“I wish every outfit I liked on Instagram would magically appear in my closet.” This popular meme from 2014 is almost a reality now with the LIKEtoKNOW.it app. Nowadays, pretty much anybody and everybody can be an influencer of some level and make money through social media. Top influencers are making 7-figures income (yes, $1M – you read that right) and are growing their brands from blogging to fashion line, online retail, home décor, modeling and much more. In 2011, Amber Venz Box, President and Co-Founder of rewardSTYLE & LIKEtoKNOW.it created her company as a way to make money through her own blog. Now, bloggers’ influence on their followers is very tangible through online sales.

FabFitFun was founded in 2010, has approximately 50 employees and is based out of Los Angeles, California. FabFitFun is a lifestyle brand inspiring women to lead a happier, healthier life.  The company sends a monthly selection of curated, full-size products across lifestyle categories including beauty, health, fitness, technology, and home. Members can go online and choose to sign up for one box or the subscription which gets them a box every season; four times a year in March, June, September and December. FabFitFun has shipped millions of boxes to women across the US and Canada and also offers online content about various products including tutorials. Being a subscription you sign up for there is no physical store, everything is done online and because of social media being so prominent in today’s society companies like this are thriving.

In a world where social media is becoming increasingly important to a company’s success, organizations are realizing that it is vitally important to have the appropriate tools to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. This is where social media metrics come into play. Social media metrics are specific tools that reveal how a social media tactic is having an impact on any given organization. Whether a company uses these measures to calculate its number of fans, or to determine the demographic of target audiences engaged with their social channels, it is these metrics which help an organization understand how a specific strategy effects the productivity of their business.  

The hashtag is not a new trend on social media anymore. However, if you’re new to the social world hashtags are something to get familiar with. You may think the pound sign (#) is only meant to be used when you check your voicemail, but it actually has a completely different meaning when it comes to social media: meet the hashtag. (MacDonald, 2017) Hashtags play a crucial role in developing interest in your social media accounts and are used on a number of social media platforms, most commonly, Twitter and Instagram. Including a hashtag with your posts helps to categorize content for your audience. From a user perspective, hashtags allow people to find posts that are relevant to their interests and interact with other social media users who share those interests by joining the conversation about hashtag XY. From a business perspective, it is your chance to be noticed in such conversation and establish your company as a voice for certain topics. Knowing where, why, and how to hashtag can change your social media game and presence tremendously. (MacDonald, 2017) Using a third party platform called Keyhole can do just that.

HubSpot is a developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing and sales. It was founded by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah in 2006 HubSpot offers a full stack of software for marketing, sales, and customer success, with a completely free CRM at its core. They’re powerful alone — but even better when used together (hubspot.com)  

It is a fact of the internet that every click, every view and every sign-up is recorded somewhere, Depending on your view, this is either very creepy or fantastically interesting,You might be sharing a video here or there to YouTube or some photos to Instagram. And you could be regularly posting to Facebook and Twitter, But if you’re not measuring how those social networks are working for you, And you’re not testing different methods to measure your results, You could be wasting valuable time. “Clear interface, very easy to use. Everything you need to start your social media management and monitoring.” DONATAS BUBINAS,CEO, Velvet. Depending on today’s business, Everyone should take the advantage of using the social media as you need to jump on that bandwagon,So you have to make sure that you are keeping an eye on the social media metrics where you can track and close the loop on your sale.  

At times we can all become the victims of a good trend.  The next big things is always around the corner and can often times seem like the answer that we have been looking for.  But is the appeal the concept itself or the popularity of the solution ?  Will the solution work within the  operating reality?  In the world of social media the only true predictor is Social Media Metrics.

Church leaders of all ministry types and sizes will likely agree that the task of numerically measuring progress, although sometimes tedious, can be one important means of gaining insight to a ministry’s health.  We measure congregational attendance and engagement to help gauge existing ministry connection and determine future programming, staffing and resource needs. We measure congregational giving both in the monetary sense and by way of volunteer hours, to help with our strategic planning and ongoing ministry mission. Many churches have broadened their mission field to include the online world. This includes utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and more to connect and network with people who may otherwise never engage with any aspect of the church.  According to Church Works, “Social media can be a brilliant way to reach users who may be entirely outside of your community…effective, generous engagement on social media can attract new followers who appreciate your message and identify with your mission.”  How then can we best measure our social media and digital reach?

The definitive ranking of “Friends” characters. Which dog is your spirit animal? 17 reasons sleeping is the best. Chances are, if these (fake) articles sound like something you would see on your social media feed, you’re familiar with Buzzfeed. Ah, Buzzfeed; the place where you always seem to end up, when procrastination is calling your name. Come on, who could resist these tantalizing food-prep videos?