Samia Gore on why it’s so important to recognize that what you say behind a screen matters, with…

Samia Gore on why it’s so important to recognize that what you say behind a screen matters, with Candice Georgiadis

I would want to focus on a movement that helps people understand the things that they say behind a screen regarding other peoples bodies matter. Our bodies are our temples and we can’t escape them. Your “she’s not cute” or “he’s fat” or “her nose is too big” comments hurt. If you don’t have anything positive to say about someone’s body don’t say anything. It seems as if there is a certain level of decency some people in this world are missing. I wish I could do an anti body shaming campaign that focuses on that.

Samia Gore is an author, wellness expert, CEO and founder of the wellness and supplement company, BODY Complete Rx. Gore, a mother to four, dove into an entrepreneurship role by developing an online presence on Instagram — where her following rapidly grew to over 150k followers. Throughout the course of this social recognition, she acquired a greater understanding of how to live a healthy lifestyle. This lead Samia to embark on the creation of her newest entry into the health and wellness space, BODY Complete Rx (BCRx), a supplement company that addresses weight management, obesity, cognitive, and overall health. Although BCRx is relatively new, just 2 years on the market, BCRx has garnered over $3.8 Million dollars in sales in the past 2 years, making Samia the first African American female CEO to break significant ground in this male-dominated, highly competitive, supplement industry.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I have always had a passion for self-care and wellness and I have always been a girl who loved to pamper myself and try new things. My start as a CEO of the wellness brand BODY Complete Rx (BCRx) was, however, a bit nontraditional. It all began from a passion to become the best version of myself. In 2014 after having my 4th child, in which I gained a considerable amount of weight, I felt my lowest. I had let myself become less of a priority and my health was suffering the consequences. I decided to set out on a — publicly documented — weight loss journey to lose nearly 80 lbs, in which I also made the decision to publicly share my ‘Mommy Makeover’ journey, which quickly advanced into a following of like-minded women and men. I soon began to share more about my personal routine, like the organic ingredients I used to aid in my weight management. These tips and tricks, specific to my own journey, continued to catch the attention of the aforementioned audience and from that BODY Complete Rx was born.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?
In just over 2 years BODY Complete RX has grown a social media presence and recognition to rival that of mega multi-million dollar brands. Speaking to my audience authentically, drawing from my own experiences, has allowed me to obtain a social media presence which has fueled the expansion of my brand. As the CEO I use my own social presence, as well as partner with a variety of aesthetic, health, and wellness enthusiasts to leverage the messaging of my brand and expand our audience.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?
One day in March 2018, after being sold out of product for a number of weeks, we restocked our inventory only to do an amazing $250,000 in sales in 10 minutes, closing the day with nearly $300,000 in revenue without any discounts offered on products.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Not sure if this is funny per se but one mistake that I can say I made is investing in social media gurus. Obviously as a business owner on social media when looking for support or resources the first place I look is on social media. While there are many qualified people who market their businesses on these social platforms, there are just as many crooks and people who “look good” or are “popular” who misrepresent their actual skills and ultimately drain unsuspecting business owners and entrepreneurs of their precious startup dollars. So many people giving seminars and webinars about things they know absolutely nothing about. And it sucks because you are hiring for their expertise as you may have limited knowledge on the subject — I’ve learned my lesson.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?
Instagram is without a doubt our strongest social media platform. We look to expand our footprint on our Twitter and Facebook accounts — @bodycompleterx — in 2019. Please follow us!

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 5 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.
Use your social media to get to know your audience. Interact with them. Ask them questions and engage with them. This is quick and easy market research as well!

Use IG tools such as ads, hashtags, IG shopping to help advertise your business outside of your current audience/following creating extended exposure for your brand.

Create campaigns with hashtags! BCRX utilizes uniquely created hashtags to help connect our customers in our brand. Follow the hashtag #downinthepounds and #bcrxfam and you will see customers worldwide who have used BCRX

Use IG to improve your customer service. Most business accounts direct you (in their bio) to an email as this is where most would prefer to engage with customers. BCRX uses email as a platform to connect with our customers, however, we also make sure BCRX has quick and accessible customer service via Instagram. This way we can enhance our support so that we can help with any questions regarding our products and orders.
Leverage exposure opportunities. Instagram is becoming a modern day TV with every account being a “TV station” run by the account owner. Just as with TV, commercial breaks are often used on IG with brands leveraging their relationships with celebrities and well-known personas to share for brand exposure. BCRX also utilizes this model by connecting with customers with varying exposure to best share their experiences with our products and brand.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would want to focus on a movement that helps people understand the things that they say behind a screen regarding other peoples bodies matter. Our bodies are our temples and we can’t escape them. Your “she’s not cute” or “he’s fat” or “her nose is too big” comments hurt. If you don’t have anything positive to say about someone’s body don’t say anything. It seems as if there is a certain level of decency some people in this world are missing. I wish I could do an anti body shaming campaign that focuses on that.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
My dream lunch date would be with Daymond John. I would love to pitch my brand to him. As an African American woman building a wellness brand, which aims to help change the health of a mainly minority customer base, I know that what we are doing at BCRX is special. Knowing Mr. John’s own story of having thyroid cancer and his passion for health and education, I believe he would see the value in our brand.


Samia Gore on why it’s so important to recognize that what you say behind a screen matters, with… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Technological illiteracy is a real problem and those of us who work every day online and with…

“Technological illiteracy is a real problem and those of us who work every day online and with technology often forget how overwhelming it can all seem to those that don’t.” with Kristine Neil and Candice Georgiadis

Technological illiteracy is a real problem and those of us who work every day online and with technology often forget how overwhelming it can all seem to those that don’t. Teaching everyone how to use, manage, evaluate, and understand technology and information online is as critical a subject as reading or math. I believe that we have a civic responsibility to make sure that not just our students but other demographics that are routinely marginalized online have the tools they need to access information and engage in the conversations that will shape our collective future.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristine Neil. Kristine is a creative entrepreneur, who believes that world-class branding and technology should be available to every business — no matter its size, years-in-business, or industry. She uses Instagram as a platform to connect with peers, prospective clients, and design enthusiasts by sharing cultural, experiential, and portfolio content for both her personal brand and the creative studio she owns — Markon Brands. Kristine loves consulting business owners on how to create a cohesive brand on Instagram.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

In my early days as a brand designer and strategist, I learned that brands needed to be able to effectively portray themselves on social media and not just in traditional ways like print or other static marketing. It wasn’t enough to create a great logo; it was understanding how it would be viewed on a mobile device. It wasn’t enough to know how to work with long-form copy for an advertisement; I needed to know how to help them communicate in blurbs and snippets. Love it or hate it, understanding the nuances of social media can make the difference between building a successful brand and a mediocre one.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

I’ll admit that I was slow to jump into social media back in the day, but it didn’t take long to realize the power it was going to have to influence how businesses are discovered and ultimately change the way brands interact with customers. The communications and public relations rules that companies have always followed still apply on social media, they just operate on a much, much faster timeframe! My background in communications helped me tremendously when I started forging my own way on social media, then when I started working on my business accounts, and ultimately when I began managing and consulting for clients. It’s hard to be an authority on something that evolves as quickly as social media marketing, but I treat staying ahead of the trends as part of my job.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

Apparently watching a thousand different episodes of Dateline didn’t help us know to be wary of blind dates with clients from the internet. Unfortunately, catfishing exists even in the business world which we learned the hard way after agreeing to coffee with a potential local client who followed us on social for a while before sending an inquiry about a new project. Flash forward a few hours after sitting in a coffee shop wondering if he was going to show up at all and my teammate and I found ourselves watching slideshows in some random guy’s basement office while frantically trying to find a reason to cut the meeting short. As it turns out, he didn’t actually have any real work to offer and just wanted to “pick our brains” in a (too long) free consultation. Hot tip: screen those types of inquiries by phone before committing yourself for an afternoon — or worse!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I’m a pretty critical person, so it’s hard for me to think of any mistakes as funny. Rookie mistakes usually involve things like not proofreading posts and publishing careless typos or pushing the wrong image for a campaign seemed like major fails at the time but looking back I can definitely laugh about them. As I said, social media moves fast so luckily most mistakes will be buried by the gaffes someone else is inevitably going to make tomorrow.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

Instagram is by far the most effective platform for me and my business. As web designers, our work is inherently visual, so it works well to show some behind-the-scenes shots, preview finished projects and interact with clients and peers there. The tough part can be directly connecting engagement with increased business revenues. Unlike retail industries where low price points can result in impulse buys and direct correlation between promoted posts and content with sales, it often takes clients getting to know us over a long period, liking our work and then — when the time is right — reaching out to work with us to see results. The funniest memory is a client that finally (after following us on Instagram for a while) came by our office to talk about working together. She was shocked to discover that our office is just like it appears on Instagram! I guess she was used to a lot of people who put out super altered photos and portray them as their own that she was just impressed to find out that we were real!

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Be Authentic
The quickest way to get people to zone out is to show them exactly what they see on everyone else’s accounts. You’re not keeping up a robust posting schedule and all that goes with it to blend in! Users are quick to notice when someone isn’t being real. When faced with an endless scroll of pretty, polished, manicured personas, offering an authentic picture of who you really are as a person (or as a brand) can be a breath of fresh air. Brands and influencers alike shouldn’t be afraid to put themselves out there; I’ve found that the messy behind-the-scenes posts usually generate the most engagement. If you’re hesitant to post anything less than perfect to your grid, that’s what Stories are for! You can be silly, speak directly to your followers, play with fun features like gifs, polls or questions and still maintain the picture perfect main profile we all strive for.

2. Ignore the Haters
People on Instagram tend to be nicer folk than those over on, say, Twitter but the platform is not without it’s fair share of trolls. They can often crop up in unsuspecting ways, such as a competitor who follows you just to copy your style or a jilted past customer who just won’t stop leaving negative comments. We’re all for free speech but honestly, your Instagram is your property and you have the right to police it in any way you want including blocking people or using the profanity filter to censor out specific keywords or phrases. This can help make your page a more enjoyable experience for the people you really want to connect with and allows you to keep your focus on more positive activities.

3. Be Consistent

Some of the best brands on Instagram aren’t necessarily posting multiple times per day, but what they are doing is posting consistently. This can mean that they are posting on the same days of the week, the same times of the day or even with the same themes that their followers can count on seeing. The key is to find what works best for your audience and stick with it! It’s sad when we set a client up with a beautiful content calendar that they stick with for a month and then drop the ball on. Keeping the momentum on your feed going doesn’t need to take up a ton of time, either. Use a scheduling app to queue posts up and work on a week’s or month’s worth of content at a time. This way, you can post consistently day-to-day and reserve your active time for engagement and connecting.

4. Define Your Brand Aesthetic — and Stick To It
Instagram followers may not be able to put into words just exactly why they like certain accounts over others, even within the same industry. But as a designer, it’s easy to see that what they are attracted to a cohesive brand identity. They know what to expect, and they like it. Working to define a brand color palette, photographic style and even a caption style that aligns well with your brand identity and messaging in the real world can pay off big time on Instagram. For brands, especially solopreneurs or small brands, this would also include defining what’s not Instagram-worthy. Examples of things that don’t belong on a business account are family pics, posts about personal politics or other affiliations and almost anything shared from another account. Your business feed is about your brand, not someone else’s, and definitely not about your personal life.

5. Meet Them Where They Are

One of the most under-used buttons on Instagram is that little magnifying glass icon in the bottom tray. The discover tab is a great place to explore industry hashtags, connect with peers and see what everyone else is up to. More than that, it’s a place to learn more about what your ideal clients are interested in. What are the accounts and hashtags they follow? Is there anything you can learn from them? Styles or content ideas you can tweak and make your own? Doing some exploring away from your brand’s own notification tab will help you expand your circle and grow your network.

6. Focus on Engagement, Not Likes
We all love when that little heart counter ticks up and up but likes aren’t the metric brands should be paying attention to on Instagram. When we look at our analytics, the posts that have the most likes are almost never the same as the posts that have the most comments and guess what posts convert clients? You guessed it — the ones with higher engagement. You can encourage comments by asking questions or being conversational in the captions; it all comes back to being authentic. Followers want to connect with the real people behind a brand. The likes are just a bonus.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

We’re at a place in history unlike any other when it comes to access to such a large amount of information at the tips of our fingers. So much of what happens in our real lives, in our communities, in our classrooms, in our town halls, and in our boardrooms is affected by or has the power to be shaped by the information that we get first online. Unfortunately, technological illiteracy is a real problem and those of us who work every day online and with technology often forget how overwhelming it can all seem to those that don’t. Teaching everyone how to use, manage, evaluate, and understand technology and information online is as critical a subject as reading or math. I believe that we have a civic responsibility to make sure that not just our students but other demographics that are routinely marginalized online have the tools they need to access information and engage in the conversations that will shape our collective future.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

I’m a Catfish fan from way back so if Nev Schulman is still on the hunt for a guest co-host, I’m available!

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!


“Technological illiteracy is a real problem and those of us who work every day online and with… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Make People Laugh: Humor is one of the most undervalued promotional tactics for businesses.”,

“Make People Laugh: Humor is one of the most undervalued promotional tactics for businesses”, with Julia Enthoven and Candice Georgiadis

Make People Laugh: Humor is one of the most undervalued promotional tactics for businesses. Memes, hyper fresh content, bloopers, reaction videos, and silly quotes are a great way to attract new followers and show off your brand’s personality. Funny posts attract reshares, comments, press coverage, and engagement, and it also gives you the opportunity to relate to your target customers.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Julia Enthoven, the CEO and cofounder of Kapwing, an online video editor for creative professionals. Julia started Kapwing last year after leaving Google, where she and her cofounder worked as product managers on Search.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Of course! When I started at Stanford, I did not expect to graduate with a major in math & computer science. I started college with a strong interest in public policy and first got exposure to tech when I interned for the New York City Department of Education after my freshman year. After that, I took a Computer Science class and was hooked!

When I graduated, I got a job at Google as an Associate Product Manager. I loved my job, but I’ve always dreamed about starting something on my own. A coworker (now my cofounder, Eric Lu) and I started talking about startup ideas and, after two years, I decided to leave Google to work with Eric on a product idea. We both love visual content and wanted to modernize video creation for digital storytellers. That idea turned into Kapwing!

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

Our tools help people create social media content for Instagram and other channels. Tens of thousands of artists, students, digital marketers, entertainers, and creative professionals use Kapwing to make photos and videos they publish to social media. As video has risen in popularity, we’ve learned so much from our community about what posts perform well, how to promote a product or service, and which practices produce results on social media. Through developing the Kapwing product, I’ve become an expert in memes, IGTV, and content marketing.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

Last month, Kanye retweeted a Kapwing video! Someone tweeted a video made on Kapwing (with a Kapwing watermark) at him, and he retweeted it to his 28.7M followers. One of my advisors saw it in his Twitter feed and immediately texted me. It was really interesting to see the impact of a major influencer giving your service a shoutout — we saw a big rise in people who Googled Kapwing out of curiosity, but not a big spike in usage. We learned that influencer marketing is less impactful when the function of the product is not apparent or when the shoutout is out of context. But it did help us with brand recognition nonetheless!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

A few weeks after launching Kapwing, we started charging a $1 fee to remove the small Kapwing watermark. We were shocked that anyone would pay money to remove the watermark after embedding text into their video, so shocked that we kept a way to “skip” the payment for fear that we would lose all of our users. Users could skip the paywall if they wrote us “an apology” explaining why they didn’t want to pay. It was hilarious to read the apology notes that came in.

Retrospectively, charging just $1 was a mistake. Now, we charge $6/video, and the price will likely increase soon. We appreciate the value that our simple website brings to users who otherwise would have to hire an expensive contractor to navigate professional video editing programs and have increased value as we expanded the feature set.

My takeaway for other first-time entrepreneurs is to talk to your users about pricing rather than basing it on what you would pay for the same service. You might be surprised to find that your customers are more or less willing to pay that you are.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

LinkedIn has been a great way to share videos

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

Experiment with video: In the last 18 months, video content has exploded in popularity on Instagram. In 2017 alone, the number of videos published on Instagram quadrupled. Instagram is heavily promoting IGTV and regular video posts in the Instagram Explore feed, so experimenting with video posts is a great way to get discovered. Smartphone cameras and online video editing software make it possible for anyone on your team to produce great videos rather than requiring professional hardware or editing expertise. You can leverage new video channels like IGTV and Lasso to get exposure for your business on a rising platform.

Make custom Instagram Story templates to scale branded Stories: Instagram Stories are an excellent media for promotions, announcements, and driving traffic to your website. A 2018 study by Agorapulse actually showed that Instagram Stories drive more engagement than sponsored Instagram feed posts. To maintain quality and visual consistency on your Instagram stories while increasing production volume, make and reuse branded Instagram Story templates. You can share the templates with your team or organization to scale video production at a low cost. Make sure to announce new product offerings, discounts, blog posts, and other companies news items in your business’s Story.

Upload a Custom Thumbnail: Unlike YouTube, Instagram doesn’t have a native tool to upload a custom thumbnail for a video. But custom cover frames or thumbnails are more compelling and make it more likely that people will click and consume your content. Also, cover thumbnails help Instagram brands maintain visual consistency in the feed since you can reuse branded visual elements. To add a custom thumbnail on your Instagram video, create a cover frame and merge it with your video clip before posting to Instagram.

Add Subtitles: On Instagram, browsers tend to look through posts with the sound off, so your content shouldn’t rely on audio to tell a story. For Stories, interviews, customer testimonials, ads, or product demos, make sure to add subtitles to your videos either by embedding captions directly or relying on native closed captions. Subtitled videos are more clear, more engaging, and more accessible on every platform.

Send Personalized DMs: Cold emails have been around for decades, but Instagram DMs are a new channel to reach prospective clients and customers. Since most people spend as much time on Facebook as they do on Instagram, it’s a highly personal form of outreach. If you’re trying to reach a certain influencer, blogger, or brand, try making a personalized video or image and send it to them with an Instagram DM. Make sure that your outreach is human and customized, not automated or robotic.

Make People Laugh: Humor is one of the most undervalued promotional tactics for businesses. Memes, hyper fresh content, bloopers, reaction videos, and silly quotes are a great way to attract new followers and show off your brand’s personality. Funny posts attract reshares, comments, press coverage, and engagement, and it also gives you the opportunity to relate to your target customers.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Wow, this is a meaty question! There are so many issues that I care about and how to contribute to one day. To pick one: I’m a big supporter of Michael Tubbs, the mayor of Stockton, CA. He was a mentor to me in college and has done some amazing work for the city of Stockton. Although most of his work is focused on his local community, he’s inspiring to anyone who knows him well and cares about impact on a global scale. I hope that people notice the work he’s doing and go out of their way to support him!

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

I would love to meet Elliot and Jessica Tebele, the hilarious Instagram creators behind FuckJerry and BeigeCardigan. Their content is amazing, and I’m sure they would have incredible feedback on the product and advice about growing the Kapwing and reaching more casual creators. Plus it would probably be the funniest meal of my life.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!


“Make People Laugh: Humor is one of the most undervalued promotional tactics for businesses.”, was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Stop wasting your money on Masterclasses that will take you from 0–10k in 30 days; every possible…

“Stop wasting your money on Masterclasses that will take you from 0–10k in 30 days; every possible tip you need to know is free online” with Umar Brimah and Candice Georgiadis

Stop wasting your money on Masterclasses that will “take you from 0–10k in 30 days”. Every possible tip you need to know is free online. You just need to look for it. There are countless Facebook Groups that exist solely for digital marketers to share their tips, experiences and add real value. YouTube channels like AskGaryVee, Sprout Social, HubSpot, Derek Halpern, Anthony Groeper etc give out real advice at no cost. If you’re a creator, channels like Peter McKinnon and Cinecon.net give away free technical tutorials that will level up your proficiency with Abobe’s Creative Suite. Invest your time actively learning by testing strategies and implementing new techniques. Then rinse and repeat.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Umar Brimah, Co-founder of Cedar+Black Digital Media and Founder of Bleux Entertainment. Umar is a resilient entrepreneur with experience working in Investment Banking, Marketing, Experiential Services, and with Startups. You can follow more of his story on Instagram using the handle @UmarBrimah.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I have always been the type to dive very deeply into the things I am passionate about. I’ve learned a tremendous amount as a by-product of just embarking on different passion projects. In high school, I learned how to use the Apple SDK for iOS and created an app that was a massive database of every car I could find specs for. Looking back, creating that twitter account to promote my app was my first experience using social media to promote a brand.

In college, I worked as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst at Avondale Partners in Nashville, TN. My assignments primarily revolved around Nashville’s health care industry. I was able to gain tremendous insight into emerging markets. This experience was a little too analytical for my taste and fostered my desire to have a more creative and hands-on role. Later that summer I was invited to attend the Tilt Summit in San Francisco (hosted by Tilt.com). This gave me the opportunity to view a booming startup form the inside. As an ambassador, I got to watch them grow until they were acquired by Airbnb. After that experience, I knew I wanted to work with early-stage companies.

When I came back, I was fortunate enough to work personally with the CEO of Illevated Sounds to present Waco with its first ever electronic music festival, Illectric River. My primary role was Head of Greek Promotions, but I was able to work closely with the CEO in several areas to execute operations for the event, including pitching to a Houston investor to secure $350,000 in funding.

All of these experiences converged during my last undergraduate semester. I used the knowledge I gained to found Bleux and host a concert at the BSR Cable Park headlined by Waka Flocka Flame. We were able to sell over a thousand tickets within 48hrs of launching just by using organic reach. As a side project, I partnered with a friend to create a Shopify store filled with merch for the concert. We used social media to promote everything and a dropshipping service to fulfill all the orders.

I was then invited by my close friends to join Cedar+Black as a Co-founder in the spring of 2018. This gave me the opportunity to use my skill set to help clients like Bush’s Chicken, a nationwide franchise, achieve the same success in the digital space. Since then Cedar+Black has scaled to surpass a half million dollar valuation and is on track to more than double that valuation in 2019.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

In an age where everyone is a “Digital Media Guru,” it has never been more important to separate the practitioners from the idealists. As someone who has been actively managing brands, creating content and distributing digitally for years, I stand with the practitioners. As both a creator and growth hacker, I offer an in-depth perspective on the dichotomy between the two most important aspects for anyone trying to supercharge their brand on Instagram; content and distribution. As Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Cedar+Black Digital Media, I have worked with large franchises and small businesses to hack growth by driving traffic and creating truly captivating content. I am also the Founder of Bleux Entertainment, a promotion agency that uses the same strategies to attract thousands of attendees to live concerts. “Digital Media Guru’s” frequently forget the importance of experiential marketing in this mix. Consumers are actively seeking experiences over products, so we use experiences to create lasting relationships with our customers. This is one of the best strategies you can use to combat ever-changing algorithms and keep your brand champions engaged.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

When Cedar+Black was founded we made the ambitious mistake of taking on too much project work from clients. Our workload started to fluctuate so much that some days we would have an endless laundry list of pressing work to complete and other days we would have nothing to do. We realized this process would not be sustainable or scalable, so we all sat down and had an intense discussion about productizing our services and creating a completely new process that can accommodate significantly more clients. Internally we have become a brand new company. We’re now using this as an opportunity to rebrand Cedar+Black and outwardly signify the significant internal strides we have made. We will officially launch our new branding this month to kick start 2019.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Well… we took some time off for Thanksgiving to refuel our minds and spend quality time with loved ones. It was more than needed considering the workload of building a startup. We came back feeling refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. We walked into our office bright-eyed and chipper just to be slapped across the face by the most unbearably nauseating smell. Everyone erupted into a coughing fit, gasping for air unsure of what was going on. After a few minutes, we realized we had forgotten to get rid of some of our Halloween props… In the corner was a pumpkin that had rotted to the point of combustion. Its moldy innards left all over the floor. The scene was so bad we had to move operations for the day to a local coffee shop. To say the least, we learned to get rid of old props.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

Facebook’s platform (including Instagram) has been the most beneficial to our clients. For example, we created @BushsChickenUSA from scratch and built it up to ~2600 followers cumulatively on Facebook and Instagram within a few months. During this period, sales for each Bush’s location under our management rose 10% on average. This was also during a period that had historically seen lower sales volumes. The only change that had been made to their existing marketing strategy was adding Facebook/Instagram, so we were able to confidently attribute the sales increase to the new accounts and geotargeted ads run from them. Growth has continued to trend upward since then.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Stop wasting your money on Masterclasses that will “take you from 0–10k in 30 days”
Every possible tip you need to know is free online. You just need to look for it. There are countless Facebook Groups that exist solely for digital marketers to share their tips, experiences and add real value. YouTube channels like AskGaryVee, Sprout Social, HubSpot, Derek Halpern, Anthony Groeper etc give out real advice at no cost. If you’re a creator, channels like Peter McKinnon and Cinecon.net give away free technical tutorials that will level up your proficiency with Abobe’s Creative Suite. Invest your time actively learning by testing strategies and implementing new techniques. Then rinse and repeat.

2. Be the show, not the commercial.
No one likes commercials. If your content resembles typical clickbaity TV infomercials, users will instinctively skip it. Be intentional about creating content that is aesthetic, entertaining and valuable to the consumer. If you’re lost on how to start, identify the content you personally enjoy and reverse engineer a fit. This will create a significantly more engaged audience.

3. Be extremely cognizant of the way content is consumed on the platform.

On Instagram specifically, the 4:5 aspect ratio is a must. Taking up as much screen real estate as possible is imperative for both catching the eyes of your users and not straining them by making them squint. I would also respect the time constraints. If you have long-form content that you want to share, chop it up into short teasers. Use those teasers to spark interest and direct traffic to platforms that more naturally host long-form content like YouTube or Facebook Watch.

4. Show love to your early adopters.
Pay special attention to the people who are engaging with you. Don’t make the mistake of ignoring them because you’re searching elsewhere for more followers. Their word of mouth will carry you farther than you realize. Reply to their comments and continually engage with them. Before you know it, they’ll become brand champions who spread your message for you.

5. Know your audience.
Gone are the days of casting a wide net and hoping for single digit conversion rates. The Digital Age has equipped brands with tremendous amounts of data, the ability to know exactly who their customer is and what platforms they use. Pay attention to the insights you receive about your current demographic. Study your audience and events tracked in your Facebook pixel. Then, use them to create stronger lookalike audiences that you can retarget for a fraction of the cost.

6. Promote your best content
Organic reach is important, but if you have the money to spend on paid promotions then spend the money. Facebook/Instagram give you an incredible amount of data about the results your dollars are generating. Use this data to budget for the results you want.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would start locally in Waco, Texas by inspiring the homeless population. There are a number of manageable entrepreneurial ideas that could drastically benefit their situation. For example, selling cold bottles of water in the midst of Texas summers. You could invest a few dollars to build an inventory of 24+ bottles and sell each bottle for at least a dollar. Then use the profits to rinse and repeat.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

Hands down Will Smith. He and his team very recently jumped into the digital space and immediately took it by storm. His socials are a perfect example of what captivating content looks like. His helicopter birthday bungee jump collab with Yes Theory garnered one of the largest live audiences I’ve seen on YouTube. I would love to sit down with him and find out how he continually adapts to new trends and platforms while also staying true to himself and his message.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!


“Stop wasting your money on Masterclasses that will take you from 0–10k in 30 days; every possible… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Let’s change Social Media into a place where people can be happy with accepting themselves and who

“Let’s change Social Media into a place where people can be happy with accepting themselves and who they are”, with Gabe Ortiz and Candice Georgiadis

I would love to influence the world to be a kinder and more accepting place. Social media is usually in the media due to bullying or something else negative. Why not be able to change the perception of Social Media into a place where people can be happy with accepting themselves and who they are. Showing acts of kindness and encouraging one another to keep their chin up. That would truly be a marvelous Social Media campaign that I would love to be a part of!

I had the pleasure of interviewing Gabe Ortiz. He is originally from New Mexico and holds a Bachelors in Elementary Education and a Masters in Communication and Public relations with an emphasis on Social Media Marketing. He has been at Urban Bricks for one year as the Marketing Director.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I had always been interested in Social Media when I was younger. When Instagram came out I thought it was something truly unique and simple. I had worked so hard growing my own personal brand for free, but when I realized you could actually make a career out of social media and get paid for it, I got my degree in social media marketing and haven’t looked back since!

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

I think there are so many amazing Social Media marketers doing amazing things in the industry right now. If I had to choose something I do well, it would be making our Instagram experience feel “real”. I am a big fan of creating connections with my followers and making sure they feel something when they see imagery with our logo!

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

Being in marketing, you learn to make partnerships and relationships with other marketers or media companies. Through one partnership I was able to get some free VIP passes to a Margarita festival. Well we all know how crazy margarita festivals can get, but the icing on the cake was seeing a famous movie star, who will not be named, enjoying some drinks with his wife. I got my selfie and went on my way! It was awesome!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I first started out as a marketing coordinator, I was with a young company who was trying to find its voice. Well I jumped right in there and started trying out some voices on Twitter, I guess I was a little too forward and sassy and ended up having someone on Twitter cuss at me and call me a name I cannot replicate on here. Needless to say, I learned to do a little more thinking before jumping into something and realizing it is okay to take baby steps when finding your voice!

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

I think all platforms can be profitable, it just depends on who your target audience is and what platform your target audience uses. Our Facebook page has been able to create the most business for us! Our Target audience are millennials and young families so using a platform where young families like to share images of their kids is an ideal marketing platform for us. Our next profitable platform would be Instagram and then Twitter.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Keep the images real, no one wants to see over photoshopped food that looks plastic.

2. Respond to your followers, they want to have a conversation with you!

3. It is okay to like and follow others, it makes you seem real and that you aren’t too big time for them!

4. Utilize ads to bring awareness to your page and your promotions!

5. Now with all the new tools Instagram has to offer, its really easy to market things like your app and even get some online orders in!

6. Get involved with Instagram Bloggers and Influencers. Its really good to have those relationships especially when you have a new store opening up. All the media attention is great at getting people in the door!

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would love to influence the world to be a kinder and more accepting place. Social media is usually in the media due to bullying or something else negative. Why not be able to change the perception of Social Media into a place where people can be happy with accepting themselves and who they are. Showing acts of kindness and encouraging one another to keep their chin up. That would truly be a marvelous Social Media campaign that I would love to be a part of!

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

One person I would love to talk with would be Anderson Cooper! He has done so much good for the people around him and I have loved seeing him report on the news over the years. I think he has a big heart and has had so many adventures during his career. He would be full of great stories and lots of laughs!


“Let’s change Social Media into a place where people can be happy with accepting themselves and who was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Martin Stoll on why you should never underestimate the power of a hashtag

Never underestimate the power of a hashtag. With the algorithm constantly changing, hashtags have consistently remained a best practice to expand the reach of your posts. But like everything else related to social, hashtags must be used strategically. Keep on topic and be selective using the “Goldilocks Rule” of hashtags: not too broad (#TGIF) and not too unique (#SparkYeahItsFriday). Same with phototags and geotags. This boosts visibility and gives users another resource to click through to see how others are using your product — not just the brand.

I had the pleasure to interview Martin Stoll. Martin is the founder and CEO of Sparkloft Media. He focuses on the continued fundamental changes within social media, and its impact on all aspects of our lives, personally and for organizations of all sizes and industries.

Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I previously worked in the airline industry, which like social media, is ultimately about connecting people. After many years in travel, I branched out to develop a social software company, which, after a slight pivot, resulted in today’s social media-focused agency, Sparkloft Media.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

Sparkloft Media has been involved in social media since 2006, and my experience in the social space began with the medium’s conception. When we started our company, brand pages did not exist on Facebook; you had to be “friends” with your favorite product. Of course, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and Twitch weren’t even a consideration for taking up hours and hours of time on newly released “smart phones” in those early days. We were one of the first to concentrate solely on social media marketing. Today, Sparkloft Media has grown into an organization with more than 50 social media experts, who do nothing else than think about, engage and develop social media every day. As the CEO and founder, I have the privilege to work with and learn from my amazing team, daily.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

The most interesting thing I’ve learned in my social media “career” is the realization that social media can be used to make predictions for future user/consumer behavior, at a much more affordable cost, in terms of both time and money. Every single person using social media creates publicly available digital data. A few years ago, the tools that ran in-depth analysis on this data were prohibitively expensive. Today we have the tools to analyze the massive amount of data and can identify relevant signals our clients and their brands can utilize for a more effective program. For example, it’s easy to make predictions about what the next “big thing” for vegans will be. We can build a panel of the 1,000 most important vegan bloggers, analyze billions of social media data points and see emerging themes without actually clicking and reporting on random blogs or social media accounts. The insights we gain today, using publicly available social data for core business decisions are fascinating and a huge opportunity — an overall interesting concept that has changed the way we do business.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I will share a mistake that was one of the biggest learning lessons for us, but it was anything but funny.

A long time ago one of our airline clients, for whom we managed social media, accidently sent an email to their entire database — millions of people — telling every single recipient they had been upgraded to gold status in their frequent flyer program. The internet celebrated on all social channels for a couple of hours before another email was sent explaining this was a mistake. Of course, things became extremely interesting following that second email… Sparkloft Media ran community management on the main social channels and, from detailed experience, a brand can only apologize so many times. While most people understood that it was a mistake, a select few users were unable to cease expressing their frustration over social media — in some cases, for weeks!

What did we learn? As a brand, as a business, you must know who your most loyal customers are, and play close attention to who your biggest fans are on social media. Those are the people who will come to your defense if you are unfairly attacked. Your loyal social media followers are able to say things that you cannot say as the brand; a third-party validation. It’s more important than ever to know who those people are and foster a great relationship with them — you’ll never know when you may need them in your corner.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

Social platform success depends on the business. As a general statement, Facebook is the most effective platform for B2C businesses because of the unparalleled targeting options for paid social. Instagram works the same way for advertisers and is growing much faster than Facebook, but it does not have the capability to drive traffic to a website. For B2B instances, LinkedIn works well, but users can’t expect quick results or effective shoestring budgets.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Native platform features are your friend

Yes, native platform features ARE your friend. Use them. It’s surprising that many businesses try to overcomplicate campaigns by spending hours developing super-curated content, when Instagram can do most of the work for you. Remember, authenticity is key. When you stick with what’s already familiar with your followers, you are more likely to come across as genuine and trustworthy, rather than recognized as an ad. Instagram Stories, the fastest growing area of Instagram with 400 million active users, provides an immersive, full-screen, mobile-first experience, complete with native stickers, text and effects to seamlessly integrate into your content strategy. Brands taking advantage of these features tend to see more successful posts.

2. There are no shortcuts to quality

There’s no surprise that social media, when used correctly, takes up significant time and effort — something especially true for Instagram. It might be tempting to save time cross-posting between platforms or signing up for tools that auto-like posts or auto-follow accounts. Don’t. Do. This. Your followers will see right through these old (and frankly annoying) tricks. Even worse, your account can potentially be shut down for using third-party services.

3. It pays to pay

All major social platforms require a solid strategy for paid social, and equally strong budgets. The upside: within the Facebook ecosystem, which includes Instagram, businesses are offered unparalleled targeting options. For clients who have e-commerce and channel attribution capabilities, we continue to see better conversions from social than from display or search. The trick is to really define audience segments with targeting options in mind, and then develop specific content for each audience.

4. Tag it — Hashtags, Phototags, Geotags

Never underestimate the power of a hashtag. With the algorithm constantly changing, hashtags have consistently remained a best practice to expand the reach of your posts. But like everything else related to social, hashtags must be used strategically. Keep on topic and be selective using the “Goldilocks Rule” of hashtags: not too broad (#TGIF) and not too unique (#SparkYeahItsFriday). Same with phototags and geotags. This boosts visibility and gives users another resource to click through to see how others are using your product — not just the brand.

5. Social commerce

Shoppable posts, shoppable stories, and shopping collections. Instagram users have been provided fantastic new ways to interact with their favorite brands. And even better, these features actually provide positive results. If you sell physical goods and don’t have a shoppable Instagram yet, set one up immediately. If you do, make sure you’re using it to its fullest potential. Remember, 75 percent of users take an action after seeing a business post, whether they click through to a website, shop or tell a friend.

6. Test, learn, optimize, evolve

The Instagram you know today will not be the same a month from now — who knows what will happen next week! The platform continues to roll out new features, transforming the photo-sharing app into an engaging and highly-effective marketing platform for businesses. As Instagram evolves, so do user expectations, and so should your channel strategy. Take time to test and learn. Establish internal benchmarks to better understand your audience’s likes and dislikes. Put the time and effort in to completely optimize your platform.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Movement is a strong word, but I certainly have a vision for a change that can be driven by social.

The social media world has a huge impact on our lives: e-commerce would be different without ratings and reviews, Wikipedia would not exist, the Arab Spring or #MeToo movements may not have reached their strong global awareness levels without social media. The world is so much more connected, much more transparent, and so much more informed because of it.

At the same time, social media has its downsides — misinformation spreads quickly; cyber-bullying, swatting, etc. Social platforms like Facebook or Twitter rightfully get called out for not doing enough to fix these issues.

We have a responsibility as social media users, to be more thoughtful in how we use these podiums. Better judgement must be practiced before we like or share. I would love to see a “movement” for a more responsible use of social media on the user level.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?

It’s difficult to limit my choice for a lunch meeting to just one influential social personality. To make this meeting as efficient as possible I’d like to invite Taylor Swift to talk savvy business deals, Sheryl Sandberg to talk about the future of social platforms, and Michelle Obama to discuss life, in general. To meet the 1:1 ratio, I’d invite my two daughters to tag along and participate!


Martin Stoll on why you should never underestimate the power of a hashtag was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.