You can have your social media team for $25,000 per month

It's the latest lifestyle service for the rich and not-quite internet famous

Tom Bilyeu has a vision. It’s of a world in which Bilyeu’s wisdom is available to you, aspiring business leader bereft of foresight, at any time, on any platform, in any medium, always and forever. “My product is educational content that changes your life,” says Bilyeu, 41, whose social media feeds are a never-ending stream of positivity. “Blast through ‘good enough’ and become capable of the extraordinary,” one Instagram post reads, the text running below a soft-focus photo of Bilyeu staring off into the distance. Another says, “Human potential is nearly limitless.”

For seven years, Bilyeu was, as he puts it, “the protein bar guy,” the co-founder and president of Quest Nutrition LLC, a Los Angeles-based manufacturer of low-carb snacks that reached a $1-billion valuation in 2015. Last fall he left Quest and founded Impact Theory, an entertainment company that he says will be a 21st century equivalent of Walt Disney Co, making its money on long-running franchises. It’s a lofty goal. For now, Impact Theory’s main property is a YouTube talk show Bilyeu hosts from his living room, which averages about 45,000 viewers per episode.

Traditionally, people in his position might try to shop their idea to distributors. But Bilyeu opted for a different route after reading a blog post in November about a new service from VaynerMedia LLC, a New York-based media and marketing agency known for making viral videos for Budweiser and Toyota Motor Corp. Vayner normally works with corporate brands, but last fall it began offering its services to wealthy individuals, mostly businesspeople hungry for exposure, through VaynerTalent. Bilyeu signed up.

Today, Bilyeu still looks the part of a nutrition executive — athletic build, intense demeanour. Two to three times a week, Mason Tompkins, a 19-year-old videographer who works for Vayner, follows Bilyeu from meeting to meeting videotaping him. Then, with the help of Vayner’s 750-person staff, which includes producers, social media experts, designers, and copywriters, Tompkins edits the footage into a five-minute reality show broadcast on YouTube and Facebook that runs separate from Bilyeu’s talk show. Later, Vayner re-edits it into smaller tidbits to run as clips or stills on other sites, which is how Bilyeu winds up with those gauzy Instagram posts. A Vayner brand director runs his social media feeds, posting almost everything that appears, though Bilyeu approves each quote.

The cost of all this content: $25,000 per month, an investment Gary Vaynerchuk, the company’s namesake and chief executive officer, insists is worth it. “It’s about building attention at scale, which leads to opportunities,” says Vaynerchuk, a YouTube star who parlayed his fame as the host of an irreverent wine-tasting show in the mid-2000s into a career as an advertising executive. He says the offering is designed so clients spend no time creating their own content. Bilyeu chooses to personally respond to followers’ comments and questions, which he says is essential to maintaining the idea that his social media is an authentic extension of himself.

© Bloomberg