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Are you prepared for the unknown?

Prior to attending the National Preppers and Survivalists Expo in Louisville, Kentucky, I hadn’t put much thought into it. In fact, most days, I don’t even know what I’m going to eat for lunch, let alone what I’d do in the event of lean times — or worse, an apocalypse. 

Turns out, more and more people are interested in learning survivalist techniques. The event was expected to draw in more than 7,000 people over the course of two days — and this is just a small representation of the 3.7 million Americans who classify themselves as preppers or survivalists.

With this many people actively practicing emergency preparedness, you can bet that this already multibillion-dollar business will only continue to climb.

So what’s the secret behind this niche industry’s explosive growth?

An Industry on the Rise

“The first year we did this, we had about 4,000 people and just 45 exhibitors. This year, we’ve nearly doubled.” Ray McCreary, Show Director of NPS Expo, told me. 

While the impressive turnout at the event made it abundantly clear that this industry wasn’t showing any signs of stopping, I was determined to learn more about the uptick in interest surrounding survivalist behavior and preparedness techniques. Why now? 

I sat down with Charley Hogwood, resident Chief Instructor on emergency preparedness and disaster readiness at P.R.E.P, and author of The Survival Group Handbook: How to Plan, Organize, and Lead People for Short or Long Term Survival.

“A lot of [the industry’s recent growth] is based on the current culture at any given time,” Hogwood told me. “People get excited about things like the election, and that causes things to get bigger.”

Hogwood’s explanation reminded me of Wharton Professor Jonah Berger’s work on the transmission of ideas. In short, Berger believes that one of the principles that drives people to share and talk about an idea is triggers — environmental or societal instances that serve as a reminder to make us think about something.

And when it comes to survivalists, it appears that events such as the election bring about enough concern to trigger an increased awareness for the importance of preparing for uncertain times. To see what I mean, just take a look at the following Google Trends chart:

You’ll notice a big spike during November 2012 for the search term “prepping” — the month in which President Obama was elected to a second term. I’d say it’s safe to assume that this is no coincidence.

While this was a fascinating discussion, I wanted to know more about the specifics. What were people thinking about as they started collecting nonperishables and brushing up on their survival skills? What were their core motivations? And still, why now?

Understanding the Core Motivations for Preparedness

“People conjure up a bad image when we talk with them about being a prepper. But it simply means we prepare for things — known and unknown,” explained Panteao Productions instructor, Kyle Harth.

For preppers and survivalists, the “known and unknown” can mean a lot of different things. And contrary to the stereotypes, not all preppers are gearing up to take out zombies in an ominous, apocalyptic world. In fact, the reasoning behind people’s decision to live a prepared lifestyle is often reflected in their individual stories of awakening. 

“My husband also lost his job right when our first (turned out to be only) baby was born. Those first few years were rough,” prepper D’Ann explained in an article detailing how certain preppers got their start.

“My start at prepping began three days after 9/11/2001. While hearing the reports of what was going on and happening in NYC, my wife described the scene as best she could without losing her voice,” another prepper, Jack, wrote in the same article. “I am and have been blind since age 24 . . . When my wife described it to me I turned to her and said, ‘Our world has changed now.'” 

Aware that people often expressed vastly different motivations for preparedness, Dale, host of the Survivalist Prepper podcast, recently polled his Facebook community to gain a better understanding.

According to Dale’s poll, the top three concerns were an economic collapse, grid failure, and natural disasters. 

Having seen economic stability rise and fall across the world, many preppers are concerned that the global economy will soon fall and not get back up.

“I firmly believe it’s [economic collapse] one of the most serious threats we face,” urges Robert Richardson, founder and editor of Off Grid Survival.

“Economies around the world are crashing, countries are drowning in record amounts of debt, and governments continue to pile on new debt like there’s no tomorrow. At some point this debt train is going to come to a screeching halt; when that happens we are going to see panic and chaos like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” he goes on to explain.

As for grid failure, it’s likely that recent instances like the scattered power outages which hit the State Department, White House, U.S. Capitol, and Justice Department back in April, have driven people to become more aware of the vulnerability of America’s power grid.

And with the devastating outcomes of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, Typhoon Haiyan, and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake being broadcast all over the internet, it seems logical that uncertain environments have altered people’s attitudes towards prepping in recent years, pushing more and more people to join in the movement. 

Making Preparedness More Accessible 

The growth of this whole movement can’t just be attributed to increasing concern over economic, environmental, and infrastructure concerns. There are also several reasons why this issue’s reached such a huge audience worldwide.

The Rise of Survival Entertainment

On August 30, 2000, 51.7 million viewers tuned in to find out who would be crowned “Sole Survivor” during the season finale of Survivor: Borneo. The Survivor series — an American reality survival series that chronicles the journey of a marooned group of strangers — began airing in May of 2000, and recently kicked off its 31st season in Cambodia. 

“When Survivor started, there weren’t a lot of shows like ours on the air,” explained host and executive producer Jeff Probst. However, since then, it would appear that the series has pioneered the way for a new wave of survival entertainment to surface.

Here’s just a small sample of the survival shows that have launched since Survivor first aired:

• Survivorman – 2004
• Man vs. Wild – 2006
• The Colony – 2009
• Man, Woman, Wild – 2010
• Dual Survivor – 2010
• Doomsday Preppers – 2012
• Naked & Afraid – 2013
• Doomsday Castle – 2013
• Lost Survivors – 2013
• Marooned with Ed Stafford – 2013
• Survival Live – 2014
• Alone – 2015

What’s interesting about many of these series is that they’ve taken the shape of a social experiment of sorts.

For example, the Emmy-nominated series, Naked & Afraid chronicles the survival experience of a man and a woman who must learn to survive together for 21 days in a rural location. When you tune in, you can’t help but wonder: How will they divide the work? Will gender influence their behavior? Can they work together? It’s pretty fascinating.

“With a social experiment, you genuinely feel like the people are going through something that feels real and authentic. We’re seeing how people react to a certain situation in a real and authentic way,” explains Matthew Kelly, VP of Development and Production at Discovery. 

So while there’s no denying that the show — like most reality shows — is edited to an extent for entertainment, past participants at the expo insisted that what they endured was very real, and at times very painful.

“I found out after just five steps that Tanzania would put thorns in me where I never knew they could go. I knew I could go through this experience and challenge myself, but I didn’t expect it to be this big. I’m graciously glad that it is, and now I want to get survival out to as many people as possible. It will save your life,” three-time Naked & Afraid survivalist EJ “Skullcrusher” Snyder told us. 

Reminiscent of early shows like Big Brother and The Real World, this fusion between reality television and social experimentation has become increasingly popular in modern programs like Married at First Sight, Dating Naked, and other survival series like Alone and Survival Live.

And given the unconventional nature of these experimental survival series and their overall abundance, it’s likely that they’ve had an effect on the industry’s growth. In fact, if you refer to the Google Trends chart we mentioned earlier, you can see that the search volume for prepping begins to steadily increase from 2012 on, when a vast majority of these programs were released. 

Television aside, there’s also been an increase in survival-related film — from blockbuster hits to documentaries and docudramas — that have helped propel the preparedness movement. 

While waiting for a class to begin at the expo, I chatted with an attendee, David, who had traveled from Maryland to check out the events and expand his skill set. When I asked David how he’d gotten his start with prepping, he explained that he became interested in learning more about emergency preparedness after viewing a couple of related documentaries: After Armageddon and American Blackout.

“I realized that this was something I should consider. I wound up passing the documentaries around at work and many people made the decision to start prepping after seeing them too,” he told me.

A Foundation in Education

As I made my way around the expo, I’d noticed that while a lot of booths were pushing things like essential oils, canned food storage, and “bug out” trailers, many of them were more focused on sharing knowledge. 

For example, husband and wife duo Kevin and Tammy, along with their daughter Montanna, were excited to discuss their educational training card game, Survival Simulator, when I stopped by their booth.

How it works is simple: Players draw and discard cards that prompt them to act out a skill-testing scenario.

“This deck plays on the necessity of repetition for training,” explained Kevin. 

But Survival Simulator wasn’t the only education tool that attendees could get their hands on. There were water procurement classes, instructional DVDs, waterless cooking demonstrations, and even some live-action learning on “friction fire 101” thanks to Naked & Afraid participant, Clint Jivoin.

By the end of the day, there were two things I knew for sure: 1) My survival abilities were laughable … no seriously, people laughed at me. 2) Education was the lifeblood of this industry.

To get a better sense of of how this community was creating and sustaining educational content outside of events like this, I took to Google to see what was out there.

I was surprised to find that there weren’t just a few blogs or forums dedicated to prepping and survivalism … there were hundreds:

• Survival Life
• SHTF Plan
• The Survivalist Blog
• The Organic Prepper
• Prepper Forums
• SurvivalBlog
• Off Grid Survival
• American Preppers Network
• Modern Survival Blog
• Doom And Bloom
• Mom With a Prep
• … the list goes on.

What was even more interesting was the social share counts some of the articles received:

It became clear that the community was not only creating resources, but preppers and survivalists everywhere were also actively sharing them. And while this type of social transmission has undoubtedly helped educate and raise awareness, blog articles weren’t the only piece of content they were creating.

I found videos:

And calculators:

And individual and group education programs:

While there was no shortage of self-education resources, I found the group trainings to be most interesting in terms of the advancement of this industry. This is because per my conversation with Charlie Hogwood — who runs the show at P.R.E.P. — I discovered that Mutual Assistance Groups (MAGS) are a huge part of the world of preppers and survivalists.

These groups of similarly minded individuals or families form to assist each other in times of crisis, and work together to ensure that everyone in their circle is educated in all aspects of survival and preparedness. 

“This is the ‘people’ part of prepping,” Hogwood explained.

I liked the sound of that. It meant, if nothing else, the reason why many of these people are drawn to the lifestyle is because it provides them with a sense of belongingness — a common motivation fueling many successful movements.

Ready, Set, Prep

So why the sudden urge to prep? Why the explosive growth? Why now?

While it’s seemingly impossible to pin down one, concrete answer to these questions, the rise in prepared living seems to stem from uncertainty. Whether or not they’ll need to put these plans into action is yet to be determined, but this movement doesn’t seem to be loosing steam anytime soon.

Sponsored content has recently come under fire from writers. Why? There’s an idea of sponsored content being lower in quality and integrity. In some cases, this is definitely true: there are companies out there that pump out slimy sales pushes. But there are also companies that provide a platform for independent, thought-provoking articles. These companies are literally paying journalists and media companies to have their own voice. It’s these pieces of sponsored content and native ad campaigns that are truly great.

Publishers are in a great position to act as consultants, in-tandem with marketers and content strategy consultants: to help brands develop high-performing media platforms. Take Forbes, for instance, whose Custom Content service helps companies create interesting, thoughtful articles. But few publishers are coming to bat. Why? Sponsored content is new, scary, and nebulous terrain. 

Why Publishers are Poised to Succeed With Sponsored Content

Even still, the value-adds outweigh the risks—something publishers are beginning to realize, with 56% citing sponsored content and native advertising as most likely to increase in value over the next two years. Publishers are the ideal complement to marketers, who are looking for ways to amplify their brand messaging and voice. Here’s how:

Publishers Have Credibility and Trust 

Publishers don’t launch as instant go-to industry sources. It takes time for a media company to build a sense of trust and community with the world at large. Publishers spend years and years building up this trust: something that brands and services want to achieve at an accelerated pace.

But publishers are also mediators. You’re trained in the art of turning down hard-to-resist offers to maintain editorial integrity. In sticking true to your advice and word, you’re in a strong position to guide brands through this process too.

Publishers Have the Audience

When it comes to building an audience base, every company wants to do so from the ground up. There were some early players in the sponsored content market who did a great job building a subscriber base early on. But many brands missed out and now have catching up to do. 

As a publisher, you have instant access to the focused and diverse audiences that brands are targeting. This is an extremely strong value proposition that you have as a sponsored content consultant.

Publishers Have Editorial Skills 

Publishers know what it takes to engage an audience and can provide helpful tips that complement your marketing and content strategy. It’s important to keep in mind that publishers offer one perspective, however, and there will be a need to balance these strategies with other types of content marketing approaches. But publishers play a key role in providing creative direction.

Publishers Have Distribution Channels

Publishers are present across platforms and have a reach that outpaces any brand audience. Sponsored content creators need vehicles to carry their messages far, and publishers have the distribution channels to do exactly that.

Your social media and email newsletter presence will be of strong interest to sponsored content creators. Why not partner up? Marketing leaders are hungry for distribution opportunities—which are extremely tough to create from scratch or find through an advertising network.

Publishers Have Research Capabilities

If it’s one thing that marketers need, it’s a platform for customer research. Data is becoming an increasingly important part in the targeting dialogue, and brands need an independent platform to collect it.

Given that you have an audience–an asset to so many companies–you’re in a great position to conduct surveys, implement site tracking, and conduct formal research.

The key to getting started here is to figure out what companies feel like they’re missing. See how you, with your audience and visitor browsing data, can offer value in the form of licensed data.

How to Get Started With Sponsored Content 

You already have the resources that you need to get started: ad inventory, a process for developing content, and ways to drive traffic. Why not gauge interest from your existing advertisers and partners? Start by hopping on a client call to discuss the following:

• Your advertiser’s goals
• Your advertiser’s current interest levels in sponsored content
• Your advertiser’s thoughts about optimization
• Your advertiser’s past experiences with content programs

After going through this process, pitch your advertiser with an irresistible offer. Create a sponsored content program that helps them reach their goals. It’s that simple, and you likely already have what you need to launch, should a deal come through.

Putting The Pen to Paper 

The secret to success with sponsored content is no secret at all. It’s actually a simple formula: have an engaged audience and connect them with valuable information from brands that want to reach them. Create a user experience that is natural, and a value proposition that is strong for both sides. As a publisher, you’re a connector. Embrace the role, and help all parties in your ecosystem succeed.

Keeping up with emerging social media networks is challenging. It’s easy to feel like you’re spreading yourself thin.

That said, maintaining a healthy social media following on all of your networks is even more challenging. You can’t help but want more followers, but if you’re going to extreme lengths just to build up that number with empty names and faces, it’s not worth the time and resources. After all, effective engagement occurs with real, interested followers, not eggs and inactive accounts. 

If you want to streamline your following and uncover analytics that can be used to refine your strategy, you need the right set of tools. Ones that actually work.  

To help, I’ve collected 10 tools that can help you keep on top of your social media following. All the tools vary in price and network specificity, so you’re sure to find something that meets your team’s unique needs. 

10 Time-Saving Tools for Managing Your Social Media Following

1) Crowdfire 

Price: Free

Applicable network(s): Twitter & Instagram

Crowdfire started with a simple desire that many Twitter users had: an easier way to manage your followers.

Nobody likes when someone follows you, only to unfollow you later to improve their follower to following ratio, am I right? It starts to feel like a vanity game.

Luckily, Crowdfire has created a tool to help you identify relevant users to follow — like ones in your industry, or people who are interested in competitors. In doing so, it’s become much easier to build a more meaningful audience. Here’s what else the tool can do:

• Find inactive users and unfollowers
• Find relevant users to follow using “Copy Followers” feature
• Keep track of how your social media updates influence your follower/unfollower stats
• Compare the performance of two accounts using the Comparison tool

2) Commun.it

Price: Starts at $9.99/month

Applicable network(s): Twitter

Commun.it’s main premise is that not all Twitter followers are the same. It’s worth it to find “high value” followers — people who are more likely to connect with your brand. The tool allows users to quickly and easily filter through all of the noise on Twitter so they can prioritize the interactions that really matter. Here are a few of the tools most noteworthy features:

• Sorts tasks by priority
• Identifies “high value” followers
• Automates insights from analytics into campaigns

3) FollowerWonk 

Price: Free for personal use, $99/month for Pro

Applicable network(s): Twitter

There is often key information about people in their Twitter bios that can be used to learn more about them. These short introductions to a person’s Twitter feed aim to distill the purpose of their Twitter existence into 160 characters. Often times, these bios are even search engine optimized. FollowerWonk helps you take advantage of those optimized bios and find the people who want to be found. Here’s what you can expect:

• Search bios to turn up relevant Twitter users
• Track and sort followers
• Compare individual followers
• Match activities to gains and losses

4) SimplyMeasured

Price: Starts at $500/month

Applicable network(s): All

This social analytics tool has been designed with brand marketers and social teams in mind … and it shows. SimplyMeasured’s platform helps give businesses of all sizes more advanced insights into their social media — from the major networks like Facebook to smaller networks like Vine. These insights can then be used to build out successful programs and strategies that draw in the right audience. Here are a few of the tool’s most valuable features:

• Audience analysis across all platforms
• Customer service metrics measurement on Twitter
• Social and website traffic measurement from Google
• Unlimited data storage at no additional charge
• Data accessibility via Excel
• Customizable report themes

5) Social Quant 

Price: $50/month for single user account

Applicable network(s): Twitter

Social Quant’s claim to fame is having one of the best auto-follow algorithms out there. While autofollowing without intent can dilute your audience and make them less invested in your brand, Social Quant’s algorithm is designed to find only the best people out there to follow. Here’s more on what the tool does:

• Identifies real and relevant people on Twitter to follow
• Automatically synthesizes data of your own followers to refine your audience
• Finds people who are most likely to be engaged with your content

6) Iconosquare 

Price: Premium starts at $199/month

Applicable network(s): Instagram

Considering Instagram has only recently begun to widely incorporate functions specifically to businesses, the landscape of third-party platforms around the photo sharing app is a bit sparse. That said, Inconosquare is one of the most robust of those available. 

The tool gives users the ability to track follower growth, the unfollow rate, and how many reciprocal followers they have. In addition, the tool also makes it easy for users to:

• Track hashtag performance
• Track what the best times to post are
• Set up a plugin for posting Instagrams to your FB page
• Set up a vanity URL for your Instagram content

7) Tweepi 

Price: $7.49/month

Applicable network(s): Twitter

Getting rid of the unfollowers is pretty easy for Twitter tools nowadays, as it’s a common tactic for refining your base. However, there are some accounts that are following back that you probably don’t want. Sure, they make the follower count look great, but if they’re an unengaged bunch, it’s an empty number and it’s not helping your ROI in the end.

Tweepi helps you identify dormant accounts and flush them out. And, if there’s someone who’s blatantly offensive in your audience and you want to get rid of them, you can with Tweepi by forcing them to unfollow you. Here’s a simple rundown of some of the tools most noteworthy features:

• Flush out inactive accounts
• Get rid of undesirable followers
• Search for users using geolocation capabilities

8) Social Inbox

Price: Included in all of HubSpot’s plans starting at $200/month

Applicable network(s): Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin & Google+

Social media brings a human element back to marketing. Each platform provides businesses with an opportunity to interact, build relationships, and learn from those they follow … but it can get noisy. HubSpot’s Social Inbox App gives users the tools they need to manage their day-to-day interactions and engagement in a way that makes sense. Here’s a quick look at some of Social Inbox’s capabilities:

• Get a quick hit list of new followers and content that’s resonating
• Schedule and publish posts informed by clicks and interactions data to keep your following engaged
• Tie interactions back to contacts in your HubSpot database
• Create targeted streams for simplified social monitoring

9) ManageFlitter 

Price: Free, starts at $12/month for business accounts

Applicable network(s): Twitter

One of the biggest challenges of social media, and especially Twitter, is finding out when people are online and looking at your content. ManageFlitter has a built in tool to take the guesswork completely out of finding when your followers are online. Here’s a look a few important tasks you can accomplish with the tool:

• Make smart lists of followers/followees
• Search Twitter bios
• Find out when your followers are online the most

10) Likeable Hub 

Price: Free, premium plans start at $19.99/month after free trial

Applicable network(s): Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn

Managing social media can be a grind, and it takes time. No matter what tricks you have, nothing beats good content. Likeable Hub is all about helping businesses provide great content, and promote it effectively.

With customizable, industry-specific content, it makes for your business to attract a qualified following — one that sees the value in your messages. The content is particularly meaningful because it’s not auto-generated, but instead carefully curated by real people. Here’s a closer look at what the tool really does:

• Builds audience with Turbopost™ post amplification
• Tracks different topics on Twitter to find out what your audience cares about
• Tracks page growth and engagement
• Provides a content library to discover content that works best in your industry