Author: Carlos Gil

Instagram Is Hiding Likes. Here’s What It Means for Brands and Influencers.

Leave a comment

Stay ahead of social media trends. November 21, 2019 4 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The world of social media is in for a major shakeup as Instagram will start testing out hiding “likes” for some users in the U.S. This decision, following a number of recent tests in countries such as Canada and Japan, is meant to make Instagram posts less of a competition for likes and more about quality connections, particularly for young people, as Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri explained at the WIRED25 conference. In addition to hopefully making social media a mentally healthier place for young people, making likes only visible to the poster and not the public could have a significant impact on brand and influencer marketing. While the long-term effects remain to be seen, it seems likely that less visibility of likes will lead to a more level playing field, […]

Read more

Is Your Brand Prepared for What’s Next?

Leave a comment

In today’s marketing world, a YouTube star or an Instagram model can have more influence and engagement than some of the largest brands in the world. November 15, 2019 3 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. While social media marketing has been prevalent for the last several years, too many brands still think they can apply old marketing methods to this new medium. Whereas traditional marketing relied on one-to-many forms of communication — think introducing a new product in a TV commercial — today’s marketing, dominated by social media, involves more one-to-one communication. At the same time, today’s tools make it possible to exponentially grow from one-to-one to a mass audience, as each person you connect with can then easily spread the word to their own networks, and those networks then have ties to other networks of their own, and so on and so forth. Getting […]

Read more

How to Leverage Twitter to Grow Your Brand and Find New Clients

Leave a comment

These two aspects of the popular social media platform can help you grow your business. November 6, 2019 3 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Twitter may not have the reputation for being as business-focused as LinkedIn or have the audience size of Facebook, but it’s one of the most underrated and misunderstood social networks among professionals and businesses. Anyone looking to grow their brand and find new clients should be able to get value out of Twitter. In particular, the following two overlooked aspects of Twitter help make it one of the best platforms for any type of company to improve their marketing: 1. Twitter is a real-time search engine. Perhaps more than any other platform, Twitter is plugged into the present. The short-form, written nature of the content on Twitter means that people are constantly sharing what they think about TV shows, conferences, product launches, etc., […]

Read more

Follow the 3 Ps to Grow Your Social Media Influence

Leave a comment

Pursue your purpose, passion and partnerships. October 7, 2019 4 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. If you want to build up your personal brand and gain influence online, you don’t need millions of followers, but you do need a clear reason for people to listen to and engage with you. In my case, I’ve built up my influence on social media over the years by being honest and transparent about my life while doing my best to offer valuable marketing insights to my audience. I try to stay in my lane as a social media marketing expert, rather than trying to be an influencer on every topic. If you want to build a stronger personal brand and have more influence, make sure you have clear intentions about what you want to be known for so you can go full speed ahead toward that goal. While […]

Read more

How to Humanize Your Brand to Win on Social Media

Leave a comment

It doesn’t matter how big your reach is if your audience won’t engage with your content. September 16, 2019 5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Is your brand putting significant resources into posting every day on Facebook, yet no one’s engaging with your posts? Are you tweeting out links to your website on Twitter, yet no one’s clicking through, even when you offer sales or other incentives? If any of this sounds like challenges you and your brand face, there’s a clear solution: Humanize your brand. In today’s hectic and crowded social media landscape, companies that want to break through need to focus on forming genuine connections with their audiences by communicating with them like a human, not like a brand. That starts with marketers thinking less like marketers and more like consumers. Don’t believe me? Consider this: When using social media in your personal […]

Read more

If You Suck as an Employee, You Will Probably Suck as an Entrepreneur

Leave a comment

Here are three reasons why the habits you build now will matter later. September 9, 2019 6 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Do you want to make the jump from working for an employer to running your own business? Odds are that if you suck as an employee now, then you won’t make it as an entrepreneur. It sounds harsh, but that’s real talk. As an employee, if you don’t build the skills you need to thrive as an entrepreneur, especially in terms of having a strong work ethic, then it’s incredibly difficult to flip a switch and all of a sudden thrive as an entrepreneur. I know you’re probably thinking that the two situations are unrelated. Maybe you don’t like your boss, or you’re bored with your work assignments or there’s some other factor that you think you can change when you become an entrepreneur. […]

Read more

How Ja Rule Is Reinventing Himself as a Tech Entrepreneur

Leave a comment

Ja Rule’s new platform is essentially a rebranding of the Fyre app, so will he be able to regain the public’s trust? August 5, 2019 3 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. In the 20 years since Ja Rule burst onto the music scene, both he and the world around him have transformed dramatically. Today, Ja Rule is busy reinventing himself as a tech entrepreneur, most notably with his platform Iconn that allows anyone to directly book talent such as musicians to perform at events like Bar Mitzvahs and weddings. This direct connection parallels the change that’s occurred in the broader entertainment and marketing industries, where celebrities and brands provide an abundance of content and access directly to consumers, mainly through social media. Adapting to this new world has been an adjustment, he says, but he recognizes the need to evolve and sees the value for […]

Read more

What It Takes to Be a Modern Entrepreneur

Leave a comment

July 29, 2019 4 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. We live in a golden age for entrepreneurism, with the number of full-time, self-employed professionals potentially catapulting from 15 million in 2018 to 42 million in 2020, according to research from FreshBooks. Being a part of this group can be incredibly rewarding, both emotionally and monetarily, but if you want to make it as a modern entrepreneur, you have to play by the new rules of the game. People buy from people In the past, being an entrepreneur often meant building a brand where the product or service was front and center. Today, however, being a modern entrepreneur means being in a league of your own, where you make yourself the heart of the brand and show how you stand out from others based on your personality. That’s because the corporate world has become so large […]

Read more

5 Quick Business Tips for Recent High School Grads

Leave a comment

These networking tactics can help pay dividends in the future. July 8, 2019 6 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Whether you decide to go to college, join the workforce, start your own business, or take any other path after high school, there are always opportunities to learn in ways that will ultimately help your career. Taking real-world knowledge and implementing it into your life can help you move up the ranks faster and start making money now. To start, think about these five tips: 1. Jump into LinkedIn If you haven’t joined LinkedIn yet, do so immediately. While all your friends might be focused on Instagram or Snapchat, LinkedIn provides you with unbelievable access to the business world. As the largest professional social network, it’s where you should be looking to build yourself up online so that when someone Googles you, they’ll be able to find […]

Read more

3 Tips on How to Build Brand Partnerships

Leave a comment

Here’s how to sell your content without selling out. June 3, 2019 5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Want to know the secret to getting paid to work with brands? Think in terms of ongoing partnerships and creating real, relatable content rather than one-off advertisements. Social media and digital marketing are changing, as brands need to be more personal and genuine in their messaging rather than being straight up salesy. Yet a lot of the content coming from brands still sounds very corporate, which is why they can benefit from partnering with you — and paying you — to create content. 1. Content matters more than reach Even if you don’t have a large following, you can still get brand deals. Whether you have 1,000 social media followers or 1 million, everyone has some level of influence. The size of a sponsorship may depend on reach, but […]

Read more

How One of Gary Vaynerchuk’s New Projects Is Helping Small and Medium Businesses

Leave a comment

This new digital marketing agency serves small and medium businesses. May 20, 2019 3 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. With over six million followers across social media, Gary Vaynerchuk has feverishly captured the attention and inspired a wide range of entrepreneurs and business leaders. Yet a large part of Vaynerchuk’s business comes through a small segment of the market. His digital marketing agency, VaynerMedia, serves Fortune 500 companies such as PepsiCo and General Electric, but his following extends far beyond the people running these few companies. So to serve a wider market, specifically small and medium businesses (SMBs) with approximately $1 million to $100 million in revenue, Vaynerchuk and his team officially launched Sasha Group at the start of 2019. I recently sat down with James Orsini, the leader behind The Sasha Group, for a candid discussion about starting this agency and how they help […]

Read more

The Story Behind the Launch of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Empathy Wines

Leave a comment

Jon Troutman and Nate Scherotter, co-founders of new direct-to-consumer winery Empathy Wines, share the details on how they started the business with renowned entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. March 25, 2019 3 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The worlds of fine wine and digital marketing may seem far apart, but one of the most prominent and successful marketers, Gary Vaynerchuk, got his start by blending the two to create Wine Library TV in 2006. Since then, Vaynerchuk went on to start several other businesses, including VaynerMedia, one of the top digital agencies in the world. As Vaynerchuk’s media empire grew over the past decade, two of his disciples, Jon Troutman and Nate Scherotter, climbed the ranks. Along the way, the three worked together to create other wine-related businesses such as Cork’d, a social network for wine enthusiasts, while also growing VaynerMedia into the powerhouse it is today. […]

Read more

How to Work with Celebrities and Boost Your Social Media Presence

Leave a comment

Joe Laresca, founder of media agency Noise and co-founder of Serhant Media Group, shares his views on connecting with high-profile influencers and provides practical social media advice for real estate agents. March 18, 2019 3 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. As a young entrepreneur looking to help celebrities and influencers expand their reach online, Joe Laresca reached a breakthrough in 2017 by landing a job with Ryan Serhant, one of the most famous and successful realtors in the world. Reaching Serhant, star of the hit Bravo TV show Million Dollar Listing New York, wasn’t easy, but Laresca was relentlessly persistent,emailing Serhant 56 times with pitch decks and ideas for growing his brand. Finally, Serhant invited Laresca to his office for a meeting, and the two almost instantly started working together to build Serhant Media Group, a media and entertainment company that creates content about real […]

Read more

How K-Swiss Rebranded Around the Modern Hustle

Leave a comment

K-Swiss President Barney Waters and Social Media Community Manager Omar Prestwich share how the sneaker company has inspired entrepreneurs. March 11, 2019 2 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. In its more than 50 years as an LA-based brand, K-Swiss has undergone several transformations. From its tennis origins, to its ‘90s cult following, to its effective “I Wear My K-Swiss” campaign in the aughts, the company has embraced rebrands to connect with customers amidst ever-changing pop culture. Around three years ago, under the direction of new president Barney Waters, the company began its latest pivot to become the go-to sneaker company for entrepreneurs. Since then, K-Swiss has shown an impressive ability to tap into the zeitgeist, underscored by creating a shoe line with famed marketing entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. This collaboration has coincided with revamped marketing efforts focused on providing valuable business insights, such as through a […]

Read more

5 Ways to Optimize Your Trip to SXSW

Leave a comment

Whether it’s your first time or your tenth to the business hub, these tips can help you make the most of your trip. March 8, 2019 6 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. From March 8th through the 17th, the SXSW festival which initially began in 1987 will radically transform downtown Austin, Texas into the epicenter for all thing’s technology, music, and movies. If you’ve never been to SXSW before, it’s like spring break for adults. However, it’s also an opportunity where legitimate business is transacted and access to VIP, invite-only experiences is a valuable commodity. Personally, SXSW 2019 is my fourth time attending the interactive or tech-focused part of the extravaganza. My first time visiting (2016) is where an initial off-chance meeting in a hotel lobby bar led to a fruitful business relationship which allowed me to quit my corporate job years later which is why I […]

Read more

Inside Super Bowl Week With VaynerSports

Leave a comment

The Super Bowl isn’t just about football. February 25, 2019 2 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. On February 3rd, 2019 Atlanta played host the the Super Bowl, which according to some reports, cost the city a whopping $46 million. If you’ve never been to a Super Bowl host city during the week leading up to the game, let me explain what you’re missing. It’s like Mardi Gras meets Burning Man and Spring Break — for both sports fanatics and business executives. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, the NFL, its fans and sponsors take over the host city. That includes nearby hotels, nightclubs, and restaurants. It’s big business both on and off the field. I spent 48 hours during Super Bowl weekend with Justin Giangrande, the Executive Vice President of VaynerSports (a full-service agency co-founded by serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk and his brother AJ). During […]

Read more

Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets to Success

Leave a comment

Rebecca Minkoff and Rosie Mercado share how they succeed through adversity and inspire women entrepreneurs. February 18, 2019 3 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. If you walk through the women’s section of a high-end department store these days, it’s not uncommon to come across the Rebecca Minkoff brand, which sells everything from handbags to apparel. However, before she and her brother grew their multi-million dollar fashion empire, Rebecca Minkoff was an early adopter to use social media which she credits to aid in the success of her early days when she had to max out her credit card to create her first bags because nobody would give her a business loan. Today, Minkoff not only has built a brand that competes with other fashion giants such as Coach, Kate Spade and Tory Burch, but she’s also actively the face of her brand digitally to the tune […]

Read more

Mega Real Estate Agent Ryan Serhant Breaks Down How to Sell and Earn More

Leave a comment

Here’s how you can sell yourself, your brand and your business. January 21, 2019 3 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. We’ve long heard and read about the rise of social media influencers. The business of influencer marketing itself has become a billion-dollar enterprise thanks to creators who have become internet famous on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram and the corporations who pay to tap into their following.  Now, the latest wave of creators to disrupt an industry aren’t your typical YouTube influencers who vlog about their daily happenings, but instead they’re suited, and licensed professionals historically known as real estate agents. A recent Engel & Völkers study featured by Inman News revealed that 80 percent of Millennials, who also happen to be the largest demographic of first-time homebuyers in the United States, rely on influencers to make buying decisions – including the home they purchase. Call it […]

Read more

How to Grow Your Brand and Monetize as an Influencer

Leave a comment

Being an influencer — and actually making money — isn’t just about taking a pretty photo. October 2, 2018 4 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Take a look at the work of Logan and Jake Paul, Casey Neistat, Jenna Marbles or even Tai Lopez, and it’s easy to see why today’s youth wants to be internet famous, perceived as being rich and be labeled an “influencer.” A search on LinkedIn — the world’s largest professional social network — for “social media influencer” reveals approximately 419,306 user profiles that contain the term in their job title. For brands, however, influencer marketing has become big business to the tune of an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion business within the next five years according to one firm whose study revealed advertisers would spend over $1.6 billion alone on Instagram in 2018. On the latest episode of Real […]

Read more

Learn How to Dress to Impress From This Men’s Style Expert With Over 1 Million YouTube Followers

Leave a comment

How you dress in a professional setting goes a long way in how others perceive you. June 18, 2018 3 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. If you take one look at Antonio Centeno, your first thought is probably, “Wow, here’s a good-looking, well-dressed guy that’s probably a Fortune 500 CEO.” I know that’s what I thought when I first came across him at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego recently. It turns out that Centeno is a former Marine captain turned men’s style and fashion consultant who has written over 1,000 articles and published thousands of videos to close to 2 million subscribers on YouTube while teaching men of all ages, shapes and sizes how to dress their best to impress. According to Centeno, how you dress in a professional setting goes a long way in how others perceive you, which traditionally has been true for […]

Read more
1 2