Business Tips

Fellow bootstrapping business professionals: Snapchat is all the rage these days. A younger generation has transitioned away from "boring" Twitter and even "old people" social media leader Facebook (now that their parents and grandparents use it daily). All of the ads on these platforms certainly haven't helped either. Snapchat on the other hand is simple, fun, less commercialized, and has far less text to get in your way. A picture is worth a thousand words after all... so a Snapchat video might be worth 10,000! And like social media platform Pinterest , it's most likely heading for a multi-billion dollar IPO this year! ( Update : It's recent IPO values the company at around a staggering $25 Billion ). That means it's here to stay so you need to stop ignoring it and get on board.  Despite the incredible business potential available on a free platform with millions of users, chances are you aren't a Snapchat marketing superstar... yet. You mos...

While the majority of business leaders and marketers are well versed by now in social media marketing , not everyone is on board yet. There are still a lot of companies, C-Suite level executives, and "old school" workers that aren't aware of what social media marketing platforms really offer. Or their knowledge and experience may be stuck 5-10 years in the past when Facebook, Twitter, YouTube , and LinkedIn were the only real players and things were much different! Most business professionals know the benefits of social media marketing, but below I've written a simplified outline on the various social media platforms that are reshaping the world of business today. You'll also find many links to more detailed and advanced articles I've written on individual platforms, strategies, and case studies. Facebook: Facebook, founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and publicly held, is the largest social network with about 2 Billion users worldwide. Over the past 5 years Fa...

Every year the social media landscape shifts as new trends emerge that shape and mold it in different ways. For savvy businesses these trends represent an opportunity to get ahead of the pack and make their mark while engaging a wider audience in the process.  There are already several very noticeable trends that are shaping social media marketing this year. Out of them the 3 that seem to be playing the biggest role are: Live Video  Although live-streaming is nothing new, it is only over the last few years that it has started to be introduced on social media with platforms such as Periscope leading the charge. Now that Facebook has joined in with Facebook Live, and Twitter and Instagram also have their own live video features – the game is truly afoot. Already live video has been shown to increase engagement levels and attract more viewers who stay and watch for longer. In short it is a trend that is likely to define social media marketing for some time.  Social Messag...

Gary Vaynerchuk is a very successful entrepreneur and digital marketer that is getting a lot of attention these days. He has built businesses and taken them to the next level with his hustle, passion, insight, and incredible work ethic. He's a best-selling author, social media influencer , speaker, podcast host, marketing consultant, and pretty much every other multimedia marketing role you can come up with. Vaynerchuk is basically a walking Shark Tank on steroids, mixed with Tony Robbins . Make sure to drink a lot of coffee and try to keep up with him. He was recently featured on the new TV show "Follow The Leader" and he'll even be speaking at this past year's Inbound16 from marketing software company  HubSpot . He preaches the gospel of business  hustle and inspires millions online of marketers and entrepreneurs. Here are some of my favorite inspirational startup quotes from Gary Vaynerchuk: 1)  "Without hustle, talent will only carry you so far." ...

Here are some of my favorite startup quotes from billionaire entrepreneur and  Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel: 1)  "Somewhere along the way, when we were building social media products, we forgot the reason we like to communicate with our friends is because it's fun."  2)  "It would be better for everyone if we deleted everything by default and saved the things that are important to us." 3)  "The social marketing teams of big companies will always figure out a way to advertise on Snapchat. I'd like to create a space for people who have a lot of talent but not a lot of reach." 4)  "The essence of conversation is not which media format we choose to talk to each other with, so we don't differentiate between snaps and chats. It's just someone wanting to talk to you." 5)  "I think, with any new product that's difficult to understand, there are always lots of questions and criticism. I think we have all the right criticism. We...