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Father's Day is usually a day for celebration. But on this particular Father's Day in 2014, Jason Stone's home was burglarized. It was only a year prior that he had embarked on his social media marketing journey, creating a personal profile that he then built up to 10,000 followers, an number that seemed dizzying to him at the time.

The criminals knew that he was out of town through his Instagram profile. They cut the power and he received an alert that said his security system had lost its power. Figuring it was just a power outage, he continued to enjoy his mini-vacation to Orlando. Unbeknownst to him, the criminals knew they had about a day to wait before the backup battery in his alarm system ran out. They patiently waited.

Two days after he returned from his trip, Stone was infuriated by the burglary. It was a massive affront to him. He deleted all his social media profiles, vowing never again to allow people to know his whereabouts. However, a month later, he ditched that notion after seeing a friend making thousands of dollars from a single Instagram post.

Related: 7 Marketing Tips to Help Grow Your Brand onInstagram

It was then that he knew he needed to get back on social media, but this time to do it differently. That's when Millionaire Mentor was born, the profile that's amassed2.5 million followers in a very short period. It took Stone just six months to reach 100,000 followers. After that, just six more months to get to 1 million. All authentic.Not one was paid for.

What ensued after this has been a journey across social media that can be categorized as nothing short of amazing. In my conversations with Stone, although he realized the potential for success and monetary gain on the platform, he never thought that social media marketing would create a lifestyle that would allow him to get rich and afford him the freedoms that he enjoys today.

Thanks to social media, in the past 12 months alone, Stone, who only posts affiliate marketing offers on his profile that he thinks would appeal to his target audience, has netted a whopping $7 million in sales. That's without ever selling his own product or service. Simply put, it's an astounding and astonishing number that reveals the allure of becoming an influencer on a platform like Instagram.

Related:10 Tips for MoreInstagram Followers

Stone's social media marketing prowess wasn't something that happened overnight. In fact, in his earliest days, he struggled to gain followers. It wasn't until he joined forces with other Instagramers that his audience really started to skyrocket.

Forming a bond amongst 15 like-minded entrepreneurs, Stone and his newfound friends launched a Kik group. The goal? Give shout-outs to each other on a recurring schedule. Each day, all 15 memberswould give a shout-out to one of its members every single day, rotating the schedule until all 15 were marketed on every profile.

The members included Tim Karskiyev, Joe Duncan from @before5am, Joel Brown from @addicted2success, Steven Mehr from @agentsteven, Mike from @motive8co, Katriel Caledron from @donkarlito_, Brad Cameron @buildyourempire_, Peter Boone from @achievetheimpossible, Jamie Erogan @bossthings_, Farokh Sarmad @mrgoodlife.co, Nathan Chan @foundrand Ruben Chavez @thinkgrowprosper.

The tactic worked. And it was powerful. Each of the profiles that were in this mastermind-like group saw their follower numbers skyrocket. What ensued afterwards, was a platform for Stone and the others that could be leveraged and capitalized, not just for financial gain, but also for influence.

Clearly, most people know just howalluring social media platformslike Instagram and SnapChat are. They're avenues for connecting with the masses and spreading your message. However, not many people reach the saturation that's required to ensure high visibility.

When it comes to marketing anything on social media, without a large footprint, you'll largely fall flat on your face. But getting there is incredible difficult. In my conversations with Stone, there were a few primary strategies that he wielded to build up and amass such a large following. Stick to these strategies, and you'll find success in the social media realm, as long as you don't give up.

Carve out your niche audience. Who are you targeting? Get specific? This is important because you'll be curating your content towards that intended audience. Everything that you do or say needs to geared towards these people. In marketing speak, they call this your demographic.

The more you can define your demographic, the higher your chances for success. If you ignore you target demo and try to go after and appeal to everyone, you'll be less likely to succeed. Millionaire Mentor is a very specific niche market, targeting people that are interested in business opportunities.

Related:6 Ways to Convert YourInstagram Audienceinto Customers

You can't succeed on social media without adding massive amounts of value. Today, that's more important than ever. There's fierce competition in the marketplace, and everyone knows that the stakes are high. For those that can break through the proverbial glass ceiling and build a massive following, tremendous riches and opportunities await.

Find ways you can share your expertise with others. Find ways you can help the people that follow you in some way, shape or form. The more you focus on this mentality, the more likely you'll be to succeed in the long run. Stone did this with motivational sayings that inspired and pushed people to achieve their goals. How will you add value?

Related:InstagramAnalytics: Which Metrics Really Matter?

Stone and many other influencers have leveraged videos to get their message out. Videos, which are done the right way, have the potential for going viral. And, when they acutely appeal to your target audience, they are potent and powerful on many levels.

Take the time to create videos that will appeal to your audience. Use a video editor or hire someone that can help you. Stone had someone create all his videos, investing a small amount of money little by little to building out his brand. He knew that was the surest way to reach the biggest audience.

Related:GQ Places Major Bets onInstagram(and Wins)

Find like-minded entrepreneurs on social media who you can collaborate with. Reach out to them. Build a group. Join a mastermind. Or find some other way that you can team up with other people who might be in a similar situation as yourself, or with a similar amount of followers.

There is power in numbers. You can't expect to do this yourself or go it alone. It's called social media for a reason. Do shout-outs and joint ventures with other people if you want to experience explosive growth in followers and fans over time. Just don't expect it to happen overnight.

Related:A No-BS Framework to Having an EffectiveMastermind Group

Many of the social media influencers that I've communicated with in the past have leveraged hashtags as a way of getting their message across. Years ago, it was far easierto do this when hashtags were relatively new. Today, it takes more focus and effort to achieve hashtag dominance.

Take the time to research the right hashtags and ensure that they're applicable to your audience and your content if you're serious about succeeding at the highest levels on social media.

Robert Adams is a writer, blogger, serial entrepreneur, software engineer, and best-selling author of dozens of technology, SEO, online marketing and self-development books, audiobooksand courses.

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How Social Media Marketing Generated $7 Million in Affiliate Sales for This Entrepreneur - Entrepreneur

Research conducted among more than 71,000 consumers by the Reuters Institute For The Study of Journalism's 2017 Digital News Report, covering 34 countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia, in addition to Taiwan and Hong Kong has found big differences in the way news is consumed.

More than half (51%) of people in the U.S. now get news from social media, up 5% since 2016 and a doubling since 2013.

However, according to Nic Newman, Research Associate, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, "the reality is that, for most of us, social media are not something different but increasingly just part of the everyday media mix". The report shows that 67% of those in the U.S. who use social for news also watch television news, and 66% also visit mainstream news website or apps.

"Just 2% ONLY use social media for news in an average week," added Newman. "This evidence acts as counter to the often-cited theories that we live in our echo chambers much of the time. Most people combine a number of different sources and platforms for news."

Meanwhile, outside of the U.S. and the U.K., the use of social media for news has flattened out and, in some countries there have been significant declines such as in Australia (-6%), Brazil (-6%), Italy (-5%) and Portugal (-4%).

According to the report, while Facebook remains the most popular social media and messaging service for news in all but two countries (Japan and South Korea), the use of Facebook for news fell in more than half of all the regions where a YoY comparison was possible.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp has become the second most popular social service for news in nine of the 36 locations, and the third most popular platform in a further five countries. The report cites several reasons for the rise in popularity of the messaging app including its privacy, encouragement by some mobile networks to use the app by offering unlimited data, and the adoption of the app by some countries leading media outlets, including radio.

Tags: apps, messaging app, news consumption trends, social media

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Report identifies increase in news sharing via messaging apps - BizReport

NEW YORK When Snapchat went public earlier this year, it was a reminder to many small business owners that they need to be part of the social media evolution. But which network? Snapchat? Facebook? Instagram? All of the above?

Many owners opt for a mix, picking services that will be the best marketing tools for their companies.

"Each channel is used in different ways, and should be used in different ways. There's no 'one size fits all,'" says Michelle Vroom, whose public relations company in the Philadelphia suburb of Horsham advises small businesses on how to use social media.

Instagram and Snapchat, for example, have more young users. LinkedIn, for many people, is a tool for professional networking and job searches. The majority of users on Pinterest are women, while Tumblr appeals to social bloggers. There are also channels focused on specific industries, such as Architizer for architects and Glozal for real estate.

Owners shouldn't think in terms of this service or that one, but look at all the options to develop a strategy, experts say.

"They need to think about where their audiences are, what they are reading, what they are doing," says Kenneth Hitchner, public relations and social media director for Creative Marketing Alliance, which is based in Princeton Junction, New Jersey. "If you are marketing to seniors, you're not going to be using the latest social media app like Snapchat because the audience isn't there just like if you are marketing to teens you probably aren't going to use something like LinkedIn."

White Rabbit New York, an online lingerie retailer, uses Instagram to reach customers in their 20s and 30s. Co-owner Mariana Hernandez finds that those shoppers, when they hear about a brand, want to look it up on Instagram. Once they've bought from the company, they also visit its Facebook page, where there are stories, event announcements and other posts.

The New York-based company also uses Pinterest, where users "pin" links to items for reference or for their friends to see. Hernandez continually experiments with different kinds of pictures, videos and content to keep up with the changing tastes of social media users.

"There's a lot of trial and error, seeing what sort of content works on each site," Hernandez says. "We try to stay connected to other startups to see what's working for them."

That kind of experimenting is what draws studioSPACEnyc to Instagram and Snapchat. The company, which creates art installations using nylon string, lights, images and videos, posts about its work on social media and sees the reaction in effect test-marketing the art it sells to companies and organizations.

Prospective customers are more likely to see the company's work on social media, founder Jacob Fisher says. Like other business owners, he uses the data provided by the platforms that show how many visitors his posts get to judge whether the outlet is effective.

"If we look at the analytics of the website and how many people view my Instagram account, we'll see 200 a day on Instagram and 15 on my website," Fisher says.

Facebook is the most widely used social media service, with a 2016 study by the Pew Research Center finding that nearly 80 percent of adults who use the internet are on Facebook. Thirty-two percent use Instagram, 31 percent are Pinterest users, 29 percent are on LinkedIn and 24 percent use Twitter.

The differences among the services go into an owner's social media strategy. Facebook posts are available for years, while some Instagram posts disappear after 24 hours. Companies that use video in their marketing have many options. While YouTube was the online video pioneer, the most popular services also have video capabilities. Twitter is used by companies not just for advertising, but to break news about their products and services.

Abhi Golhar likes Snapchat for its feature allowing users to put dog faces on photos an irreverent add-on that appeals to his sense of fun as he promotes his real estate investment business.

"It gives you the ability to be you," says Golhar, owner of Real Estate Deal Talk in Atlanta. "I'm a crazy, goofy guy and I'm answering questions for investors."

He also uses LinkedIn to reach people who focus on specific topics like real estate investing, and he likes Instagram because it includes hashtags that he can use to start online conversations.

What a company sells can also affect its choices. Consumer products and services that can be beautifully photographed are perfect for Instagram and Snapchat, where images and videos are the main draw. Facebook is set up more so users can click on links that will take them to websites where they can browse or order merchandise.

Jon Leonoudakis uses four different platforms as he advertises "The Sweet Spot," a streaming series about baseball. He uses Facebook because of its 234 million users in the U.S. and Canada, Twitter because he can do quick tweets aimed at people who are baseball fans and Instagram because it has more younger users. Leonoudakis writes longer posts detailing his project on LinkedIn.

Besides being a great advertising tool, social media also gives Leonoudakis' project credibility with streaming services that he wants to sell his series to.

"They ask, 'what are you doing to promote yourselves?'" Leonoudakis says. "When they see we're on social media they know we're in the ebb and flow of the business."

Many companies that don't believe social media can help them grow nonetheless make sure they have a presence on at least one channel.

MemberSuite, which makes software for organizations like trade and industry groups, posts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn although social media doesn't necessarily help it get new customers, CEO Andrew Ryan says. Its news and blog items increase awareness about the Atlanta-based company, and also help it maintain its reputation.

"What (social media) does is give us a sense of credibility and gives our customers confidence in us," Ryan says.

Link:
With many social media options, small businesses need focus - Charleston Post Courier

Kristina: Kristina: What do brands need to change about their current presence on social media?

Ben Cockerell, Director, Global Marketing, Crimson Hexagon: For brands, social media should be used proactively - not just reactively. They often use social to respond to things like customer complaints, which is great, but there are ways for them to get ahead of these issues. Is there an incoming complaint that's starting to become repetitive? For example, airlines often see this with social media posts about delayed or missed connecting flights. By analyzing social media posts, they are able to identify a pattern - is it a certain airport where flights are getting delayed most? Or a specific plane? These conversations can then trickle down throughout the organization, from customer support to engineers, pilots, marketing, and so on. When social insights permeate an organization, crossing into different functions, that's when it's most effective.

Kristina: 4. What are your top 3 tips for brands to better use social media data to shape their ad strategies?

Ben: 1. Start every campaign with a question. Just like any research project, it's important to know what you want to get out of the data before you start running any analysis. Otherwise, you're left with a huge data set that will just leave you perplexed (and completely overwhelmed). 2. Don't just use the data to determine if your campaign was successful - make sure you apply it to future campaigns as well. Be sure to identify trends and patterns to improve not only your targeting, but your messaging as well. 3. Use the agile marketing method. Today, marketing is all about being in the present. With social media, consumers can react to campaigns instantly - meaning your ads can be rejected and ridiculed rather quickly if they're a flop. Instead, build campaigns with smaller, strategic goals that you can easily update.

Tags: advertising, Crimson Hexagon, social marketing, social marketing tips, social marketing trends

Continued here:
Top 3 tips to a better social strategy - BizReport

Is social media marketing really dead? Thats one question business owners, marketers and leaders are currently struggling to answer. According to recent reports, social media platforms are losing their momentum, with the likes of Snapchat losing subscribers and Twitter losing the conversation appeal. This, in turn, is affecting the impact social media marketing has on business.

In a study of B2B buyers, only 19 percentof those surveyed said that social media played an important role in their discovery process. This report, among others from industry influencers, has sparked a new concern about the future of social media in business. But dont be alarmed.

Related: Social Media Matters in Marketing for More Reasons Than You Think

In reality, social media isnt dead. In fact, its not dying anytime soon. It is very much alive and remains an effective tool for marketing your products and services. This is why 78 percentof companies have dedicated entire teams to social media and others have reported more than a 700 percentincrease in social media sales from their efforts on social media.

If you are thinking of boycotting social media in your marketing efforts, think again.

Its undeniable the way we use social media today isnt the way we used it a few years ago. Due to the fast advancement of technology, more people are now online, and the amount of information available is enormous. Users, bombarded with a never-ending flow of information on different social platforms, can only read a fraction of it.

As a business owner, you have a challenge to reach your audience in the midst of all this information. To succeed, you need to:

Know where your readers like to hang out

Understand the type of content they like

Strategically plan your content based on that information

Its the only way you can guarantee readership and an increase in customer base. Thats why a company likeTED, known for its TED Talks, is winning on social media. The company has managed to leverage its content by turning those long videos into short, easily shareable viral videos. They found their winning formula because they understood what their users were looking for.

To understand why you shouldnt give up on social media, you need to understand how it works today. Some time ago, a business could easily go on social media to sell its products and services directly to consumers. Today, the landscape has changed.

People no longer appreciate direct sales on social media. They want to be enticed with interesting information or videos before they decide whether or not to buy what youre selling. Thats why an informational blog post will be shared more times than an advertisement. By posting easily shareable content like videos, images or posts, you will:

Achieve better online visibility

Improve your credibility as an expert

Increase your customer base

Related: 4 Ways to Boost Your Social Media Creativity Game

Through the data you are able to gather on different social media platforms, you can better understand the demographics of your followers, their preferences and their thoughts on your brand. This information can help you generate targeted content that will lead to improved readership, an expanded follower base and increased service inquiries -- all of which are good for business.

In addition to providing valuable insights, social media is a great tool for converting leads to customers. When you respond to their concerns or make them feel special in some way, they regard your company as more desirable. They also become more loyal to the brand and are more likely to recommend your products or services to friends.

Through personalized customer service and regular interaction on social media, your business can gain new customers and retain existing ones very easily.

In todays digital era, the importance of website traffic cannot be overstated. More traffic to your website means more subscribers and more potential customers. You can later convert these subscribers into buyers, increasing sales.

While website traffic can come from different sources, including organic search and links from other websites, social media is a great component of it. When you post clickable content, people share it among their circles, and the cycle can be endless.

At a time when more people are online at one particular time, you can expect increased website traffic from increased social media presence.

Related: 3 Ways to Master Social Media Content Marketing

The reality is social media isnt dead. Is just changing and requires businesses to adjust accordingly. You have a shorter time than before to reach your audience, communicate your intention and draw them to whatever service you provide.

According to research, only 16 percentof your Facebook followers are able to see your company posts organically. And on Twitter, only 10 percentof your followers can see your tweet when its posted. To reach the right users, you need to make sure your content can be found. You can achieve that by sharing the right content at the right time and on the right platform.

Ayodeji Onibalusi is an inbound marketing expert and advocate of high quality digitalmarketing. He has over five years of experience helping companies create winning contentdistribution strategies. You can check out his company...

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Don't Believe Those Reports You're Hearing About the Death of Social-Media Marketing - Entrepreneur