Influencers are Made on Instagram

Influencer: Building Your Personal Brand in the Age of Social Media

Author: Brittany Hennessy

Publisher: Citadel

Publication Date: July 31, 2018

Length: 256 








About the Author
Brittany Hennessy, the first-ever Director of Influencer Strategy and Talent Partnerships at Hearst Magazines Digital Media, casts celebrities and influencers for Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, and other titles in campaigns for the world’s top fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands.

Influencers are Made on Instagram

"Since the majority of social branded content occurs on Instagram, this is where we are going to focus most of our energy. Of course, you can take some of these concepts and apply them to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat, but Instagram is the Coca-Cola of influencer marketing, and it isn't going anywhere."

Ms. Hennessy shares her expertise on influencer strategy and marketing in this book. She emphasizes that being unique is the only way to get ahead in the market today.
She believes that creating compelling content will create a bond between you and your audience. This allows you to create a community...which is different, and more important, than a following.

The author provides detailed instructions on how to create and post social media content. She also shares case studies and interviews that highlight Instagram superstars.

My Thoughts
This book offers inspiration, motivation and instruction to people who are seeking to up their game in the world of social media marketing. The author deals with influencers who make a full-time living partnering with businesses on social media. Many of theses influencers (mostly women) have thousands or even millions of followers on Instagram and have built loyal communities of potential customers for merchandise and services.

I was a late-comer to Instagram and only have a few hundred followers (Click here if you would like to help me out!) I am amazed at the tremendous success that ordinary women (not celebrities) have achieved on Instagram. This book provides insider information for growing your social media marketing presence. 
Ms. Hennessy emphasizes that the influencers that attract the attention of large businesses work very hard and make producing content for Instagram ( and other social media sites) their full-time job.

Influencer marketing is a fairly new concept and I recommend this book to all who are interested in learning more.

MY RATING: 5 STARS OUT OF 5

FYI ~ I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Please FOLLOW and share your thoughts in the Comments Section below.

Building Your Personal Brand in the Digital Age - A Book Review

KNOWN: The handbook for building and unleashing your personal brand in the digital age

Author: Mark W. Schaefer

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Publication Date: February 6, 2017

Pages: 257 Pages



About the Author
Mark W. Schaefer is a globally-recognized author, speaker, podcaster, and business consultant who blogs at {grow} — one of the top five marketing blogs of the world.

Being Known is not the Same as Being Famous

"Being known is not the same as being famous. It's not about having millions of fans and red carpet appearances. Being known is about having the proper authority, reputation, and audience to realize your potential and achieve your goals...whatever they may be."

 Mr. Schaefer believes that everyone has a chance to be known. He provides case studies of dozens of people who started out being unknown and used content to establish a digital presence that propelled their dreams.

Consistency is the key to being known. Nearly every person in the case studies said that consistency is the most important element in the journey to be known. 

The formula for success isn't just finding a passion or even a niche. You must find the magical combination of PLACE (A sustainable interest and what you want to be known for) and SPACE (an uncontested or under occupied niche with enough people to matter.)

This book provides solid guidelines for going from unknown to known in a digital world.

My Thoughts

This is a very motivational book. The author is a delightful storyteller and adds touches of humor to the many case studies that are used to illustrate the techniques needed to build your personal brand.

There are stories about bloggers who share there passion using the written word. There are YouTubers who share their musical talent or artistic skills with videos. There are podcasters who produce internet-based radio shows. There are designers, artists and photographers who share visual images on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Consistency and endurance are the common denominators of all the success stories highlighted in this book. 

If you want to be known, read this book and then get started sharing your content and building an audience using social media. Being known can open doors of opportunity in your personal and professional life. 

I like everything about this book...it inspires, motivates and educates. 

My Rating: 5 Stars Out of 5

FYI ~ I borrowed this book with my Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Do you have a passion that you would like to be known for? Please share your thoughts in the Comments Section below. 

Book Review: 100 Shareable Blog Post Ideas

100 Shareable Blog Post Ideas (Easy to Write, Easy to Share) (The Digital Writer)

Author: The Digital Writer ( Sean Platt)

Publisher: Sterling & Stone (April 2, 2012)


About The Author
After spending three years as a ghostwriter, Sean Platt has written it all: memoirs to fiction, sales letters to info products (and everything in between). As an acclaimed copywriter and creative producer, he has designed and polished editorial calendars for successful blogs that have driven revenue, increased sales, and dramatically improved traffic and search engine rankings for his online clients, and has written copy for some of the largest writing and lifestyle blogs on the Web.

Do You Need Some Fresh Blogging Ideas?
Sean Platt provides 100 ideas that can be used to write multiple articles for your blog. Here are the first 10 ideas that are presented in this ebook;
1) Compile a List of the Most Common Mistakes Made By People in Your Niche
2) Prove an Authority Wrong
3) Add to a List Created by Another Blogger
4) Flesh Out a Single Comment on Another Blog Into a Full Post
5) Find Holes in Your Competition (There WILL Be Some)
6) Curate or Summarize Someone Else’s Work
7) Take a Negative Comment and Spin It Into a Full Post
8) Check Web 2.0 (YouTube, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc) sites. Tweak what’s trending
9) Gather Feedback from 10 or So Different Bloggers
10) Discuss a Topic on a Forum, Then Reprint the Conversation on Your Blog

Need more ideas? Here is a full list of blog post ideas from the book;

11) Ask a Question on Twitter and Record the Best Replies
12) Compile the Best Posts About a Particular Topic
13) Write a Post Designed For a Total Newbie
14) Highlight the Best Comments Your Blog’s Ever Received
15) Make a List of The Best Quotes From Your Niche
16) Make a List of the Best Videos From Your Niche
17) Make a List of the 10 Best TED Talks That Apply to Your Niche
18) Create a List of Free Resources
19) Create a List of Paid Tools (With Affiliate Links!)
20) Write a Step-By-Step Tutorial
21) Publish an Image Roundup
22) Write a Product Review
23) Make a List of 10 blogs in Your Niche You Couldn’t Live Without
24) Carry Out an Argument to its Furthest Extreme
25) Publish a Rant
26) Write a Parody of a Popular Post
27) Publish a Manifesto
28) Craft a Well-Articulated Confessional
29) Make Fun of a Marketing Email That’s Recently Hit Your Inbox
30) Write About a Tool or Service Everyone Loves That You Just Can’t Get Behind
31) Controversial Post
32) Make Up 10 Blogs in Your Niche That Don’t Really Exist (And Make Them Funny)
33) Make a List of Up-And-Coming Bloggers
34) Make a Prediction That No One Else Has
35) Interview Someone Controversial
36) Make a List of People to Follow on Twitter
37) Create a Roundup of the Best Tutorials in Your Niche
38) Interesting Examples of People Using Facebook or Google + Well in Your Niche
39) Write About an A-Lister You Admire
40) Promote Your Competition
41) Best of the Year
42) Review a Niche-Specific Publication
43) Write About How You Organize the Information You Need Most For Your Niche
44) List the Things You Would Change About Your Niche If You Could
45) Imagine the Future of Your Niche
46) Write a Long Comment on Someone Else’s Blog, Then Turn It Into a Post on Yours
47) Detail a Case Study
48) Publish the 10 Commandments of Your Business
49) List the Best Jokes in Your Niche
50) Draw a Parallel Between a Movie and Your Niche
51) Record the Ways Social Media Has Completely Transformed Your Industry
52) Discuss Something at the Fringes of Your Niche
53) Sift Through Industry Titles on Amazon to Spark New Ideas
54) Write a Letter to Your Future Self
55) Publish an Interview
56) Respond to a Criticism
57) Tell a Story
58) List 10 Things You Learned About Life, and Where You Learned Them
59) Write About Your Guilty Pleasures
60) Interesting-Things-About-You Post, Tied to the Interests of Your Audience
61) Discuss Someone Famous Who Dealt With Similar Issues as You
62) Write About a Specific Hurdle and How You Hopped It
63) Relate Your Niche to Someone Famous
64) Reflect on Where You Were One, Two, or Three Years Ago
65) Look Through Your Analytics For Searches Without Matches, Then Write Copy to Match
66) Thank Your Audience
67) Publish a Roundup of Your Worst Posts. Say Why They Were Poor and What You Would Do to Fix Them
68) Publish a Roundup of Your Best Guest Posts
69) Publish a Roundup of Your Best Posts
70) Deconstruct Your Successes
71) Update an Older Post With a Fresh Perspective
72) A List of Your Goals For the Coming Year
73) Explain What’s Different About You and Your Blog
74) Write About Why You Started Blogging
75) How You Use Marketing in Your Business
76) How You Outsource or Automate Something Complicated
77) Write About a Hypothetical Situation, Clearly Outlined and Detailed
78) Provide an Industry-Specific Template
79) Explain How to Do Something FAST
80) Explain a Cool Way to Use an App or Hidden Feature No One Is Using
81) Write a List Of 10 Books That Have Changed How You Do Business
82) Draw a Mind Map, Then Explain It
83) Take a Problem and Break It Into Its Simplest Parts
84) Compile a Large Number of Single-Sentence Tips
85) Write a Satire Post
86) Run a Contest
87) Write a Timeline
88) Write a Series
89) Offer Your Services For FREE
90) Debunk Your Niche’s Top Myths
91) Do Some Keyword Research, Then Fill in the Blanks
92) Publish Link Bait
93) List the Pros and Cons of Something Relevant to Your Audience’s Interests
94) Take a Stand
95) Use a Metaphor to Tie Your Topic to Something Entirely Unrelated
96) Research Amazon to Come Up With Pain Points of Your Audience
97) Create a Giant List of Something
98) Conduct a Survey
99) Cover a Quickly Growing Trend
100) Write an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
There 100 blogging ideas were originally published on Mr. Platt's blog ~ 100 Blog Post Ideas (Turn Your Brainstorming to Autopilot)

My Thoughts
You might think that you don't have to buy the book because I listed the 100 ideas in this post. You are very WRONG!
The book explains exactly how you can use these ideas to write multiple posts for your blog. These ideas are great but it is up to you to make them original and awesome.

Mr. Platt provides three or four sample blog titles that you can use with each of these ideas. These titles will grab the reader's attention and have them eager to read your post to learn more.

This book is an excellent guide for writing fresh content that you can use in your niche blog. You will never have writer's block if you keep this list of ideas handy.
Highly recommended!

My Rating: 5 Stars Out Of 5

FYI ~ I ordered this ebook from Amazon.Com when it was offered as a free digital download. Please check the price before ordering. The link at the top of the post is my Amazon affiliate link. I appreciate your support!

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.