Tag Archive | Instagram

It’s All Right To Be Selfish

By Cheval John

I had expected to go to another level this year because of the wins I accomplished the previous year:

Speaking at two social media conferences (social media day lima in ohio and social media day houston)
Working as a volunteer at the social media command center during super bowl 51
Getting interviewed on some live streaming shows.

I was hoping the business was going to take off because of these wins.

That was not the case.

It seemed like I was going backwards.

I ended up working full time again as an employee at a lodging company because it was the right thing to do and my business depended on it.

From that, I realized that I was not getting any younger and I needed to watch out more for myself.

So I started exercising again since in more than a decade and hired an online personal trainer by the name of Monique Kabel to get me on the right track.

The interesting part is Ms. Kabel is based in Canada.

I found out about Ms. Kabel through Instagram because she was posting uplifting messages on her account.

She competed in the World Beauty Fitness and Fashion (WBFF) Competitions and knew a lot about getting ready to compete against others in the fitness industry.

She was not like half of those who would post their photos with a link to a product or service most of the time because of their influence.

Or try to sell to people when they connect with them.

She basically shared inspiration to those who needed it and also show a lot of her workout routines on instagram stories.

So I decided she was the one to be my personal trainer and it was the best decision.

She uses the Trainerize app to put together personalized workout routines that fit me.

This was the best alternative to going to the gym because of my work schedule.

At the same time, I learned a lot from my employers because they started from the ground up in the hotel industry.

Their example of how to be fiscally responsible to the point that I have become more disciplined in how to spend money.

This also helped me to keep Ms. Kabel as my personal trainer too.

It seemed like I have neglected my business (producing content here via blog post and podcast) due to this transition back to full time employment.

I realized that I needed to be selfish and take care of me first in order to be more creative and take care of the business.

Looking back on it, this year was not a setback at all because of the valuable lessons I learned from this experience which I will share with you now:

You Must Take Care Of Your Health

I can’t emphasize this enough.

Do not fall for the so-called hustle culture of working non-stop until you get results.

Being smart with how much food you consume and the amount of time you exercise can play a part in whether your business will succeed or not.

Also, get enough sleep because you can’t be creative if you are tired all the time.

Surround Yourself With Like-Minded People

They will always lift you up when you least expect and will never bring you down just to feel good about themselves.

Focus On The Process

When you aim for the results, you lose track on enjoying the journey and end up producing crappy content.

The true social media influencers (fitness included) focused on providing value to their audience and appreciated the journey to that success.

They were the ones that helped me to make it through this transitional year which will launch me to the next level in my life in 2019.

To conclude, here are some of the people you should follow on instagram if you want to start the new year right

Mindy Harley

David Marshall

Elizabeth Marshall

Lesley Maxwell

Ainsley Rodriguez

Michelle MacDonald

Joan MacDonald

Ryall Graber

Abbie Liu

Jenn Hermann

Jessika Phillips

It Is Not All About The Numbers In Influencer Marketing

By Cheval John

November 17th, 2017

Couple of weeks ago, I received an e-mail from someone who claimed they could increase my instagram followers by 27%.

This is the start of the e-mail

Greetings sir,

I see you’ve been posting on social media again. Your posts keep appearing on my timeline, but they never seem to have that many likes and shares.

I used to be in the same boat too. So did these people.

This person then showed me instagram accounts of people who had an average of 1.77 million followers.

The message continues:

We all have something in common. We all managed to increase how many followers we have just by following an easy to use system.

I developed this system when I did not seem to be getting as much engagement as I thought my posts deserved and now I want to share it with you.

Using my system, you can increase your followers to over 4,300 almost overnight.

After reading this e-mail, I had to laugh.

The question is why would someone send out e-mails claiming to increase instagram followers overnight.

The answers are revealed in these statistics:

59% of micro-influencers think Instagram is the most effective social media platform to engage their target audience-Veloce Network

57% of companies in the fashion and beauty industry use influencer marketing in their marketing strategy-Veloce Network

92% of consumers trust recommendations from peers on social media above all other forms of advertising-Veloce Network

84% of companies plan on working with a social media star in the next year-Influencer Marketing Hub

67% of marketers will increase influencer marketing budget over the next year-Marketing Profs

Infuencer Marketing In Instagram Alone Is A One Billion Dollar Industry-MediaKix

With all of that money on the table, many are trying to become an instagram influencer.

Some are willing to cheat their way to success either by buying followers, joining pods or using bots.

Sarah Moore, founder of Eleven Lights Media, explains in this video about instagram pods and why she totally hates it.

The only way I can see pods as a good thing is if people are using them to collaborate and share their ideas within the community.

Other than that, I am not a fan of instagram pods

Bots are a totally different beast.

Third party companies created these bots particularly for people to buy for their instagram accounts.

They would set up these bots to comment or like a post for a certain amount of time to make it look like they are getting engagement on their instagram accounts.

When people see the supposed engagement from the bots, they will think this person or brand is an influencer.

Those who used these bots to build their account will be able to pitch to these companies on why they should work with them.

My guess is they will use these same bots to grow their clients account.

The problem is they are not growing their audience organically and it goes against instagram’s terms of use.

This is why instagram is on the offensive of shutting down third party services that provide bots.

A person or brand will never beat instagram with bots or pods because they are changing their algorithms constantly

Just because you do not have a 100,000-1,000,000 followers does not mean you are not an influencer.

If you have the right people following you, then you are an influencer because they know you bring value to them.

So continue to listen to what your audience are chatting about and interact with them.

They will give you ideas of what type of content you need to provide.

When you provide the content that solves their pain points, they will naturally share it and over the long haul, you will grow your following organically.

You can leave your comment below if you agree or disagree with this post

Cynthia Bazin’s Transition To Founding “The Smart Chic”

By Cheval John

Live video has changed the way how we interact on social media.

Before, we would chat with many people via social media platforms like Facebook (Instagram), Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube to keep up with what is happening in the world.

With Twitter, it made communication much easier in “real time” because of the instantaneous response.

When live streaming arrived in 2015, interaction on social media went to the next level with no signs of slowing down.

According to Cisco, 82% of all internet traffic will be drived by video by 2021.

Which means if you are not using video for your business, it will become much harder to reach your ideal audience in the future.

Another reason why you should be using live video is to meet people you would not have met before even with social.

I was very fortunate to have met Cynthia Bazin two years ago via live streaming.

She was among the early adopters of Periscope and also made some guest appearances on shows which was hosted on the now defuncted video platform called blab.

Cynthia have the drive of helping business owners to be laser focused and her company “The Smart Chic” is centered on her values.

I had the opportunity to interview Cynthia on this week’s episode of What’s The Word?

The show was recorded on Facebook Live via Blue Jeans Network

In this episode, you will hear:

How she transitioned from a private investigator to running her company

Why she did not dive immediately into entrepreneurship

How to run a business on the side while you working in a toxic company

How she overcame doubts to become successful with her company

How live streaming help take her business to the next level

The importance of having a mentor

Why video should be part of the business’ marketing strategy

Snippet of the interview on Vallano Media TV

Full episode on BlogTalkRadio

Cynthia Bazin’s Business Website: www.smartchic.me

Facebook: The Smart Chic

Twitter: @thesmartchic

Did you enjoy this post and who would you want to make a guest appearance on the show?