Matt Steffanina breaks down why creators require an online community
From your basic top eight on Myspace to Facebook Groups that you can only join privately We've all been member of a group using social media. Through the years, social media platforms let creators create flourishing communities in both private and in public comments.
However, with a growing number of issues that social media has been unable to fix, it is losing its place in the role of a community-building tool and administrator it was once. As a result, entrepreneurs and creators across the globe are starting to see the shortcomings in this regard.
The 2021 Facebook outage could be the reason behind this initial change in attitudes. A short six-hour period when the platform was down led small businesses and creators alike to lose access to their audience and website traffic, causing widespread revenue loss. Some reported losses of up to $5,000 dollars.
To better understand the significance of hosting a community off the social web, we sat down with the community master online himself--Matt Steffanina, world-renowned choreographer and the founder and owner of DNCR Academy.
Since starting his YouTube channel in 2009, Matt has grown a small following of more than 30 million people across different platforms. Matt is famous for his dance performances with famous artists like Taylor Swift, Jason Derulo and Meghan Trainer, not to mention his appearances on television shows like So you think you can dance.
Through his YouTube dance videos and live classes, Matt formed a tight-knit community of enthusiastic dancers however, when the pandemic hit and classes for #IRL were stopped, YouTube simply wasn't cutting it as a way to connect with his audience and earn a living. Then he resorted to online courses and an online community in order to make a lasting impact on the people he was able to reach and build an income stream that was sustainable.
Dive into our Q&A with Matt to learn how he's grown a wildly successful business and online community, and why he believes that it is the most important factor to creators taking control of their own future.
Note: The responses were lightly edited to improve clarity.
We'd like to hear a short summary of who you are and what you're doing.
My name is Matt Steffanina, and I'm a choreographer and music producer located in L.A. The last 12 years of my existence were mostly performing and dancing. I started in the industry working with artists, but all along the way, I was building my YouTube; posting videos of my daily life, lessons as well as my performances. In essence, I was following my journey, vlog style. One of the most difficult aspects of being a dancer, especially 10 years ago, is that you had to rely on your agent or performers to give you opportunities. There was no method to create opportunities for yourself as an artist. So in my early years I would sit on the phone to get a chance to audition. Initially, [YouTube] became a way for me to keep my job and learning new skills as well as to advertise my dance career. I didn't think I could have imagined it could do the things it did. I had a year where I increased my number of subscribers, which at the time was very impressive. In the end, I wound being offered opportunities to work with Ja' Rule and Taylor Swift, and Meghan Trainer.
Another thing I really loved was instructing. In the beginning, I launched another channel on YouTube known as Dance Tutorials Live, where individuals could learn to dance. I built a following of dancers all around the world. The most satisfying aspect of all that I've been doing is hearing the stories of my students' successes. They're truly incredible as, at the time, I was just making tutorials in my local studio on my tripod. I had no idea that I would make an impact at all and it's been an interesting journey, not to mention, a bit harrowing.
Do you have a vision of your YouTube channel evolving into what it has become? Did you plan to take it to where you are today?
No, there's no way one could have predicted that it would do what it did. When I first posted my film, I was in Virginia prior to my move from Virginia to L.A., and I wanted to find ways to inspire myself and make connections with fellow dancers. When I first started, which was 14 years ago I was one of the first dancers on the platform. I never could imagine what would happen. Today, the channel boasts thirteen million users and 3 billion views. When my first video became viral, I was able to remember comments from different countries, and the concept that someone could be watching my videos from a different country seemed unimaginable. I didn't understand it and yet here we are today with me performing tours around the world due to the internet and being able to get my dance on the web.
Take us on a little time-travel journey. Tell us, what blew up the first time? Did it be your YouTube channel? Did you make it your profession?
Many people believe that success within the mainstream and Hollywood industry can lead to success online, but the reality is that it doesn't convert as well as one would imagine. When I did the Tonight Show, So You Think You're a Dancer, The Amazing Race, and more--I was getting a lot of opportunities on television that were traditional, however, they didn't translate much for long-term success. These were also short-term possibilities, but nevertheless, amazing.
What gave me the long-term success in my career and the ability and the ability to continue this more than a decade later, is the development of a community.
The foundation of the community was my dancing tutorials. It was not my intention, but it turned out to be the best option I could have made; being an outstanding teacher and leader in the space and moving a group forward is more difficult to do than just being a great dancer. It was really my work through tutorials, and by teaching students on the web that made me build a solid community that's still going strong until today.
Do you want to share with us the journey of launching DNCR Academy? What was the moment it became an actual company for you?
I created DNCR Academy right at the start of the pandemic. It was something I wanted to create for many years for number of reasons. It's a subscription-based platform that allows people to study dance instructions. It's an elevated experience past my YouTube video. On YouTube I post [contentsomewhat inconsistently and the quality isn't always the highest. This means that we aren't able to bring in lots of guests or instructors. There are a lot of dancers who are enjoying the YouTube tutorials and want to get to get more instruction. This is why I started DNCR Academy for the people who are more committed. Through it, I'm able to recruit great instructors, such as Bollywood dancing, shuffling, or instructors in dance fitness; things that I'd never normally perform on my YouTube channel. But on the [DNCR Academy] platform, it's completely acceptable and truly amazing to present a wide range of styles for our students. In the early days of COVID, I knew I couldn't travel and had the opportunity to devote my time to this, which is why we waited two months to developed the platform . This was in June of 2020. Then it's been 3 amazing three years. We thought that we had a strong community on YouTube however, this has taken the most powerful of this strong community and put them into the middle of a bubble. We have everyone supporting one another. They not only have an online support group learning with each other around the globe They also have an emotional network of friends that are pushing on each other. It's something positive in my own life, and, I believe, for all the dancers in DNCR as well.
Can you tell us more about the community , and what was what drove you to start DNCR? The community existed before the DNCR Academy, or did it develop in conjunction with the Academy? Do you have any idea of it being such a big element for the Academy's growth?
I felt really bad about COVID. It seems like a lot of folks felt the same. It was difficult to be inspired. The process was challenging to establish an exercise routine since you're in the house and you do not have any access. Dance in particular is an activity that is a part of the community. People do dance on their own, but the thing I like about dance is working in a space with my peers and the excitement that comes with that. When all that is taken away, it's tough to find motivation, even for me as choreographer. I was unable to find motivation to continue, and which is why I thought that if I'm going through the same thing, it's likely that an aspiring dancer struggling in the same way and could benefit from a tight-knit community. There was already a community as a result of the YouTube tutorials, but like I mentioned, there wasn't consistency, and to achieve anything it is my opinion that the number essential thing to have in dance] is consistency in your training. The [community] enabled us to hold regular challenges every month, which I think is the best thing we did during our time at DNCR. This isn't just posting tutorials and videos, it's about focusing on one thing that we'll all do in tandem. We're all working to perfect this technique and plan to submit our video by a deadline. That's where we found motivation; the excitement when you see all the other members posting videos and the cool or even constructive feedback received from them. It's about becoming a part of the community and truly helping each other grow and grow. I believe this was the part that was hard to accomplish through YouTube because it seemed more like all of us were doing this [the tutorials] independently. The community allowed us to do the same boat, and that is a huge change and I believe for me as a choreographer, and also to the students who were able to learn consistently.
Any customer stories from your neighborhood that stand out to you? What individual in the group has made an impact on you?
One of my top clients is one who goes by the name of Ray. He's originally from Washington D. C. He's a lawyer and he began dancing when he was in his 40s. He would come home every day from work with the lawyer's suit and make the table to the side to allow him to practice hip-hop dancing, and eventually, he would dance with his children. They created a lot of videos, especially over COVID and learning routines. The result was him appearing on an Disney Channel show and winning the show. Here's this guy who was 40 and was the only person who had never attended a dancing class before and found his love in this community, and ended up being one of the most inspirational people for the members of our community. This kind of achievement is important to highlight because I also began from scratch. I didn't start dancing until 18 years old, but the majority of people do not see it; most people today have seen me on stage alongside famous people and in music videos. It's harder to grasp the struggles that I faced early in my career. However, when you look at someone who's currently starting and traversing the processtogether] and watch how they come out on from the other end and go through this amazing journey-- it's truly inspiring. This really touched all of us in our community. There are countless stories like this, however Ray was an exceptional one.
Are you using your network and users to try out different concepts or products you have for your business?
One of the things that we're always working on is how we help many more people. How do we reach many more people? There are a lot of dancers out there who are looking to excel at the skill is pretty tiny, which is why we are trying to provide instruction on our platform that will take someone to a professional level. We also aim on making it more and more accessible for the individual who just wants to master a routine here and there, anyone who would like to join a club and feel confident. Additionally, we're performing a variety of things related to dance fitness. I was an exercise instructor and really believe that dance is one of the ways you can stay fit both physically and mentally. We're even starting a wedding class because I receive lots of requests to create wedding choreographies however, I don't have the time and so this course will take you through everything you need to learn. The goal is to make it more accessible to the requests that I've received throughout the years. I've always stated that if I had the time and energy to accomplish this that it would be wonderful and help a lot of people. We're now trying to find more time for these classes.
Can you give us the most basic overview of what your strategy on social media is in the present? What have you changed from when the first time you started using YouTube?
It's changed a lot in the last ten years. It's changed with the multiple generations of YouTube and social media in general. In the beginning it was not a competitive platform which meant I could just uploading videos from my classes. This was all there was. Then I started to see the potential of vlogging as a way to create a connection to creators, so I began vlogging behind-the scenes content, and that was really successful between 2016 to 2019. We then began to implement more challenges like mastering a routine within only ten minutes. They did very well.
As COVID hit in 2020, we began to see success with TikTok as well as short-form videos. It was a huge change since then. I'd say that the majority of viewers of dance changed to shorter forms, TikTok in particular, due to the fact that dancing was very well-known on the platform. I was still posting videos on YouTube however a significant portion of my content was focused on shorter-form content, like 15-second dances instead of forty-five-second to minute-long dances.
What's interesting about social media that people don't comprehend unless you've lived for a few generations of it is that there's not going to be an answer that just works forever--because regardless of the field your expertise is, if you find something that works then eventually everybody other people will follow it. And it's happened in the case of dances. Videos of dance classes began to explode and social media became saturated with dance teachers sharing their dance classes. Then, I needed decide on my next step, and it was also copied. There's always a challenge like in any other industry of having to reinvent and invent and develop new and innovative strategies. The only method to discover these ideas that will work is to play darts on the board. Most of them are going to fail however, that's the way to come up with the concept that is loved by the majority of people. It's difficult to know and therefore we adopt the mindset of when I come up with some idea I just take it to the next level. Let's try this, and if the idea fails then great. We'll try something else. It's probably the most effective suggestion I could offer anyone who's trying to make content. Don't be apprehensive and don't think that just simply because it didn't succeed the first time, that it's not going to be successful the next or even third times. Sometimes, you must tweak an idea, mold it until suddenly it happens.
This leads to something we did not discuss the social media algorithm. How much have algorithms affected your business strategy? Do they impact the ability of your strategy to reach an audience?
If you've been on Instagram will know that it's one of the best known. I recall a moment in 2019 where I could create a tour flyer which could get 100,000, 200 likes and hundreds of responses due to it being displayed to all of my 3.9 million Instagram followers. But if I posted that flyer tomorrow, it would likely get only 10% of that [engagement], because the algorithm has been changed. You must therefore be inventive.
Instead of a brochure now the video is a dance that shows the dance taking place, city names are popping out and users can navigate to the caption for more. It's up to you come up with different strategies to operate within the algorithm, because, at the end of the day, there is no way to control the algorithm. So we watch many things (metrics] on time retention. YouTube has changed from being more of an online search engine, to becoming more of a click-through rate-focused platform. Is your title and thumbnail strong enough to get people's attention? The title and thumbnail could be the most impressive video ever made, but if your title and thumbnail aren't appealing to viewers, your video is likely to fail. When people view the first ten seconds of a video and then they leave it and click elsewhere, YouTube is going to declare that everyone loves your thumbnail, however the video's performance isn't there effectively, therefore we're not going to show it to your followers. That's just the way the algorithms function today. The the strategy of a video has become more focused on notions. I am pretty sure that we'll be able to make interesting videos and content but if the video is rapidly learning to perform a certain routine, there are a million options for packaging the title and thumbnail, and the length of the video and its style. All of this can affect content success. It was my experience that I averaged 30 million viewers on a video for about two years. That's ridiculous. Unfortunately, for those who know about the monetization issue due to concerns with copyrights in music, I was not able to monetize most of those videos, but as far as increasing my audience, it was insane. Things have certainly changed in the past few years particularly with TikTok as well as Instagram being the main players in terms of the market part.
Because you mentioned the idea of monetization did that in all affect your plans to launch DNCR Academy, or was solely to get offline on the web?
When people's attention was diverted from YouTube to split between TikTok as well as Instagram, numbers throughout YouTube decreased, which was the main way that I was funding the tutorials, as well as the entire process, was by and monetization...
In COVID, users wanted an increase in content however there was not as much monetization happening on the channel--it just wasn't really possible to scale, and so that was one of the things that was amazing about DNCR. Today, we have subscribers who are paying an annual fee for membership so that we can take these money and invest them into production and new courses. Basically, into all of the things that I wanted to do that YouTube was not able to provide sufficient earnings to achieve. So it was a powerful option financially to grow the tutorials and the platform as well as to offer students the content they asked for.
How can you cope the burnout that comes with every aspect of the social media producing content?
Although I'm not sure if I'm really old, but when it comes to social platforms, I've existed since the stone age. It's pretty crazy the number of generations that have passed to an end, and the reason why I believe people are exhausted is because of some of the things. It seems like they had their expectations and schedule to be a bit too ambitious and heavy in the beginning. In particular, I remember a time from 2016 until the year 2017 when all my acquaintances decided to record daily video blogs. For anyone who's attempted vlogging every day the experience is exhausting. It's a lot of work of editing, filming and conceiving daily is nearly impossible. My channel has always been to a minimum of two uploads a week. It was something I could keep. I made sure that I was on the road. I also ensured that I took breaks. If there wasn't a good song out one week or I wasn't feeling inspired to choreograph, I canceled my class. I ensured that this [creation of content] was something that I could accomplish regularly, which has helped me maintain my longevity.
One of the things I've tried to do to prevent burnout is setting realistic expectations for myself. In the beginning, when you're only starting out, it's best to stick to one at a time or on two different platforms. Make it easy. On YouTube you can upload two times a week. After that, you can make edits to the content, and then cut the content to make it shorter to post it the content on Instagram as well as TikTok. Make it easy to manage. It's best to develop slowly, but still have the spark of enthusiasm and the drive to continue producing content for five or 10 years down the road, then go really hard for a few months, exhaust yourself, eventually, you'll fall off. The key is being consistent. This is a long-term game, even though it feels that things are going at a rapid pace.
Do you have any suggestions for designers who are trying to use social media to increase visitors to their site or product, or even starting their own community?
The most important thing is to figure out if you were in your audience, or customer's shoes, what would make you want to quit an online platform and sign up for a subscription model or a course. There are instances we think "I'll do this and that' and we're thinking about it through our own perspective. Therefore, I conduct a number of polls--I ask my readers frequently what direction do you hope to take next or what would you feel the most enthusiastic about. Sometimes I'm thinking they'd love to choreograph this awesome dance that's super difficult and intricate when they say 'Look, Bro, I'm just looking for some moves that I could show off at a gathering. Then I'm thinking 'Oh, great this week we're going to discover moves that you could try out in a dance party.' It's great to be able to step into the shoes of others.
It's also about providing the value. I think that if you're able to offer value without expecting anything in return or asking for anything in return, and build that confidence, trust, and community, then the moment you offer something that's a paid program or offer you already have the confidence. It's already been a great value and made your customers' lives so much better through what you've provided which they're happy to jump in and be a part of it. I think sometimes we get caught up in making the decision before we have established the customer relationship. And that's one of the best advantages of social media. you can engage with your fans every day, whether it's dance tutorials or vlogging your life with them, which in turn, helps build rapport, building community, and then being like 'Oh I forgot to mention, if you've loved everything you've been doing, here's this thing where you go one step further. It's an effortless transition that people can make instead of meeting your new followers at the beginning and trying to throw them into a group right immediately.
A lot of creators in the space think that really the only method to earn money is through brand and affiliate deals on social media, which you've obviously proven to be incorrect. What do you suggest to young creators about diversifying their income?
Brands and affiliate marketing is a piece of the puzzle. It is a different component of the puzzle. It is important to want to have an element out of the social networks which also generate source of income because at the end of the day there is no way to predict when the algorithm or the rules are going to alter. And that's something that I've learned over the years because there have been periods where I made the bulk of my money from YouTube and was getting the bulk of my earnings via live events and tour in other times, when I made the bulk of my money via TikTok and Instagram as well, and today, it's . In different phases of my professional life, this thing has changed several times. And even if I put all my eggs in one basket and I was simply looking forward to brand partnerships or YouTube to alter their algorithm so I could make more money and earn more, I'd be trapped. were stuck.
Create a community, and begin the process of moving your members from social networks and onto a subscription platform, such as, which you can control your content and the community. Now, you don't have to rely on an algorithm that serves the community with your content. It's just, boom, in DNCR and users can get access to it at any time they want. It gives the power back to the creators--things are rapidly changing and it's more difficult than ever to rely on the monetization of brands and brand partnerships as you're not sure what the social media platforms will take you next.
Do you want to share with us the role has played in allowing you to be in control of and take ownership of your future as an artist?
It [] allowed us a place to put videos where the rules remain the same. That's probably the most important aspect. Like I was saying in the past, there was a time that I could get 30 million views a film on YouTube. But now, with possibly MrBeast and a couple of other exceptions, that's almost impossible, even with a channel that has 13 million users. Only a small percentage of those subscribers are served my material. It's crucial tobuild a community, move the subscribers to a place where you are able to use them as well as be able to access your content regularly. On a basic level something like the email lists and text list can be great to have, but being part of a group apart from social media platforms is the best means to remain in touch as well as to build a passive income as you create, particularly when you're doing something like subscriptions. It's a great method to ensure that your friends are in one place that you can talk to themand for them to contact youas well, but also provide the consistent income stream.
What's the best piece of advice you would offer to entrepreneurs who's just beginning in the space?
I would say to do a lot of research on your subject. Before you ever upload a single piece of content on TikTok take a look at the content for a whole month on Tiktok. It is possible to tinker with your ideas and create content however, I've seen a lot of time wasted because people aren't doing their research prior to. You love fitness and want to start an online fitness business look up the top ten people who are in the fitness industry via social media. You can watch 10 hours of their content, and gain a better understanding of the reasons why they work and then develop your strategy for content from there.
It's true that right now you can access more information than you've ever experienced, particularly via YouTube and TikTok and the solutions are all there. There's no need to completely re-invent the wheel completely and perform an exercise routine that nobody has done before, surely? You just need to come up with a method to accomplish it in your personal style and with your unique voice. And, you can do this by studying people that whom you like, pulling the best things of theirs and incorporating some of your own stuff creating your own content strategy. It's important to realize the need to accept the fact that you don't know. That's what I'm doing right currently. At least once a year I have a couple of weeks where I pretend like I'm not a professional, and I watch. What do the children on TikTok that are fourteen and blowing up doing differently that we OGs in the field don't understand? I can think that some dancing isn't appropriate or something, but there's a reason why people are identifying with it. I must understand the reason it is that I can continue to evolve myself, not only artistically, but also in my company. Putting a lot of time to research is crucial when you're developing your content strategy, and after you've got that plan, it's time be able to push the envelope.
Make your own destiny digital products
The economy of the creator is set to see an explosion within online communities as of 2023. Social networks are also aware and are responding by making the community feature of their own.
However, as Matt said, in order for creators to reach their audiences in a significant way and build the income they desire, they have to get their followers away from social media.
"Brands and affiliate marketing are just one of the pieces of the piece. The other piece is monetization. It is important to have an element off of the social media platforms that is offering a source of income since, at the end of the day, you never know when algorithms or rules may alter. This is something I've learned through the years since there was a time when I was making most of my earnings via YouTube or TikTok but now it's ."
has already supported over 60,000 creative entrepreneurs to earn a collective $4.9 billion. The number of entrepreneurs supported is increasing each second.
We're ditching middlemen to allow you to keep 100% of your earnings in addition to owning your customers, model of business, and brand.
If you're ready to start diversifying your income with digital services, check them for yourself your options with the free trial of 14 days.