Social media star on rise
AN AMBITIOUS young man who has made his name, and a living, from social media believes anyone not using the platform to their advantage is “crazy” after amassing close to one million followers.
While running a busy videography business shooting weddings and advertisements as a teenager in Gatton, Lacclan Gottfried worked on a farm after school to fund the purchase of new camera equipment.
That opened the door to filming content for social media influencers, and he has spent the past few years living on the Gold Coast with Jackson O’Doherty, whose YouTube videos have been viewed more than 578 million times.
Mr Gottfried has built an impressive following including 532,000 on Instagram, 262,000 on TikTok and 94,000 on Facebook.
Thousands can be spent putting together a video in the hope it will go viral and be seen by millions of people around the world, with the pay off immense.
But it can just as easily fall flat and send him back to the drawing board; such is life in the world of online content creation.
Staying ahead of the curve and pumping out unique and engaging content is the key to standing out in an over saturated market which has only ballooned in the past 18 months since the start of Covid-19.
Mr Gottfried was behind a table tennis game played across the Queensland and New South Wales border at Coolangatta to lift the mood earlier this month amid chaos over travel restrictions.
The stunt, which was the brainchild of Shannon Bourke, went viral and was picked up by news outlets around Australia.
“Well (Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk) is only letting sporting teams in so we thought the only way to get in was to create a team and a tournament,” Mr Bourke laughed. “It was just a lighthearted way to make fun of it.
“We got 25 minutes out of it (before being moved on). The public was coming up and playing with us and people were taking photos. It sent a fair bit of traffic my way.”
The benefits and buzz that come along with a big hit soon fade and then it’s on to the next idea.
Mr Gottfried said staying true to yourself and producing original content rather than trying to replicate others was the best way to get noticed.
The 22-year-old has used his online popularity to drive other business ventures, including a clothing brand.