YouTube has a Live streaming TV service. After a snafu towards the end of 2017 where Google wanted to pull the YouTube app from the Amazon Stick platform because Amazon wouldn’t list the Google Home device on their store, they are recovering with a new partnership. (YouTube app can still be found on the Amazon stick through a roundabout method). Continue reading
SoftBank, a Japanese multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan made a big investment in Wag! An on-demand dog walking app.
How big? $300 million big!
SoftBank recently just bought majority stake in Japanese messaging giant, Line’s mobile division.
Wag! Founded by Josh Viner and his brother will now have a new CEO, Hilary Schneider who replaces the two co-founders.
If you’re in business and you use social media, you know the importance of scheduling posts out for the week and month. It helps to organize the messaging for a brand.
Instagram has been late to the game in offering a scheduling assistant for Instagram. The only way businesses could try to “schedule” posts was through a third party which provided push notification reminders to post on Instagram via smartphones and tablets.
That is changing now. The scheduler won’t be in Instagram directly. Instead it is through an API which will work with major third party applications like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and SocialFlow.
Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and SocialFlow allow businesses to organize posts through their systems and you can then schedule you posts to go directly on Instagram.
Representatives from Instagram say this program will work for Facebook’s Marketing Partners and Instagram Partners.
The CEO of Hootsuite, Ryan Holmes said, “The scheduling and publishing of Instagram content has been the number one request for our 16 million customers.” “Now they can manager large volumes of content, multiple team members and multiple Instagram accounts with ease and security. Hootsuite is excited to partner and Instagram to make this happen.”
Will this be offered for individuals?
Yes! Expect a schedule for Instagram for individuals in 2019.
With the incredible growth of the gaming industry and the huge propensity of teens, twenty-somethings, and millennials to watch live video game events, more are figuring out they want a piece of the pie.
There is a site called Twitch.tv which is all about live streaming video games. There are audiences watching these games on Twitch which is a social media platform.
While Twitch has been growing over the past 5 or 6 years, few others have really jumped on the bandwagon. YouTube took part, but other major social media platforms did not take it very seriously.
That is changing now.
Facebook who is seeing a lift in their newest video sector, is going to bring forth the Gaming Creator Pilot Program in a deal with ESL.
The Gaming Creator Program will:
improve discoverability
incorporate presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Oculus
Offer tools that streamers need to make a living streaming games on Facebook
Facebook wants to enable direct payment to streamers.
The gamers on Facebook’s platforms will be able to lifestream via 1080p/60fps and will work alongside the Facebook streaming team.
The debut of the program on Facebook didn’t go quite smoothly as there were technical issues. However, the reach Facebook can offer is much more than Twitch can do.
It will help ESL by bringing greater exposure to eSports.
What this Means for Businesses:
If you are targeting gamers and those in this age range, you will have a bigger audience to market to and connect with via the powerhouse of Facebook.
Now you will have more opportunities outside of advertising on Twitch or YouTube. Facebook, Instagram, and Oculus will be part of the group.
Conclusion
Livestreaming is soaring right now and in the gaming arena it is a global adaptation. The combination of the power of live streaming with the tremendous community of gamers on Facebook, you can expect fireworks.
Entrepreneurship can be a rollercoaster. Some days you have big highs and wins and others are quieter than a church.
One part is consistent, there are hurdles.
There are even hurdles when you are first thinking of trying to go into entrepreneurship.
You don’t have time, or you have a family, or you don’t know which idea to start with.
Gary outlines a full list of the hurdles in his book Crushing It! and I have something to say about that list! Continue reading
As the term has been thrown about more and more, we are sure you’ve heard of “Influencer Marketing.” If not, here’s a quick 411:
Influencer marketing refers to individuals who have a strong community of followers (social media communities including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc) who are engaged with the influencer by commenting, joining an email list, and following the advice of these individuals.
Ok, now that you’re caught up a bit, let’s jump into the newest stat that came out.
Influencer marketers centralize upon one age range with 75% of influencers being between 18 – 34 years of age.
With this fact intact, this mostly means those in and around that age (although there are exceptions) are listening and consuming the messaging of the influencers in that age category. (Probably somewhere from 14 – 40 years old)
How to know if an influencer is a good one:
There are many Instagram accounts out there with high numbers of followers. This may seem like the perfect influencer for your product. However there are some important steps you should follow to be sure you are connecting with the right influencer.
The likes and comments on posts on an Instagram profile should be pretty consistent and a strong percentage of the number of followers an account has, somewhere between 5 – 10% of the number of followers.
The above three steps will definitely help in deciding on influencers.
You can repeat the above steps on other social platforms for influencers.
Bernie Williams, Yankees Great and holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in the Performance Arts from the Manhattan School of Music, a prestigious music school in New York, made his way out to the big NAMM fest in California.
About 2 years ago, Bernie set out to achieve a goal he promised himself and his parents he would complete. That was to get his degree from a higher education institution.
Bernie did just that as he expanded on his love for music and jazz performance. It wasn’t easy and he had a lot of homework to keep up with. In the end, it was all worth it.
Watch below as Bernie performs with his ensemble from the Manhattan School of Music, LIVE at the NAMM Show for 2018.
He will also be performing at The Carlyle, a well known music spot in Manhattan from March 6 – 10th, 2018. Get your tickets while you still can.
Google Analytics is an amazing tool filled with a great deal of data when it comes to website traffic.
As you begin becoming involved with digital marketing campaigns, the data will expand even further.
You need to be sure everything is organized if you want to know how particular marketing campaigns are truly performing.
Thankfully, there is a special trick you can use.
Let’s say you setup an ad campaign online to point to a product page on your store. If you are marketing via Google AdWords, Facebook marketing, Twitter, etc, you will not be able to tell which method worked the best.
This can be chaotic!
So we have a special trick for you to use and it is free!
We discuss that free tool for Google Analytics in the video below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTCnl9FY-Tc
Don’t miss our other Digital Marketing Video Series!
Social Media Marketing Tips Video on Pinterest & Google+
E-Commerce Tips #1 – Shipping Tips and Tricks
E-Commerce Tips #2 – Conquering Mobile Commerce
E-Commerce Tips #3 – Stop Cart Abandonment
Social media is filled with unique ideas across numerous platforms.
Facebook – a yearbook of sorts to share photos, videos, long and short form text etc.
Twitter – the short form mostly text based platform with photos Continue reading
I’m the type who must read a book in detail, word for word. I’m not a skimmer nor a chapter skipper. When I read a book, I want to take it all in and see what it’s about to understand the message the author is sending out plus the sub-messages and the sub-sub messages.
A Glimpse Behind the Curtain
There have been books that I start reading and can’t wait to pick back up. There are others that I am counting the pages to the end of the chapter so I can put it down for a while.
There are even still other books that I begin reading and do the very uncharacteristic chapter skip. When this starts happening, you know the book is about to be closed.
Lately, the books I’ve come across have been problematic in terms of holding my attention. From the start, I can tell the tone of the author just doesn’t jive with my mindset. You may think, that could be a good thing to present an opposite point of view. However that’s not what I particularly mean. It often seems to hurt my mindset which up until that point, was feeling positive.
Do I Follow Gary Vaynerchuk?
Fast forward to today, I’m an avid consumer of the GaryVee experience. I follow him on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook etc. I’ve watched the Daily Vee, not religiously but I do catch episodes that resonate with current situations as they become available.
I heard about his newest book which would be dropping in January 2018. Crushing It! You must understand, Gary started this set off with Crush It! a book written 9 years ago speaking about the power of a number of social media platforms.
This book, Crushing It! is apropros as it now documents the 9 years which have gone by, the good and the bad and the impact Crush It’s message had on many different individuals. The title is actually a description of the stories of these individual success stories inside.
Are all the success stories about people making millions on social media? No.
Are all the success stories about people who struggled, found Crush It and suddenly saw the proverbial lightbulb? Maybe. Continue reading