weird thing, and build a little army of people that are super into it.
Bryan: On the Internet, there are customers for everybody. I saw a guy in a wig with really well-done makeup and a bullhorn on a fan site, screaming, makes $3,000in two hours, and that guy probably didn’t make 30 bucks his first time as a live streamer, but now, he’s well into six figures.
Shayne: Make sure that you are building authentic connection by engaging. The people that are commenting, you want them to comment again, so write back, give them a follow, give them a few likes. Now your posts are going to start showing up on their friend’s feeds, because they are engaging with you so much.
And then, keep an eye on your analytics — what’s doing well and at what time. There are some times that are generally going to be high traffic, such as before people go to work, on their lunch break and around happy hour. Once it gets later at night, you’ve got your drunk people on the Internet, and now this is when we’re getting into sales. All day long, we’re doing our marketing, and when evening hits, sales.
Trends are going to get you noticed. Get in on the trends. Get people noticing who you are. Usually, someone has got to see your face 10 times before they even care to look into what your name is, just like a regular product.
Bryan: Look at your metrics, see what’s working, do more of that, do less of the other thing. And if you don’t like doing it, don’t do it again. If you’re not doing things that you really like, then you are going to quit this job.
“Look at your metrics, see what’s working, do more of that, do less of the other thing. And if you don’t like doing it, don’t do it again. If you’re not doing things that you really like, then you are going to quit this job.”
– Bryan (aka ChubbyCoach), Co-Founder and CRO of CouchFame
Shayne: Let’s talk about fan sites and why fan sites are such a great addition into your social media mix. Most fan sites have tiered levels, so fans can have a little peak into your life or they can feel like they’re essentially your husband, depending on how much they spend on you.
It gives you a chance to do personalized interactions, to ask for money. Whatever it may be — ‘I just broke my shoes, so highest bidder can buy me new ones.’ They want to spend money on you, so give them all the opportunities.
Bryan: And I don’t know if you guys have noticed this, but men sometimes are entitled and jealous. You can use this to you advantage, because guys will spend more money to get more special treatment.
It’s the same thing you’re monetizing in the club, which is a personal connection. Instead of just wanting to look at the girl, they want to feel like they really know her. Well, he can get a ‘good morning’ every morning, but there’s a subscription fee for that. And for whatever exorbitant amount of money you can get out of the guy, he can be in your platinum ‘Knight in Shining Armor’ tier. If you’re a live streamer — ‘I’ll have your name at the top of my board behind me, so that everybody can see that you’re my champion.’
And if he’s the champion, but then he gets knocked off the top spot, he’’ll blow his credit card to get back up there.
Shayne: We’re coming to the end, so we wanted to talk about some legal and ethical considerations, because we are selling something on platforms that don’t really want us there. The biggest thing that you can do to protect yourself is just simply read the community guidelines on every platform you’re posting on, and make sure you’re following them. You can still create content that will do really, really well on every single platform, and just tease going to the next one: ‘You like this? There’s more here.’
Dividing content is a very important time management tool. Each video can be re-purposed into 18 different videos. For every single piece of content that you do, chop it up and use it a little bit at a time. I start the video very PG, and then, by the end of the video, it’s very X-rated. Then I chop it up: first section goes on Instagram, second section goes over here, third section goes on Twitter and now we’re on to our fan site material.
Protecting your own privacy: Turn off the image tagging on your phone. Don’t tag your location if you don’t want people to know where you live. If you are a local girl that is trying to pull people into your club, then put your club as the location for every single photo you do, so when people look up that club, what are they gonna see? You, everywhere.
Obviously, if you’re a host dancer, this is all about leveraging local audiences. If your club is a club that posts photos, and doesn’t tag, comment on the photos, so people can find their favorite girl. If you’re a touring dancer, make sure that everybody can find you. Wherever you’re going next, get all over their social media. Show so much love for the girl that’s there right now. Just start to interact, Any clubs that you’re hoping to go to in the future, just get all up in their social media. It’s all very reciprocal, so if you’re showing them love, you’re going to get to see that love.
Bryan (aka ChubbyCoach) got his start as SEO expert and moved into full-service Digital Marketing before co-founding Fame Talent Agency with his wife, Sammy Shayne. Bryan is their CRO overseeing new app acquisition and recruitment.
Sammy Shayne is the Owner and CEO of Couch Fame. Shayne has worked in a variety of different industries over the years, including marketing, sales and human resources. She has extensive experience in the live streaming industry working as a highly sought-after host on 17 different live-streaming apps.
For more information on CouchFame, email apply@couchfame.com, chubby@couchfame.com or visit couchfame.com.
