Guest Post by Mindi Rosser: 115 Facts You Never Knew About Social Media

Mindi Rosser helps small to medium-sized B2B businesses—and their leaders—look awesome on social media. You can read her blog at this link.

The influence of social media is so overwhelming that it is hard to believe all of the big social media sites are only a decade old. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other popular platforms have the power to influence not only people’s social lives, but almost every aspect of the private and professional sphere.

NUMBER ONE SOCIAL MEDIA SITE

The most popular social media platform in the world is Facebook, with 1.59 billion users. Facebook logins account for 70% of all social media daily logins. Approximately 1.23 billion users log into Facebook for an average of 17 minutes each day. Facebook users generate 4,166,667 new likes, 136,000 new photos, 293,000 statuses, and 510 new posts every single minute.

SOCIAL MEDIA & NEWS

Social media platforms are slowly but surely becoming the leading source of news for millions of people around the globe. Reddit is the most popular social media site for reading news, followed by Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. Facebook is the primary news source for 68% of millennials, while 24% of high school students stay informed through Instagram.

BRANDS & CELEBRITIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Big brands and popular celebrities know just how powerful social media is when it comes to reaching the right audience. This is why brands and celebrities take steps to maintain a strong presence on social media. Coca-Cola is liked by 98,332,327 people on Facebook, Chanel has 12,205,997 Twitter Followers and Lego has an incredible 2,957,749,263 YouTube subscribers.

The most popular celebrity on Facebook is the football star, Cristiano Ronaldo. Singer Katy Perry is one of the most followed celebrities on Twitter, and pop star Justin Bieber has a YouTube account with 11,728,143,967 subscribers.

Take a look at this comprehensive infographic from skilled.co to learn more about the influence that social media has on various aspects of modern life.

 

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13 Great Ways to Cocreate in Social Media to Build Your Tribe Faster

One of the smartest ways to play the Game of Social Media is to cocreate with like-minded people.

What does it mean to cocreate?

When you cocreate, you work together with people in your industry to create content that will build each other’s tribes, thereby introducing each other to your respective audiences and expanding your potential reach for your books, products and services.

As you engage in win-win thinking, you create virtual teams across the social media where together everyone achieves more!

This is a highly effective social media strategy because you reach new audiences and build affinity across social networks.

Here are 13 great ways to cocreate in social media today:

1. Cross blog. Post a blog for a friend on your website for every blog they post for you. This increases the number of links you have throughout the internet and makes it more likely that your friend’s followers will find out about you and vice versa. Here’s an example of a blog I posted for Amazon No. 1 bestselling author Lynne Cockrum-Murphy. Notice how I included links back to her website, the place on Amazon where people can guy her book as well as a picture of the cover of her most recent book. This will help drive people to her website and help find new readers for her book. Meanwhile Lynne posted a blog for me that included a picture of one of my books. By cross blogging, you don’t always have to come up with something new to write about – just post blogs for your friends and they can share your information too.
2. Share, retweet and repost. You create good karma with your social media connections every time you share, retweet and repost other people’s information. This makes it more likely they will share for you when you need help sharing your latest information.
3. Make a list of influencers in your field. An influencer is any individual who has established credibility in their field. One way to find these people is to go to Klout.com. Set up your account by connecting all your social media networks. Then click on “My topics.” For each area you are known for your expertise, there will be a sidebar on the far right listing leaders in that field. Follow these people in the social media. You can make a list on Twitter of the top influencers you are following so that you know who to retweet. You can also keep lists on your computer of key individuals in every social network.
4. Co-teach live streaming events. Whether you use a video conference platform like Zoom.us or Google Hangouts or Livesteam on Facebook, you can create virtual meetings of like-minded people all over the globe. These video conferences can be recorded and saved on your respective websites and Youtube channels. This past month, my yoga friend Suzanne Dulin and I created a FREE event to teach other yogis and holistic practitioners how to be financially successful. We created a Facebook event together, sent out newsletters to our tribes, invited our respective friends, then posted the recording on both of our Youtube channels. I embedded the final video on my blog and on my media page. During the event, we asked for email addresses and gave away a copy of my most recent book about social media marketing. We told everybody about Suzanne’s Facebook group about yoga as well as her catalog of products for yogis. 
5. Post articles about each other in your newsletters. Whether you use Constantcontact.com or ConvertKit.com or Mailchimp.com, include articles from your friends in your newsletters with links back to their business websites,
6. Create a Facebook group, Google+ community or LinkedIn group to encourage cross pollination. 
7. Co-write. Pick a specific topic and have each person write their thoughts on the subject. Then either put the articles together and post in one location or post on your respective websites.
8. Set up a forum on your website to encourage your clients to ask questions and thereby generate content. Here at www.whatissocialmediatoday.com, we created a forum for our clients. Here you can ask questions and also look up articles we have posted on specific topics. This is a great way to generate content for your website in a hurry because you allow your customers to ask the questions and you the webmaster publish the answers. This helps you in your search engine optimization (SEO) because Google will recognize you as an authority on your subject. You can either keep your forum private for paying customers OR make your forum open and available to everybody who logs in.
9. Ask questions on your Facebook feed. You could either ask an innocuous question, such as, “How’s the weather in your neck of the woods today?” or ask questions about topics you need help with in your business, such as, “Does anybody know where I can find a good editor for my book?”
10. Run a contest. The website for readers and authors Goodreads.com offers ongoing Giveaways where you can give away copies of your books. But you can also create contests that you promote throughout your social networks and encourage audience participation.
11. Create Youtube videos together. My good friend Maxine Taylor, Georgia’s first licensed astrologer, have created numerous videos together. She interviewed me about a medical intuitive reading of Donald Trump that we  posted on both of our Youtube channels. We created videos together about the healing powers of gemstones and astrological sun signs. 
12. Interview each other on your respective blogs. If you have a friend who is a fellow author or in the same line of business, interview your friend on your blog and have your friend interview you on his or her blog.
13. Review each other’s books, products and services. Create good karma by writing reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Every business has a place where you can leave a review. For example, my brother Dr. Richard Schulze Jr. an ophthalmologist in Savannah, Georgia, has reviews on Healthgrades.com. Every business really benefits from positive reviews of their products and services. You can share these reviews on your social media networks to spread the good news.

Cocreating is like cross pollination. The news of your good work travels faster if you share it through the social networks of like-minded people. This is very smart social media strategy and ends up being great business as you build your audience faster than if you tried to do it all by yourself.

Want to learn more about how you can Win the Game of Social Media?

Putting all this together takes time and is part of creating a successful social media strategy.

Join Catherine Carrigan and Ramajon Cogan at www.whatissocialmediatoday.com and we will show you how! Call Catherine Carrigan today at 678-612-8816 or email catherine@catherinecarrigan.com or contact Ramajon Cogan at (928) 821-4553 or email wheresramajon@gmail.com.

 

 

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How to Start Your Blogging Career for FREE on Tumblr

You’ve been wanting to start blogging as a way to establish your brand identity in social media, but you don’t have the money to hire a webmaster, purchase a domain name or a WordPress theme or maintain a professional website.

OR you already have a professional website but you’d like to start blogging about an entirely different subject you’re passionate about without all the expense and hassle of web hosting.

Solution: Unleash your creativity and set up your first blog on Tumblr! It’s FREE.

Tumblr is both a social network and a microblogging community for some of the most creative minds in the social media.

An estimated 69 percent of Tumblr’s 550 million monthly users are millennials, young adults age 18 to 34, so while you’re there you expose yourself to some of the youngest, freshest content in the social media.

Like WordPress, you can publish articles on Tumblr but with this very elastic, fresh social network you can post so much more.

There are 7 kinds of content you can create on Tumblr:

1. Text. Here’s where you can post articles just like WordPress.
2. Photos. Maybe you’re not a word person, don’t like writing or are  a visual artist. Share your artwork. You don’t have to be a wordsmith, an author or a witty person. Just add a few words for a caption!
3. Quote. If you’re an author, pick quotes from your book to share on Tumblr. Or maybe you like funny sayings from movies, famous people or politics.
4. Link. You can post a link to a blog you wrote elsewhere or share links to other content on the web.
5. Chat. Share dialogue. If you’re a novelist or playwright, share dialogue from your current works to give people a taste of what you’re writing.
6. Audio. Start typing in the name of a song you like and you can collect your favorite songs on Tumblr. Maybe you have a theme song for the day, or a piece of music that best expresses your vibe.
7. Video. Embed Youtube videos you’ve already uploaded to your Youtube channel or share videos you film from your smart phone. It’s easy!

Once you have created your content on Tumblr, there’s a feature at the bottom of your post that allows you to include hashtags. Be sure to include at least five hashtags with each of your Tumblr posts. Only five hashtags are searchable from the dashboard so more than five hashtags may not be necessary when you post on Tumblr.

Remember that each social network uses hashtags slightly differently. For example, on Instagram, you can post up to 30 hashtags per post. But on Tumblr, the ideal number of hashtags is five.

Here are a few things you can do once you have created your content to post on Tumblr:

1. Set your hashtags at the bottom of your post.
2. Create a custom URL for each post. This is a great way to start using your keywords so that you can get found through the search engines. Look in the top right hand corner of the post message box. See the icon that looks like a gear. Click on that gear icon and create a custom URL. This is quite helpful if you want to get known as an authority on a specific subject, such as “mountain biking” or “practical psychic.”
3. While you have the gear box open, you can also select when you would like to publish your content. You could of course publish immediately but if you are only writing or creating content once a week, you can still stagger your posts to be published over time by selecting the date you want them to go out.
4. You can select privacy settings so that only blog members can see your posts OR you can keep them public.
5. Once you have created your content, you can then share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Reddit. You can also select an embed code to post the information on another website or share your post with your friends on Tumblr. So just like WordPress, you can use Tumblr as your personal website from which you can post to your social media connections.
6. And of course you can share other people’s content on your Tumblr timeline.

With Tumblr, you no longer have an excuse NOT to blog. It’s free, it’s easy and you don’t have to take lessons in WordPress to figure out how to use it.

You can also have more than one blog on Tumblr. So let’s say that your main business is stock market analytics but your hobby is race car driving. You could have a main blog on your business and a secondary blog on your passion. You can create secondary blogs on Tumblr that allow you to take advantage of all the social features, including follow, ask, like and submit.

If you have been thinking about blogging but don’t have the time to learn WordPress or the money to maintain web hosting, start creating in Tumblr. This gives you a place where you can build your blogs and perhaps at a later date move the content to a professional website.

An estimated 78 percent of Tumblr users post directly from their phone. There’s even a dictation feature in your account settings that allows you to dial into a toll free number on Tumblr and create an audio post in seconds.

Dial 1-866-584-6757, leave a message, and create an audio recording that will be posted to your Tumblr blog. You could use this feature for live reporting on any event to give your fans a flavor of what’s happening right now.

Procrastinators, get out of your own way!

Start blogging today with Tumblr. It’s fun. It’s easy. And it’s FREE!

Want to learn more about how you can Win the Game of Social Media?

Putting all this together takes time and is part of creating a successful social media strategy.

Join Catherine Carrigan and Ramajon Cogan at www.whatissocialmediatoday.com and we will show you how! Call Catherine Carrigan today at 678-612-8816 or email catherine@catherinecarrigan.com or contact Ramajon Cogan at (928) 821-4553 or email wheresramajon@gmail.com.

https://ccarriganphotos.tumblr.com/post/156753492146/love-this-song

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13 Great Ways to Boost Your Instagram Account

3 Ways to Win a FREE Copy of Our New Book About Social Media Marketing

You can win a FREE copy of our new book What Is Social Media Today? Get Ready to Win the Game of Social Media.

Here are 3 ways you can win:

1. Enter on the home page of www.whatissocialmediatoday.com.
2. Enter on the home page of Amazon No. 1 bestselling author Catherine Carrigan www.catherinecarrigan.com. 
3. Enter on Goodreads, the largest social media site for readers and authors, at this link.

Get Ready to Win the Game of Social Media teaches a fun and effective way of marketing your business, book, coaching practice or product.

We’ll be giving away 10 FREE copies – all you have to do is enter today!

Here’s what reviewers have been saying about our new book:

” Easy to read, understand, and believe. Get one and get . Catherine is in command. Listen to her wisdom born of experience.” Ben Boyd Jr.

“Easy to read and comprehend. If you want to succeed social media is where it is at and this book is a great guide to harnessing it for your business.” Henry H. Edmunds

If you’ve ever wanted or needed to build a social media presence but felt overwhelmed and unsure where to begin, this book answers the following questions:

• What If You’re Not a Geek?
• Why Do You Need a Social Network?
• How To Build Your Brand Identity with Your Blog
• How to Make A Ritual of Connecting with Your Social Network
• What Happens If You Do Nothing in the Social Media?
• Speak English Please, I’m Not a Computer Want to Learn More About How to Win the Game of Social Media?

Read Get Ready to Win the Game of Social Media and find out how to become a social media genius!

PLUS find a coupon for $500 off our next program here at  www.whatissocialmediatoday.com.

Want to learn more about how you can Win the Game of Social Media?

Putting all this together takes time and is part of creating a successful social media strategy.

Join Catherine Carrigan and Ramajon Cogan at www.whatissocialmediatoday.com and we will show you how! Call Catherine Carrigan today at 678-612-8816 or email catherine@catherinecarrigan.com or contact Ramajon Cogan at (928) 821-4553 or email wheresramajon@gmail.com.

You can watch a FREE video with author Catherine Carrigan on Maxine Taylor’s radio show by clicking the Youtube video below.

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Guest Post by Sally Larsen: 5 Reasons to Choose Organic Skin Care Products

Sally Larsen, creator of Sally B’s Skin Yummies, is a leader in the field of organic skin care and a participant in our program here at www.whatissocialmediatoday.com. Her business experienced a huge increase in sales in 2016 as she embraced social media on a larger scale.You can find out more about her wonderful products at this link.

You want to be healthy, and you want your skin to look its very best. So you pamper your skin with this product and that product, and pay close attention to what you eat. When you choose foods, you more than likely pay attention to the nutrition facts and ingredient lists, choosing foods that fuel your healthy daily allowances and aren’t made with artificial ingredients. But are you as scrupulous with your skin care selections?

Beauty aisles are littered with products and marketing claims promising that their formulas will improve skin appearance and texture, remove dark spots, and reduce the signs of aging. Like fad diets that give temporary results, oftentimes products made with artificial or chemical ingredients offer the same thing – a temporary mask without improving skin from deep within. Studies and experience have taught us that eating organically is the best decision for our overall health, so it can be deduced that organic skin care products are also worth the effort.

Think about a transdermal patch – a small patch that is applied directly to the skin to deliver a dose of medication to the bloodstream. Your skin allows the medication on these patches – most often aids to help people quit smoking, or birth control methods – to enter your skin and alter your body’s functions. This is all topical.  There is no special delivery system in these patches…except for your skin of course. The ingredients in your skin care products are no different. When you massage lotion on your skin, where does it disappear? The ingredients are absorbed by the skin and into the bloodstream.

Choosing organic skin care products takes an extra step. There is a bit of research and due diligence to be done, but it is worth it. Your health is worth it. Here are 5 reasons why it is worth searching out organic and plant-based skin care products:

1. Because you want to put only the healthiest, safest ingredients on your face and body. In the United States, there are few safety regulations within the skin care industry. And that’s a scary thing for your health. Skin care products can play host to a number of chemical ingredients that are skin and health irritants – including parabens, carcinogens, and allergens. An eye-opening fact: there are currently 12,500 ingredients used in skincare products, but the United States has tested only 11% and banned only 8. The European Union, however, has banned 1,100 ingredients, labeling them as hazardous chemicals. Choosing products made with non-toxic and organic ingredients helps to keep your skin and body performing at their very best.
2. You will notice a difference in the tone and texture of your skin.You might have read stories about beauty icons from centuries ago – think Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and Guinevere – who relied on plant-based ingredients for their beauty. We’re finding that there is plenty of truth in legend. Taking our beauty practices back to basics – or back to nature – has proven that our skin craves the gentle and nourishing benefits of organic, plant-based ingredients. While you may be skeptical now, making the switch will have a big impact on your skin’s appearance and health.
3. You are preserving the planet’s health and making it a bit more beautiful, too. Purchasing an organic product potentially removes a chemically laden product from being used. This means that toxic ingredients washed down the drain are not disrupting our delicate eco-systems. With few government regulations on skin care ingredients, keeping certain chemicals out of nature is an initiative that must be taken by skin care manufacturers and consumers. There is progress being made with some states banning ingredients, like plastic, exfoliating micro-beads and Triclosan, but until it becomes more wide spread it is up to you to do your research. Be sure to look for companies who source their ingredients from renewable resources that are sourced ethically and responsibly. This helps to keep our planet’s resources balanced and healthy.
4. Organic products work.  For too long “organic” translated to “granola” and the misconception that organic products could not perform like products made with chemical and artificial ingredients. However, over the years we have found sources for beneficial organic and plant-based ingredients that contribute to our success in making healthy products that work. In fact, we hear every day from customers who are amazed at the effectiveness of our serums or moisturizers. It is why we do what we do each and every day – so that we can share our excitement and successes with everyone around the world.
5. Your Health is Worth It.  We all have a health journey. Whether it is cancer, skin ailments like eczema, or the desire to lose weight, we have found through customer accounts, personal experiences, and research, that eliminating certain chemicals in personal care products can alleviate symptoms. Conscious skin care choices, made in tandem with a healthy lifestyle and diet, can even be preventative solutions for some health issues. The symbiotic relationship we have found between feeding your skin and feeding your body is important to understand when taking inventory of your health and well being.

No matter what type of skin you have – oily, dry, or combination – thoughtful product selection can have a dynamic impact on your overall health. Yes, not just your skin health, but overall health. But don’t take it from us. Make a conscious effort to swap your products out for organic, plant-based alternatives and discover for yourself just how positively your skin, and body, will react to the change.

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FREE Video, What Is Social Media Today: Get Ready to Win the Game of Social Media

Watch a FREE video about our new book What Is Social Media Today: Get Ready to Win the Game of Social Media with author Catherine Carrigan and host Maxine Taylor.

What you’ll learn:

• How to receive a $500 off coupon off the program at www.whatissocialmediatoday.com
• Why your current digital social strategy probably isn’t working
• Why authorpreneurs, ompreneurs, mompreneurs, solopreneurs and entrepreneurs need social media
• How to build your tribe to make more money
• How to receive a FREE 15-minute consultation about your social media marketing strategy

Want to learn more about how you can Win the Game of Social Media?

Putting all this together takes time and is part of creating a successful social media strategy.

Join Catherine Carrigan and Ramajon Cogan at www.whatissocialmediatoday.com and we will show you how! Call Catherine Carrigan today at 678-612-8816 or email catherine@catherinecarrigan.com or contact Ramajon Cogan at (928) 821-4553 or email wheresramajon@gmail.com.

 

 

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