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It’s beginning to look a lot like… oh sh*t, it’s almost the holiday season!

That’s right, it’s that magical time of year when people wave their credit cards in the air and scream “take my money!”... but if you + your clients aren’t prepared, with an organized marketing plan for social media, you could be leaving lots of cash on the table.

Here are some of our favorite ways to usher your clients into the holiday season (in a way that leaves everyone extra jolly)…

By sharing your affiliate links on Instagram, you can drastically increase the amount of money you make through these programs. However, simply dropping an affiliate link into a post isn’t going to cut it.

When I was just starting out as a freelance social media manager, I wrote this post which outlined the tools that I was using to manage my business and make life feel a little less hectic.

Over the past two years, some of those resources have definitely stood the test of time. However, as I’ve grown my business, updated my offerings, and brought on a team-- many of my needs have changed-- which means my business tools have too!

An Instagram influencer is defined as someone who has established an engaged audience on Instagram and can use their credibility, trustworthiness, and authenticity to persuade that audience to convert.  

In short, an influencer is anyone who has influence over a group of people. 

It’s a common misconception that in order to successfully partner with an influencer, the influencer account must have an extremely high number of followers, or be a high-profile celebrity. 

This is simply not true. 

If you’re interested in working with brands on your social media accounts, blog, or podcast -- you’re going to need a media kit.

A media kit is essentially a content creator’s resume.

It’s used to share the details + statistics of your online reach and partnership capabilities.

Even those who wish to be micro-influencers (accounts with less than 10k followers) should have something on hand to share important details about themselves with potential partners.

Let’s face it. As a business owner, you’ve got plenty to do on any given day.  

You know the drill.

Each time you check something off of your list, another task is magically added.

It’s a never ending cycle-- and to top it all off, apparently you’re supposed to post high quality content consistently (like every day?!) to social media.

What? Who has that kind of time?!

So maybe you’ve heard how important Instagram Stories are becoming.

Maybe you heard it from me ;)

Maybe you see all of your online pals + competitors hopping on and using Stories, and you get it. You understand why + how they work.  

You’re totally onboard. Stories are “a thing” on Instagram now. There’s no turning back.

When Instagram first announced it’s new Stories feature in August of 2016, the world let out a universal deep sigh and collectively rolled their eyes.

Much of the initial pushback on the new feature was because, well-- Snapchat was already doing that… get a life, Instagram, stop playing.

However -- in true Alpha fashion, Insta-stories quickly surpassed SnapChat’s daily active users, and has continued to beef up the in-app offerings with exciting new features.

It’s not really a huge surprise, but I’ve noticed that many business owners tend to focus all of their efforts on Instagram into growing a following. 

Some will even gauge the “success” of the account strictly by the number of followers they acquire.

And sure, while it’s great to have a large number show up in that little box labeled “followers”, that isn’t necessarily putting any money in the bank.