How to manage your time and time management strategies are something we all need to be focused on going into the new year!

I have struggled with time management for a while now but have never really took the time to hammer down on it because I never actually took the time to see how important it was!

When you manage your time right you figure out how to maximize your time outside of work or school, if you are in either of those, as well as how to get the things you need done without sacrificing ALL of your social life.

The feeling of being needed by friends, family ad significant others is a major component in our happiness so why isolate yourself to work 24/7 if you will never truly be happy then?

These strategies are going to be the ones that I have been testing and trying out for the past month and the ones that I will be using going into the new year so feel free to do the same!

​Not managing my time correctly and focusing on the wrong things have lead me to many setbacks in business and socially and I would not want the same thing to happen to you guys. Especially in college, like I am, where there is so much free time and potnetial for you to succeed if you focus on what matters.

Try to go all in on managing your time and see the difference it can make in your life, don't just dabble in time management strategies.

 A common question when it comes to time management and honesty the answer is different for every person based on your goals.

Making better use of your time and mastering time management starts off by determining what the most important thing you want to do is.

Do you want to have better time management strategies in order to get more done in your business?

Do you want to be able to better manage your time at work?

Do you want to be able to have more time to spend with your family?

Are you just looking for more free time in general in order to pursue your hobbies?

Determining the most important thing is the first step to better manage your time. After that you can start ranking the things you have to do that day in order of most important to least important in order to figure out which order you should be doing each task in.

While it seems easier to "warm up" and do easier things earlier/ less important things earlier in the day in order to get the ball moving, this is not actually the case.

Instead something I am working more and more on, and seeing good results so far, is doing the harder and more important activities first in order to make sure they get done. This makes sure tat you are getting closer to your goals each and everyday!

The final way to start managing your time better is to determine when you have free time and what time is going to be available for you to do everything that needs to be done.

Whether you have class in the morning or at night, or even work a 9-5, you have to figure out when and how much time you have in order to get what you need to done. No matter if it is chasing your business goals, starting anew business or even just managing your household chores to make sue you still have time for your kids!

For those of you still in school, or not in school and working and/or chasing your passions I recommend having you free time in the morning if you are able to determine that. This makes sure you are getting what you need to get done in order to get closer to your business or life goals.

The later you wait in the day to start, the more likely you are to push off the important things as more and more things come up throughout your day!

Plus, when you get what you need to done earlier in the day it allows free time to enjoy the company of friends and family at night... also very important for your physical and mental health!

Managing your time at home is much like I explained above, are you looking to have more time with the family? Are you looking to have more tie for activities? Or are you looking for more time to start a business and then pursue your goals?

Once you decide your goals for better time management, the one time management strategy that works best for me comes into play and it is one of the most simple things you can do!

The only thing you are going to need is a pen and some paper or I like to use a small pocket notebook that is easy to carry around!

Next, depending on your goals it could be different but essentially you write down what has to get done in order of difficulty and how important it is and then start taking action on this list.

If you are looking to start a business with your free time, likely after a 9-5 or after school, that gives you the hours of 6 or 7pm-2am to work and still get enough sleep... more than enough time to work from home when done right.

Start by writing down the 5 things you need to get done, within that period of time, that will push you closer to your goals and that aren't already habits or things you do everyday. Then, order these 5 thing from most important to least important and start taking action on the list you have created, making sure you do the most important things first when you have the most energy.

The same strategy can be applied if you have household chores or tasks to get done, but you are probably going to have more than 5 things as some of the household tasks just have to get done.

Execute the same way though, with the hardest and most important things first while you have the most energy... this has been a game changer for me!

If you have a 9-5 job or even own your own business or just work from home, time management strategies are essential in order to reach and exceed your goals.

The most effective strategy for managing you time at work is going to be writing down the 5 most important things and then doing those from hardest/ most important to least... this is known as the "Powerlist" and it is preached religiously by Andy Frisella!

Other than the Powerlist, by Andy Frisella, another effective time management strategy is time blocking, and while I know that is not a new concept, it actually works.

Sometimes the most powerful things are right in front of us and that is the case with time blocking that works well when you know exactly how much time in the day you are going to have to work, much like you do in a 9-5.

The key is to test and figure out what length of time blocks work for you... I tried hour blocks but ended up just getting more distracted as I felt like I had so much time to get things done and ended up getting nothing done. I found that smaller time blocks of 15-30 minutes work best for me!

Test out a few different time blocks and see what is working the best for YOU!

Hey guys wanted to take a quick break and hear what your goals are for 2018! Hopefully at least one of them is time management if you are struggling with that, much like myself!

Would love to hear from you by connecting with me on Snapchat or even sliding into my Instagram direct messages!

My Snapchat username is-- profitingtools

Follow me and DM me on Instagram though the link below!

Here are some of the time management tips and time management strategies I have found to work and been recommended that work for other millennial entrepreneurs in our community. As usual, thee is no order and what works for me might no work for you!

So, test them and find out what is getting you results and what works for YOU. Don't just give up when one thing doesn't work!

1. Do the most important/ hardest things first.
2. Earlier in the day you start the better.
3. Leave time for family, friends, activities on certain days in the evening or whenever works for you.
4. Make it a priority to plan your day the night before.
5. Block schedule your day
6. Figure out what your goals are, plan your day around them.
7. Figure out what works for YOU.
8. Constantly test new strategies in order to get a little better.
9. Keep a pocket journal to manage time, write down ideas, etc.
10. If focusing on managing time for your goals or businesses... stick to the Powerlist, from Andy Frisella, and don't write down more than 5 things that are the most important to do. The more you write down the less you will accomplish. A large list isn't always better!

I hope you guys took away so great tips from this article and are going to join me in focusing on time management going into 2018! It can change the whole course of your year and help you achieve things you never thought possible.

Have a great new years,
​Taylor

How about nearly free marketing and attention for your business? How does that sound?

Pretty amazing doesn't it?

But is that even possible or how "cheap" can it be when your budget is next to nothing like mine, and many of yours likely are when you are just getting started running your online business?

That is where social media comes into play, it gives you the attention you need for your brand and/or business without the costs of traditional advertising such as TV or Radio.

Businesses live off of attention and social media gives us a way to "day trade attention" according to Gary Vaynerchuk, and this is the one thing you should be focused on when starting your business.

Get the attention and provide value, that leads to the basis of increasing your sales for your business!

As mentioned before, Gary Vayerchuk likes to hammer down the importance of attention in your business and how that is what keeps the business alive and thriving. 

One of the main benefits of social media is getting that attention to your business at a fraction of the cost of traditional media such as TV, radio, etc that cost thousands of dollars to even get an ad up.

Compared to social media where you can get an ad up for FREE if you post it, or even for around $10-$100 through social media influencers!

Some platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram have their own tools for running ads and promoting your business that can get your ad in front of thousands of people for juts a couple of dollars. These tools are really under used in marketing at the moment, so you should jump on the train and get ahead before prices skyrocket!

Not only are these ads cheap, they are also much more targeted than any other ads you put up. Say you have a billboard or radio ad for your business, other than a few points such as people who listen to a certain type of music or live in a certain area, this is not really a targeted ad.

Compare that to Facebook's ad platform, where you can target by country, interests, age, gender, and more! You really can't beat that because a more targeted audience means you are getting a better bang for your buck. 

Another benefit that social media can have in your business is that it allows you to connect with your customers in a way other platforms can't compete with.

What other platform allows you to have conversations one on one with your clients or let you build  community within the platform? Not many and that is why social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are essential to be using for your business.

They give you a way to build trust and a sense of community, increasing your long term and not short term sales like ads do. People buy from who they trust, so consistency in posting and responding and engaging to comments is the way you build that trust. 

If you are unsure about how to use social media to connect and engage with your followers, Gary Vaynerchuk wrote a book about exactly how to do that called-- The Thank You Economy.

The first thing to realize when asking what is the best social media platform for your business is that each platform has it's own voice and what works for each platform... whether it be just engaging or using links to drive sales... you have to respect each platform and use it the way it was meant to be used!

I am just going to go over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at a glance here and explain what works for me on each platform If you are looking for a more in depth analysis, with examples, check out the book: Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuck!

To start off with, my hands down favorite social media platform for business... Instagram. Instagram is one of the top social media platforms for business because of both the amount of users on the platform, even though Facebook is bigger, but more importantly, how engaged the people on the platform are with one another.

Instagram is a powerful content platform for business, focused around images and creating value through images captions for your audience. It allows you to be found by other accounts through the hashtag feature as well as through location if you have your business located in a certain area.

One of my favorite parts of this platform is the comment feature as it is super easy to use and allows you to reply to comments as well as add you insights on others posts. This is exactly how you engage with your audience!

Finally, Instagram has my favorite direct messaging platform for reaching out to both customers for sales as well as influencers to work with. You can access your direct messages easily at the top of your feed unlike platforms like Facebook where you have to go through a separate messaging app!

My next favorite platform is Facebook, less for the content aspect and more for the advertising platform they have. Facebook offers you the biggest reach with the most users on their platform but to get any sort of exposure it is going to cost you money.

Facebook is great for putting out videos, doing live streams or putting out your blog posts and engaging captions. But to use the platform, or even reach all of your audience, you are going to have to pay. 

While many of you are probably thinking "well shit, I have a small budget," don't worry because this platform has super cheap, and targeted advertising! You can run Facebook ads for as little as a couple of dollars and reach a thousands of targeted people!

Plus, since Facebook owns Instagram, the Facebook ad platform lets you connect to Instagram and reach even more people!

The final platform I am going to touch on is Twitter, and how to use this platform is pretty straight forward. 

Twitter isn't as powerful when it comes to finding accounts through hashtags or for post engagement just because of the sheer amount of tweets that get posted everyday, without an algorithm to organize them. It is just like a mashup of who you are following, which can be hard for some accounts and businesses.

The trick here is going to be sharing valuable pieces of information in your industry as well as for your audience.

But the most important thing to market and engage on Twitter is to find your voice on the platform. A great example of this is Wendy's responding sarcastically to tweets about them. Find your voice and start responding to Tweets around your industry, at the very least you will start conversations that could lead to business relationships or sales!

Just a little break midway through this blog to get your opinion and let you connect with the community of millennial entrepreneurs some more and continue the conversation!

Check us out on snapchat: profitingtools

or on other platforms by clicking below! Would love to hear from you so shoot us a DM if you have any questions and came from the blog!

And we are back... :)

​Social Media, as mentioned above, is one of the best marketing platforms for your business, whether it be an online business or a brick and mortar business. There are a few ways to tackle marketing through social media and I am going to go over my two favorite.

The first one is pretty straight forward and effective, that is using the platform on Instagram or Facebook to promote your posts, products, page, etc! This is as simple as going to an Instagram or Facebook post and pressing "promote" on Instagram or "boost" on Facebook.

From there you set the budget, enter your target audience, and enter the duration of the ad. Then you enter a payment method and you are done, simple as that! On Facebook, you can also do things such as promote your page, to get more likes, promote your website to get more clicks and more!

​The next way to market your business on social media is through what we call "infuencers." Infuencers are people on social media, usually through Instagram, with a large and engaged following! 

This one takes a little more work then the promoted posts but has the potential to work a hell of a lot better if you are trying to grow your Instagram account!

You start out by searching keywords in your industry or going to suggested followers of large accounts in your industry and finding accounts that have a following of ideally over 10K and with a following that is liking and commenting a good amount on their pictures.

Then you simply start reaching out to the and direct messaging them to see if they do shoutouts or sponsored posts if you are looking to do more than one post. They will send you their prices and you ca compare across other accounts to see where you can get the most bang for your buck!

Payments are usually through PayPal for these shoutouts so make sure you have an account setup on PayPayl to make the transaction easy!

If you are looking for a place to start your shoutouts I own a few accounts that I use to shoutout members of the profitingtools community at a great price, I will include the links to those Instagram accounts below!

The first step to start social media marketing for your business is to determine what platform is going to be the best for you!

Do you have more of a personal brand and want to start focusing on YouTube and Snapchat?

Do you have a business or service that you could create cool content for on Instagram and Facebook?

Do you have more of the Etsy or Pinterest type of content?

Figuring out your social media platforms of choice is always the first step and I would always recommend using Facebook and Instagram no matter what!

After that, time to figure out what type of content you are going to be posting and this is the most important part!

We have to realize that there are thousands of other pages around the same niche as you so what are you going to do to stand out from them?

You have to create content that brings them value of some sort... whether that be entertainment, teaching them something, helping them do something better, r whatever you can to help yourself stand out from these other pages!

This is your "voice" for the page and is essential to help you stand out on all platforms so make sure it is authentic to you and you aren't putting on a fake persona!

Finally, consistency in your posts, the sames times everyday and the same amount of posts. I struggled with this early on because I wasn't posting consistently across the platforms and therefore I wasn't growing like I wanted to.

Once I started to find the best times for my posts and starting to post multiple Instagram and Snapchat stories each day, I started to see consistent growth on the platforms!! 

Just gonna throw out some of the tips that have helped me the most in this section, no real order and test a few out because what might work for me might not work for you!

Hope you all enjoyed this post on how to use social media to market your business! I know this was a more basic or beginner blog post and I will be posting more in depth ones in the future so stay tuned!

Thanks for the support and if you are looking to connect even more check out the links to join the community for millennial entrepreneurs on social media!

​-Taylor

You may hear all of the stories of people dropping out of college to start a business, from the dude (or lady) you see on Instagram to Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.

But that might not be an option for all of us, or at least not at the moment....

Maybe your parents and grandparents are paying for your college, maybe you aren't at the point in your entrepreneurial journey where you want to drop out of college, or maybe dropping out of college isn't something you even want to do!

We are all on our own path on this journey we call entrepreneurship and since I am also in college, for the moment at least:), I thought I would make this post on how to start an online business while in college!

These steps are more in the general terms around how to structure your day and habits to form as well as strategies to make it a little easier as we know it is damn hard work to go to college in general!

And these strategies will work for both online businesses and any other type of business or side hustle you are looking to start, online or offline!

​Let's get started, I know you all are busy!

This is pretty much personal preference other than one thing, block them together!

Essentially you are going to want to have all of your classes for the day either in the morning or at night, whatever works for you and your sleep habits! For me it is in the afternoon just because of my sleep habits and staying up late working.

​You could like going to bed early and getting up early to work, that is just as good! Just make sure you are getting the right amount of sleep, that is essential if you want to get anything done effectively during the day!

You hear all these stories of people staying up late and waking up early to "grind" but if you aren't getting at least 6 hours of sleeps most days of the week, especially around college age, you are actually harming your body. What good does it do you to make all this money if you aren't healthy or aren't able to enjoy it?

By scheduling your classes all at one time of the day it allows you to work on your business or side hustle for the rest of the day without being distracted or having to worry about getting ready for class every few hours.

​It allows you to get into a "flow" of your work and that is when you get the most done and will start making big progress towards your goals!

Structuring your classes is going to be the first step you take while trying to start and online business in college, managing your time is the next major thing to focus on.

Time management during the time you are not in classes is going to be key here! This is because you are going to have to manage everything from learning, to workouts, eating, doing homework, studying and most importantly.... working on your business & goals!

What works best for me, since we are scheduling our classes all at one time of the day, it allows us to create time blocks for the hours we are not in class. I usually work in hour or half hour blocks depending on what I am doing.

I take the amount of time that I have after class, and then break it down into blocks... how much I need for homework, usually at least an hour block for workouts, and hour at the end of the day (or beginning for reading) and then focus the rest on your business.

For the business blocks for your day you are going to want to create what Andy Frisella calls "The Powerlist" and focus only on the task that are most important for achieving your goals.

The powerlist helps you stay focused on what is really important, rather than getting distracted on small activities that don't do much for you and your goals!

Since we are in college, or even school, or hell this would work for having another job as well... you need to stay focused on the tasks that push you farther down the journey to success, like making more sales, rather than smaller tasks that are less important and don' do much for you!

I'm not sure if this is going to work for everybody, but this is what has worked very well for me both in high school and college, while running businesses on the side... do what works for you in terms of schoolwork.

I always used to figure out the work that REALLY needed to be done in class or how much I really needed to study in order to learn the material in order for me to pass. It turns out what worked for me was not studying very much and finding out ways to get what needed to be done in minimal work. 

This allowed me the maximum time available for me to work on my businesses and side hustles. I'm not at all saying this is the only way, you have to figure out how to efficiently do the work you need to get done , in minimal time!

I found the more I was studying, that it really wasn't doing me any better so I decided to just get the main points down and study for max of an hour since I didn't retain much information after that.

Also, leverage the relationships you have with your friends, or make friends in your classes, so that if you are super busy one nights they can throw you some answers to a bullshit worksheet or busy work that you don't really need to be doing!

The key takeaway here is to figure out what works for you and how you can get what needs to be done quickly but still effectively and do well on it... it is not as hard as you think to do this, just test some study/ homework habits and you will find it relatively quickly!

This allows you to quickly, yet effectively get your schoolwork done while still starting an online business in college so you can start earning extra money as a college student! Whether you plan to use this business to pay for school or pursue it full time, it is a great way to earn extra money while in college.

I know your time is limited so what are going to be the aspects of your business you can focus on each day in order to maximize your time and not waste it on small activities that don't push towards your goals!

These, again, are not the only things to focus on, just some of what has worked for me. It should be adjusted based on the industry of your business, so take these as suggestions rather than a set in stone plan on what to focus on!

The first is sales, because without sales and money coming into the business, there is no business! You have to get in front of clients and unless you can hire someone to do so for you, but if not this is going to be what you spend a ton of time doing.

Whether it be emailing/ calling leads or even setting up sales funnels... sales is going to be a major priority just because you need them to keep your business afloat.

Next, marketing is going to be another focus that you really need to hammer down as this is what brings attention to your business. 

Without attention, your business won't sell anything.. simple as that. No matter how good your product or service is, nobody will know about it and in turn nobody will buy it. As Gary Vaynerchuk says "Attention is the oxygen of your business."

Finally, social media is going to be the last place I recommend spending a decent amount of time as it is where you are able to market, build your brand, grow a following of loyal followers and most importantly-- connect with your customers in a more personal way.

Social media allows you to provide value to your customers and connect with them in a real time and personal way, something email fails to do! It also allows you to create business relationships and connections by engaging in communities on each platform.

You can't succeed alone, so why not try an form relationships through social media!?

Before I move onto some strategies for growing the online business, while you just started it from your dorm or while in college, just wanted to make sure that you connect with us on a few social media platforms if you are interested in seeing more content like this! PLUS a FREE Social Media Strategy guide if you click the link below:

snapchat: profitingtools

Many of you reading this are in college or of college age, maybe a little older or younger, so I am going to give you a few ways to reach out to clients for sales strategies that are an effective use of your time, since many of use are looking for efficient strategies to grow our online businesses, based on our lack of time!

The first strategy is through direct messages, specifically on Instagram as that platform is easiest to message on and people just check those direct messages more often.

The key here is going to be finding accounts within your niche, who you believe you could help, and reaching out to them to explain how you can help them!

The important thing is going to not be forcing a sale right away rather explaining what it is that you do, how you can help them and just engaging in conversation around the industry.

​Don't come full force at the with a sale during first contact, it is rare to make a sale that fast... focus on building a relationship!

Also keep in mind to space out the amount of DM's you send on Instagram, so that you don't get flagged for spam on Instagram!

The next strategy for sales is going to be using things such as leadpages to start creating landing pages and sales funnels for your products or services. This is a great strategy if you know how to get traffic online or on social media because it is pretty much automatic once you get them into your funnel.

A funnel consists of a series of pages that lead your buyer through the sales process without you directly walking them through it... a super effective strategy when used right, with the help of platforms such as leadpages!

Much like the sales strategies, marketing strategies are going to be simple and easy to implement and just a place to start from while building your business!

To start with, make sure you are active on social media platforms as this is one of the best marketing strategies, to build up an active following on social media of people who care what you have to say and will buy from you!

This takes a while ad is more of a long term marketing play, so if you are looking for more of a short term marketing play, in addition to the long term play, I suggest looking into the strategy below!

The next marketing strategy is more of a passive strategy, as you just set up your funnel and pay to get people to go through it and get leads for sales.

You can do this through Google Adwords as well as Facebook Marketing platforms and both make it super easy to get started and target the right people that will drive sales!

Once you set up these funnels, through leadpages or click funnels.. or even just making website pages that guide your buyers through to the sale, you connect it to your Facebook or Google Campaigns and then just start running it!

​Easy as that and perfect for those of us in college because we don't have to sit around all day manually collecting leads, these campaigns will do it or us.

Just make sure to be constantly testing and improving your pages or testing new audiences/ changing us the ads on the campaign to see what is working and what isn't working!

These two are a great basis for getting your marketing game up and running while we are trying to go to class at the same time!

Hope that you all enjoyed this post and it helped you out a little while figuring out how to start an online business while still in college! If there is anything else you have questions about hit me up in the comment section below and let me know if you want to see more about running a business in college or even high school!

Thanks,
​Taylor

Back by popular demand, we are diving into some of my favorite apps for creating content on your iPhone or android device! As well as how to optimize your social media content!

Yes, they are connected to us all the time.... why not figure out how to make money from our phone and social media? But to do that you need to create the best content so that you can actually sell products!

You can't grow a crappy social media page, no matter how much money you through at it. People will click on it to follow from an ad and not follow you if your content sucks.

I want to save you from this and wasted marketing dollars so I am going to show you how to create content using the best apps, in my opinion at least!

I'm also going to show you the types of examples of social media content ideas and what is working the best, because you don't want to just be making random pieces of content or putting out random quotes. You want to create content that is of value to your audience. 

Hell, if you stick around until the end of the blog then I might even throw in some extra tools and resources for how to create social media content or even a FREE social media guide... Stay tuned (or just scroll to the bottom of the blog is learning and bettering yourself isn't "Your thing")... ;)

As I touched on above... you can't grow a shitty page.

I can't stress this enough, you have to have good content if you wan people to follow you. Put yourself in their shoes, if someone you come across has good content and you relate to it, you are going to follow.. if they have shit content and you just have no reason to follow them then you aren't going to follow them.

Why would it be any different that it is your page?!

It's not. You have to realize that nobody cares as much as you think they do about your page. Nobody is going to care about the page as much as you do and you have to be okay with that, just keep creating social media content that makes them come back!

And they might not care what you have to say right away but the more value you bring them, the more they are going to start coming back to your page and the more they are going to start caring about what you have to say! It's a process, you have to respect the process!

PLUS, if you are planning on creating a product or service to sell through your page you need good content that will build solid audience that trusts you. Content is the first step to trust and without trust people won't buy from you. Same goes with brands, where content is even more important because that is what builds your following and gets more attention to your page, in other words... without good content there will be no brand!

How about we get into some resources now and by the way these are in no real order and are just what I use... there are many other tools out there, for creating social media content, so don't be afraid to explore other options and let me know what ones are good and what ones aren't... I am always looking for new resources that are beneficial to the community!

Canva has one of the best interfaces and templates I have found in years and they make it super easy to figure out how to create social media content. They even give us social media content ideas with some of their templates offered on the app!

They have templates for everything from YouTube banners to Facebook ads and even Instagram and Twitter Posts! The templates are some of the best free ones you can get in the industry and in my opinion are unmatched if you are looking for a template for your social media content rather than just putting text over an image!

They even have other templates for things such as eBooks, letterheads, PDFs and more! This really is the go to for creating content! Plus the app they have has almost all of the same templates and features as the web version does so there is no reason you shouldn't start looking at content ideas here when you need a template!

Not everyone has the design skills in Photoshop or other editing tools so why not use a professionally made template to insert your images and content into, and start taking your page to the next level!

Looks like I am already adding resources to this blog post with a two in one here! The reason I combined these two apps together is because the pretty much do the same thing and I use them the same way, which one I use pretty much depends on the day or what type of social media content I want to create!

Both of these apps are my favorites, on the app store, as well as Phonto (opps added another tool so the count is at 7;)), for creating content where you need simple edits and to put text over the images!

Essentially, each of these apps have their own style of fonts and layouts for their fonts to put them on top of images so I choose the app based on the type of font/ layout that I want.

All of the apps allow for simple photo edits as well such as brightness, color, filters, etc and they all allow you to upload your own images so that you can start creating even more personal content!

Adding text over your images is a popular technique because it allow you to convey a message to your followers without them having to click into the caption... ad these are the apps that the top people use to create thee types of images!

Looking for the tools and edits of an internet photo editor, but from the convenience of your phone? Well, that is exactly what Pixlr is and it is totally free! 

From basic to a little more advanced editing tools compared to the other free apps out there, Pixlr has pretty much anything you could want or need from an editing app on your phone.

While Pixlr doesn't have a great text feature (or at least as easy to use) as some of the other apps I already listed, it makes up for it elsewhere such as with the ability to overlay images on top of each other!

If you follow or have checked me out on Instagram (@profitingtools) you know I use this feature most often to overlay both my logo as well as other images, say a book cover or podcast episode. This is the only reason I use Pixlr to be honest, a feature that many other apps don't have and it is one of the most powerful features as it can add another element to your pictures!

No doubt one of the most important tools for creating social media content if you are looking for a tool that allows you to overlay your logo onto your social media content.

Hands down my favorite free editor for pictures on `the app store. Everyone has heard of Photoshop and this is the mobile version with just the right amount of features and everything you would need to edit an image on your iPhone!

It doesn't get better than this with some of the edits that you previously could only get on a computer plus some of the others like filters, effects and more!

I use this for both Profiting Tools as well as my personal Instagram. The whole point of social media is to create an image that stands out and entertains people so why not edit to make your images pop?! Create your theme and that is how you grow a page, with great images!

It is no doubt that the future of social media is going to be in videos so why not start incorporating them into your feed every couple of posts?

These two apps are my favorite after testing out a few free and paid ones. Regrammer is for taking videos from Instagram and reposting them on your own Instagram if you feel they could be valuable to your followers! Just make sure you give credit to whoever created the video:)

To get the link you click the three dots in the top right of the Instagram post, click share and then copy link.. then just paste the link into the app and boom you're done!

Then, Videoshop is one of my favorite video editors on the app store as it is simple to use, clean layout and has a ton of effects to choose from!

From adding text and music to your videos, to combining videos and much, much more this app is well worth the couple of dollars to create high quality content on social media pages!! Just started using it so I will let you all know how to use more of the features once I dive in deeper!

Thank you for reading yet another blog and hopefully you can try out some of these apps and let me know what you think of them!!

Thanks again and have a great week,
​Taylor

Snapchat defiantly challenges us and our marketing creativity when it comes to running a business account on their platform. 

No search feature really for accounts like the powerful ones on Facebook or Instagram, no hashtags to find your account ore anything of that sort. And on one of the most powerful marketing and social media platforms out there. they make it a challenge but if you figure out how to crack the code you can reap the benefits like many online marketing mentors are doing.

 People like Kylie Jenner, Tai Lopez, Gary Vaynerchuk and even smaller business owners have found out how to crack the code to growing their Snapchat following FAST! While we might not be able to grow at the rate that they are able to, we can defiantly learn from some of their lessons and start applying them in our own business!

Don't forget about this powerful platform in business, no longer is this just an app to send random pictures to your friends. It can be one of the most powerful marketing platforms when used right.

With over 178 million active daily users on Snapchat there is no doubting the power of this app for communication and even marketing! Snapchat can be one of the best ways to sell if you learn how to promote your business on Snapchat!

Snapchat allows you to give a more "behind the scenes" or personal aspect to your business and brand by having you post short video clips or photos throughout the day for your followers to see. Usually they are more towards entertainment and help you engage on a more personal level with your audience!

This means that you now have a platform to develop the voice for your brand, build trust with your customers by giving a voice to your brand and ultimately increase your awareness and sales!

Snapchat also has some pretty dope features they can offer brands such as the power to put a link into your snapchat so that all the person viewing has to do is swipe up and then BOOM! They are then on your website or checking out your product.

There's few other platforms that allow you to swipe up and visit an account or website right from the piece of content itself, unless you happen to have enough Instagram followers to "unlock" this feature on Instagram stories!

​The only problem there is with this feature is that in order for people to swipe up, they have to be able to see your story first and the only way for them to do that is to be your friend. And with there being no search feature... it ca be a struggle for people to add you, or even find you on Snapchat!

The one thing you can't do on Snapchat, like you can on Instagram, is create a Snapchat business account. But that is just a minor thing that doesn't matter in the log run if you look at the upside of using Snapchat in Business!
​
We have studied some of the larger accounts and found ways to improve and grow your Snapchat audience though so I though I would share some with you and show you how to get snapchat followers for business!

Before diving into these strategies, I just wanted to highlight some of my favorite Snapchat accounts and the Snapchat accounts with the largest followings and have shown the power that Snapchat can have in a marketing plan!

Of course Tai Lopez was going to make an appearance on this blog posts just for the simple fact that he has close to mastered the art of Snapchat marketing and growing on Snapchat!

He runs daily giveaways, business lessons and book advice from his now famous Snapchat. He has grown a massive following on the platform, something that very few have done and he has a handful of lessons to teach us from someone who was relatively "normal" and not a celebrity personality when he started his Snapchat like some of the other big Snapchat accounts like Kylie Jenner and Dj Khaled!

Coming out of nowhere was DJ Kahled after being relatively quiet for years, he come back bigger then ever when he opened his Snapchat stories to the public. It no doubt had a large impact on his career, allowing him to get his voice out there and even getting him many brand deals!

His Snapchat focused on inspiring the younger generation and he did much more than that, he created a whole movement and brand around himself and his family. More music and more attention came from this power move by DJ Khaled and that is why he is one of the biggest names on Snapchat now!

Kylie Jenner, 20 years old an creating a brand around herself worth over $420 million thanks to the help of social media.... especially Snapchat! Doesn't get more powerful then that, this is someone who has come probably as close as you can to mastering Snapchat and the platform that can work wonders!

By posting snaps of her lifestyle, others found that they wanted to follow because she was living the "dream life" of many, at least from the outside and she stated to build a brand around that. She found what she could do to stand out and focused solely on that. And it is working very well for her as she has grown one of the largest followings on Snapchat. When people ask who has the largest Snapchat following, Kylie is generally my first answer!

With exclusive content and an inside look at the "behind the scenes" of her life.. her Snapchat was booming and then she started rolling out her cosmetics lines using the power of social media and the results were amazing. Thanks to features on Snapchat, such as the ability to add a link to her store that people can swipe up and visit, she was able to get hundreds of thousands of visits to her website in hours or even a matter of minutes, thanks to her large following!

Even though we may not be a celebrity personality, or at least not yet, we can still learn and apply the marketing lessons that these people used to grow their Snapchat audiences, to our own businesses and snapchats!

This is the advice and lessons you need to start growing on Snapchat and bringing your business to the next level!

Hands down of of the best lessons on Snapchat, it includes cross promotion and doesn't require that big of an audience on other platforms!

Unlike other cross promotion techniques that work for promoting your Snapchat, like posting your Snapchat username on your Instgram story, on Twitter, putting up your Snapcode on your profile, etc... offering exclusive content on your Snapchat, that your followers can't get anywhere else, gives them a reason to go follow you on Snapchat.

Just like Tai Lopez does with giveaways that are only on his Snapchat, this is exclusive content that you can get only on his Snapchat and gives people a reason to go and add him, in hopes of winning a giveaway!

If you run a giveaway it doesn't have to cost a whole ton of money and give away things like $100 or an iPad, like Tai Lopez does, it can be simple and easy like a product or service from your business or even some things you don't use anymore like a pair of sunglasses (it works better if the products/ services fit your brand though).

​People love exclusive content, becasue it makes them feel like they are getting content that nobody else is and it doesn't even have to be a giveaway! Exclusive content can also be things like book reviews, team introductions, stories or pretty much anything of value that you aren't offering anywhere else!

It has to be of value to your audience though or it doesn't give them a good reason to go and follow you!

Yes, the paid approach to Snapchat, or it doesn't have to be if you have a decently large following on any platform. Essentially you are creating an ad for your Snapchat that includes your Snapcode and then promoting it with a few different strategies I will go over below! 

The first way, is to simply put your Snapcode and username in the bio of your other social media accounts as well as in posts of those accounts as well.

For example, you could create a post with multiple images on Instagram where the first on is a piece of exclusive content from your Snapchat and then the next is your snapcode. This allows your followers to see the value of following you on Snapchat as well as gives them a way to follow you (through the snapcode).

This is one of the most important ways to promote your Snapchat on Instagram.

It is pretty much the same strategy when you pay for promotions, create a multiple image post or even just a post with your snapcode and then a caption explaining the value of following you. Then you can send the post to influencers, who you pay to promote your ad on their page, or use the advertising tools on Instagram or Facebook to promote this ad.

In my experience, working with influencers is a more effective way since they have a relationship with their audience and their audience trusts what they are saying... rather than just throwing up a random ad someone in your niche might scroll past on Insagram or Facebook!

This one ties into the other two lessons quite well because if you aren't actually posting content that people want to see on your Snapchat then what is the point of them to follow you?

There is no reason they will follow you if you aren't providing them real content. Don't just sit on snap and promote your business all day, nobody gives a shit... create a brand and voice around your brand. That is what the platform is for!

But, don't get me wrong, Snapchat can be a great place to promote your business as well!

Tai Lopez, Kylie Jenner and DJ Khaled are great examples of this, they are giving people what they want to see and they are growing and finding success on Snapchat! All with their own personalities and voice behind the brands they have created on the platform.

​Tai Lopez gives his business knowledge, giveaways and more, that provides us with a reason to follow him.

Kylie Jenner provides entertainment for us, through her looks as well as her lifestyle. It is something that people want to live like and that keeps them coming back to her Snapchat.

And DJ Khalid also provides us motivation for the dream life and stories that keep us coming back to his Snapchat. They have all found their voice on the platform and now it is time for you to find your voice!

Yes it is simple, yet an effective way to grow your Snapchat audience fast.

​This is a great way to start building your following on Snapchat.... as your followers, friends and family to add you on snap! Then once you start building more of a following, ask your followers on Snapchat to share your snaps and profile wit their friends to have them add you!

It really works to get started, you never know how many people actually want to hear what you have to say.... so ask them to follow and find out!

I hope I was able to share some good advice on growing your snapchat followers that is hard to master! Try out some of the strategies here and let me know what you think of them, they work great for me and know they have potential to do the same for you!

Thanks for the support!
​-Taylor

LaVar Ball, arguably one of the most controversial people in the media now a days. Running the "Big Baller Brand" as well as making what seems like weekly appearances on national TV for something crazy that he has done! What many people don't see though is that he is possibly one of the smartest marketing people out there right now, well maybe not the smartest but definitely a very, very good marketer!​

There is things that people like LaVar Ball, Tai Lopez, Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Grant Cardone, Patrick Bet-David, Kylie Jenner, The Kardashians, etc have learned to do and almost master when it comes to marketing in the new day and age with the power of the internet and social media.

Now, I am not saying that all these people are on the same level of social media marketing mastery but they are at least a significant amount better then the average social media marketer! LaVar has the Big Baller Brand, Kylie Jenner has Kylie Cosmetics (which is valued at over $420 million) and Tai Lopez has all of his internet comapnies where he is raking in over $100k a day most days! And there is things That we can learn from all of these people and what they are doing in the online space but today I am going to focus on the very controversial LaVar Ball and his Big Baller Brand!

You are likely already very aware of the Ball family so I will keep this section short so we can get to the good stuff soon and I'll include a link to a video of their new reality TV series "Ball in the Family" if you are really interested in learning more about their lives!

To start off, LaVar Ball is married to Tina Ball and they have three sons that are widely known throughout the youth culture around the United States.

The oldest son, Lonzo Ball, was recently drafted by the Lakers into the NBA and attended school at UCLA. He currently has his own shoe line, created by the Big Baller Brand, called the ZO2 and is only in his rookie season in Los Angeles with the Lakers!

The middle son, LiAngelo Ball, is not as well known as the other two brothers but is becoming more well known after a shoplifting incident that could have left him in a Chinese jail until president Trump negotiated him and his teammates out of jail. He was on the UCLA basketball team and while he wasn't as good as his brother that used to play there, he was still playing division 1 basketball. Until as of recently when LaVar pulled him out after hearing how long he was going to be suspended for, he is now looking into playing professionally overseas.

Finally, LaMelo ball, currently 16 years old and the youngest Ball brother who used to go to Chino Hills high school until he was pulled out by his dad, of course, to home school him and focus on his basketball skills. Much like his oldest brother, Lonzo, he also has his own shoes through the Big Baller Brand and even got a Lamborghini for his 16th birthday.

So, the real question here: Is LaVar crazy or a marketing genius?

Let us find out....

Well, from calling out President Trump and saying he didn't help get his son out of jail in China to having his son Lonzo turn down shoe deals with some of the biggest names in footwear so he could be with the "billion dollar Big Baller Brand" and even telling reporters that Lonzo was better than Steph Curry....

Whether you like him or not, you can appreciate the amount of media attention he has stirred up for being someone that is not a celebrity. What seems like every week, you see him front page somewhere with some crazy thing he just said or did. He just keeps riding the wave of his momentum and it seems to be working out very well for him.

While people are saying that his Big Baller Brand will never make it, with every appearance he make or stunt he pulls that goes viral, the company is selling more and more of their shoes and apparel. Hell, they are selling millions of dollars worth of that apparel all of his comment and stunts that seem to go viral every week. He eve is getting the attention of marketing people such as Tai Lopez, as he has just recorded a episode for The Tai Lopez show! So obviously others are seeing the marketing machine that he seems to be right now...

What are these lessons or at least things we can observe about marketing from LaVar's comments and actions, whether they are PR stunts or not?

Here are 5 of the main marketing lessons we can learn from the recent success of Lavar Ball and The Big Baller Brand:

• Attention is Everything
• Confidence in Your Product is Key
• You Have To Create Your Own Voice
• The Internet is The Most Important Marketing Tool
• Provide Value To People & They Will Stay

There is no doubt that Lavar Ball can attract some serious attention, with every major news outlet pretty much picking up on every story about him. Why? Because it gets views and that's how they make their money, who cares if they are some random family from Chino Hills.. they are attracting attention and that is what matters.

People thought that the Big Baller Brand was going to be a bust but it seems to be working out just fine for them, why? Because they got the attention they needed get in from of millions of people through internet posts, viral videos, interviews and now a TV show.

"Attention is like the oxygen of your business, you can't survive without it," I once heard Gary Vaynerchuk say in his podcast. And this could not be more true!

No matter how good your product is or how good your service is, if nobody knows about it then you won't sell any it is that simple.

The main objective of your marketing is to draw attention to your business, again as Gary Vaynerchuk says to "day trade attention." You have to get in front of as many people as you can, keep trying new things until you find one that works.

Attention is why so many businesses start multiplying their sales after just one episode on Shark Tank or after one viral video.. because it brings their business to the attention of those that have never hear of them before but are actually very interested in their products!

Just imagine what going viral almost weekly, like Lavar Ball, can do for a business:) Here is a video of one of LaVar's moments that got the most attention:

You could say LaVar has some pretty high confidence in not just his sons and their basketball skills but also The Big Baller Brand and their products.

LaVar has some massive confidence in his products, so much so that he thought he could negotiate billion dollar shoe deals with top companies like Nike, Adidas, etc! Plus, putting his shoes at the $500 price point you better believe that he believes they are the best in the game.

If you don't have confidence in your products how are you going to convince anyone that this is the best option for them to buy? Well, you aren't going to be able to do that... it's that simple.

You have to get the customers thinking that this is the best option to solve their problem. That this is the product or service that they need. Pretty simple and straight forward!

Confidence in yourself and in your brand, product or service is key. Just look at how LaVar explains his son, Lonzo is better then Steph Curry...

Whether you are selling a product or a service, you all have a brand whether you want to admit it or not. It is gong to be your job to figure out what that voice is exactly and own it.

LaVar created a great voice for The Big Baller Brand by commanding a ton of attention thanks to his usually cocky remarks, and that has been a massive driver for their success!

His remarks have made him a public personality and has really captured the attention of the younger generation who follows his movement. A great lesson here, once you create your voice you start attracting the people who care about what you say and those are the people that will buy from you.

The impact of creating a voice in marketing and your business is best seen through social media. The better you are at creating a voice the larger the following you will attract and that is prevalent in the Ball family as each member has hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers!

Create your voice and that is how you start to gain the loyal followers you need in your business, they start trusting you and that is when they start buying from you. Yes, it is a process but well worth it, so it is a process you have to respect!

Just think about it, without the internet LaVar wouldn't have had the platform to go viral on or to get his voice heard about his sons and The Big Baller Brand. He wouldn't have been able to create te presence he has with the younger generation who finds entertainment from him and ultimately the business would not be where it is today. 

This is a great example on how you have to leverage this tool in every way that you can, it is how you are going to get your voice heard. Figure out every way you can, on every platform you can to get your voice out there and then narrow down what ones are working the best and go from there.

Short section but pretty self explanatory, use what is right in front of you and in your hands almost every hour of every day to get your voice heard and your brand out there!

Sure you can find success short term by going viral and having one "big hit" for whatever you are doing but where the real success comes from is when you learn to retain those original customers. The way that you retain them is through providing some type of value that keeps them coming back!

In LaVar Ball's case he provides the entertainment that keeps people wanting more, they end up wanting to know what is going on with his family, what he is up to and more importantly how The Big Baller Brand is doing. This then boils down to generating more attention for the business and more sales!

Thinking based on the long term game is how you win, retain customers and give them an experience that is too good for them to go anywhere else and then they go out and tell their friends.

In the Ball family, they provide entertainment for people whether that be through basketball or what they do outside of the game, the type of entertainment others aren't providing. They are showing the power they have to do what they want in life, by buying a new house, a Lamborghini for LaMelo or even pulling LiAngelo off of the UCLA basketball team and people desire that power and keep coming back.

I mean just check out some of the stuff they pull off in this video below:

LaVar may be controversial on what he is saying but people are following it and he is in turn generating buzz around his brand which just keeps growing and growing each time that he does something new!

He has even just recorded a podcast with Tai Lopez around his marketing techniques so when that drops I will be sure to check it out and let you all know how it is!

To wrap up, when someone seems crazy or even controversial, look a little deeper at what they are doing and you might learn some of the best marketing techniques that books can't teach you. These are the real life examples that you should be looking into and learning from!

Hope you all learned a decent amount about marketing in a relateable or even entertaining way!

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on the Ball family and the marketing techniques we learn from them!

Thanks,
Taylor

Hey guys how is it going?! 

Assuming you are here to learn more about ho to increase your reach and your engagement on social media... let's get started.

But before I do that, I would just like to say that I am no expert at this and am actually just starting to improve my social media reach and engagement as well using these strategies that I have been learning about and implementing! They were just too good not to share them with you, I am in no way trying to say this is the right way or that I created these strategies. These are just what have worked for me and what I have been seeing work for others as well!

Hope you enjoy this!

Trust me I have tried almost all of the quick growth strategies, in hopes to get a large and engaged following quickly and easily. Well, unfortunately I have to tell you that this doesn't work. I tried the follow/ unfollow, apps that were supposed to increase engagement and get me followers and even those services you see that promise to increase your following.

Well, some of them did get me followers but they weren't real or engaged like you need if you are trying to build a business or sell anything online. And some others were just expensive as hell, like the services and they didn't work too well. At least not $30-90 a month well.

​So there I was a couple of months ago wondering what to do, I was left with a decent sized following of 6k but they weren't really engaged so it was time to rethink this strategy and start playing the long term game rather than trying to take shortcuts. 

I started researching larger Instagram accounts like Andy Frisella, Gary Vayerchuk, Grant Cardone, Tai Lopez, Jason Stone, Mark Cuban and more to see what they were doing that I wasn't doing.

I also looked t other accounts that weren't as well known or weren't super big influencers in their industries, but also had larger accounts such as Lewis Howes, Rich20Something and more to see if they were doing anything different too. 

And let me tell you, I found so much information and strategies that were contributing to their success. And guess what?! None of them were through those paid services or following/ unfolllwoing:)

Well before I dive into the more strategy part for this post, I would like to start off by talking about some marketing techniques/ mindsets that play a large role in growing an engaged social media following. And these can help you in more than just your social media too, they can be applied across all areas of your marketing!

The first is just simply to encourage engagement. In the captions of your posts leave them with a question that forces them to think and then engage in the comment section. Don't just leave a statement, you have to provide some type of encouragement for them to engage. This could be as simple as asking what their favorite places to travel are or where they dream of going, if you are running a travel company.... you get the idea right?

The next mindset you want to have or more of a psychological aspect for your marketing is to make them think something is scarce or that they are going to miss out if they don't click through right away. That is why so many marketers use "limited time only sale" or even just countdown timers until something is not available again. This also works if you create a free guide or just offer a free product for a limited time, if say they tag their friends, because they will be encouraged to do it quicker an increase your following quicker.

Similar to the "scarcity" mindset about, another marketing mindset to know for social media as well as just marketing in general is the exclusivity mindset. Make sure people think what they are getting is exclusive, that nobody else is getting it and make them feel that they are part of a small group of people that now or are in something. This is why many Instagram accounts have "exclusive mentorship groups" or some type of exclusive group that they close the entrance to after a certain period of time. Just like Tai Lopez's social media group and business groups that he closes after a certain amount of time.

Next, people love competition so why not incorporate that into your marketing and social media?! From Grant Cardone giving away cash on Instagram to Tai Lopez giving away iPads and Macbooks. Even Andy Frisella is giving away things like shoutouts and merch! Giveaways is a great way to encourage competition and people love competition, they will share with their friends, tag people, repost your stuff. Pretty much do whatever to win!

​One of the most important things to realize for your success on social media is to offer content that is hard to get, or more valuable than other pages! Tai Lopez as well as Gary Vaynerchuk and Andy Frisella talk about this and it is actually one of the most important things you can do on social media to stand out, for obvious reasons. The harder it is for someone to make your content, say if you are sharing your expertise in an area or a story you have, then the more value you are bringing and the better exposure/ engagement you will have the potential to get!

Instagram is one of my favorite platforms as well as one of the biggest, right behind Facebook so it only made sense to start here and explain how the larger accounts like Tai Lopez, Gary Vee were growing and engaging with their followings. 

**I am not going to go over creating the content for any of these platforms because that really depends on the account and the main take away for content I already listed above with adding value.**

​To start off, utilize the Instagram stories, and the hashtags that they allow you to use and the tags they allow you to have in the stories. The first way many accounts use the stories is to highlight their audience and thank them for their support (see below video to see an example). The next way they use it is to announce new things and run giveaways through.

​If you are looking to use your story to increase your Instagram post engagement then try taking a screenshot of the account home page with the new post in it, then put it on your story and cover up the new post and add a caption on the story "let me know your thoughts on my new post" or something along those lines and tag your account in it. Don't forget to add a few hashtags to the story as well as Instagram now has hashtag stories that can help new people find your account!

Many influencers use this strategy in order to help their posts against the Instagram algorithm because Instagram doesn't post in chronological order anymore, rather it's based on the best performing posts. So putting this on your story gets more people to see the post and engage in a shorter period of time, thus pushing you higher on peoples feeds.

Next, Instagram is great for running contests and giveaways that will increase both your engagement and your followers. Find something you can give away whether it be cash like Grant Cardone or just a shoutout or product/ service. Them promote it in posts and stories and say they have to tag a friend, or repost and tag you, and follow in order to be entered. Depending on how good you make the contest there is a good chance for you to gain a large number of followers for little cost.

One of the best ways I have been finding to add engaged people to your following was to promote you account with other accounts of similar sizes and larger! I have tried promotions with Instagram by promoting my posts, and they do get you in front of a decent amount of people but not many are as loyal or engaged as those that you get from another account with a largely engaged following. The followers that this other account can send over are some of the most engaged because they are loyal to that other account and if they said to follow you they are trusting that other account that you have content of value, so be ready to deliver.

There are two ways to do this, you can pay a larger account to do this, which are usually fairly priced compared to the value they bring you. Or you can reach out and do a shoutout for shout out with a similar size account, which isn't as effective unless you have a larger audience of a couple thousand at least. 

Finally, a strategy that many of you already know is the hashtag strategy which actually works pretty well when combined with other strategies, on it's own it's powerful but you just get more growth when you use other strategies as well. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags in the caption so make sure to use them all effectively by using hashtags related to your page/post.

**BONUS** below I'm including the links of three larger accounts I own on Instagram if you are interested in promoting your page I can give you some great deals if you say you came from the blog:)

Facebook is an interesting platform because you really have to pay to play unless you funnel in traffic from other platforms but I will give you some ideas as well as things I have learned and tested to help you do both of these things!

Facebook has an algorithm, much like Instagram, where it is based on engagement and you only have the potential to reach so many people as a business page without paying. This means that even if you have a large following on Facebook, like saw Gary Vaynerchuk or Lewis Howes, you are going to have to pay to "boost your Facebook post" which allows you to reach more people based on how much you pay. This is actually one of the best platforms to promote on as you can get such a large reach of people for minimal marketing dollars spent!

To start off, I am going to go over some of the FREE ways that I have found work fairly well with Facebook to start getting some people over to your page, but there really is no way to get around paying on this platform if you want real growth! 

So the first way that I found works well is to offer exclusive Facebook content to your followers on other platforms. Do this by promoting a snippet of a video or a few posts of a series, that you are only putting on Facebook, and then telling them that the only way to get the rest of the content is to go and like your Facebook page! This actually works very well for FREE Facebook strategies and is one of my favorites!

Another strategy that I have not tested out as much but has potential to work well, when used right, is to create relationships with people, or just reach out to others who are sharing bigger pages content and ask if they could check yours post out and share it if they find any value in it. The only way this will work is if you are posting content of real value that stands out from others!

Now onto the paid approach on Facebook!

This is one of the better approaches for both selling products/ services and growing your page because it gives you the largest reach. Essentially all you need is a good video or image post that represents your page/ business and then a strong call to action in the image. Then you target the people and demographic you are looking for by pressing "boost" on the post or "promote my page."

Finally, a good strategy for adding more likes to your business page I learned from one of The Tai Lopez show podcasts and then actually started to test and it works amazing... That is to create an add that relates to your business in some way and others can relate to and then in the caption put "if you agree like my page" and then start promoting it to your target audience!

Below is what my social media feed currently looks like on Facebook to see an example of some of these posts, sorry it doesn't show any of my ads or boosted posts:/

just Twitter is one of the more "unknown" platforms for increasing your reach but there are a few things that work fairly well if you look at some of the larger accounts and what they are doing! 

First off is based around content, and that is to offer value, value and more value. When someone clicks onto your Twitter profile you want them to see a ton of posts that are valuable to them and they can learn or gain insight from. Within those posts of value you can sprinkle in some sell and links to your website (because Twitter allows direct links to places unlike Instagram). But make sure to focus on adding value.

The next thing that I noticed many of them doing is actively replying to tweets about them as well as tweets within the industry. Whether it is roasting people online like Tai Lopez does or just going to the Twitter search feature to search your niche and start conversations with others, around topics, by replying to their tweets. A basic example of this is below, showing how to search and then start replying to tweets, it is pretty self explanatory. 

Snapchat is one of the hardest platforms to increase your reach on just because there is no search feature that allows you to search for other peoples Snapchat accounts, like on every platform. This means that people just can't search for your account and then add you as a snap friend, they actually have to get your snapcode and then go to their snapchat to add you! Kinda a pain in the ass!

​There are people like Kylie Jenner and Tai Lopez who have figured a few ways to crack the code on Snapchat and that is basically by just using strategies from other platforms to funnel people oer to their snapchat profiles.

Essentially you are going to want to offer giveaways or exclusive content on Snapchat only and then promote it from your other channels. You can do this by posting on your other channels about it and then along with the post have a image of your snapcode and username that they can save (or screenshot) and add you!

One way that works well is actually using Instagram stories to add one piece of content you only posted to Snapchat (ideally a video as they work the best) and then saying "for more join us on Snapchat." Then right after that story add another story with your Snapcode so it makes it easy for them to add you!

Then once they come over there it is essential to retain them by creating your own voice on snapchat around who you are and making entertaining content, not just spamming your ads and promoting yourself!

Feel free to add us on Snapchat while you are at it... Hell of a good time on the journey of entrepreneurship:)

Hope you all enjoyed the post and learned a few things that you can start to implement! I included my social media links below if you would like to join the millennial entrepreneur's community and follow me:) Have a great rest of your day!

Thanks,
​Taylor

Ever look at Instagram accounts that have really good content ad wonder how they create it?

More so the business, quote, motivational accounts, etc because the travel and accounts around creators use cameras and edit for hours to get that perfect video or image.

This post is going to be more focused on creating content using your iPhone, or Android if that's more your style, and how you can use this content to drive sales!

The types of content you can create on Instagram is essentially endless but they boil down into two main groups of content... business content and "behind the scenes" or less quality content that is more personable.

For business content you want to focus on providing something of value to your followers, giving them a reason to follow. There are thousands of motivational and quotes accounts out there, what are you going to do to stand out fro the crowd?!

​Some examples of what you can do to provide value and give people a reason to follow you are to post content around educating your audience around something you have a skill in. Say your business revolves around basketball, post "how to" content around basketball and start growing an audience around the basketball niche.

Or if you have a financial business, you could post tips everyday for personal finance and how they can apply things into their life or short videos on what they can do to manage their finances in everyday life!

The other category of content is more personal content such as personal stories, behind the scenes of your life or company and anything more personal, but still related to the theme of your page.

This content can go either on the page itself or in the Instagram story which I find very helpful and use multiple times a day for this type of content!

With all this content to post don't forget to sell as well, because without sales your business will die. So, a good rule that I learned from Gary Vaynerchuk was to post three pieces of value content for every one "sell."

Other than the personal content that is easy as taking your iPhone and shooting a short video or even just taking a picture that goes along with your story, there are a handful of apps that I have found work best for creating the rest of the types of posts and videos!

If you are looking for putting text on pictures then here are some of my favorite apps that I use below:

• Typorama
• Pixlr
• Word Swag
• Canva

If you are editing or even putting video clips together into one here are my two favorite apps:

• iMovie (for editing/ adding text)
• Regrammer (for resizing the video to fit Instagram's format)

And if you are looking at putting other images on top of one another then check out the app Pixlr that I mentioned above as they make it easy for you to overlay images from the app!

I just started releasing some step by step screencasts for creating posts on Instagram exclusively on my Facebook and there are more to come so stay tuned!! Click the button below and go check that out and throw the page a like if you want to see more!