But look closer and you’ll see something unusual: the real product isn’t the candle. The real product is the dream of candle wealth and the followers on social platforms.

Candles became the perfect storm for a social media side hustle. A starter kit of wax, wicks, and fragrance oils costs less than a weekend getaway, so the barrier to entry is low. They also look great on camera—pouring and decorating candles makes for a visually satisfying process. And beyond that, they carry emotional weight: candles are tied to comfort, relaxation, spirituality, and luxury, making them easy to market with lifestyle imagery. Combine all this with the rise of influencer marketing, and suddenly the candle isn’t just home décor—it’s the symbol of entrepreneurial freedom.

Many self-proclaimed “candlepreneurs” have discovered that they earn more from teaching candle making than from actually selling candles. Their revenue streams come from YouTube and TikTok ad revenue, courses and e-books promising the secrets to success, affiliate links to wax suppliers and wick kits, and paid mentorships that dangle the promise of insider knowledge. In other words, they’re not really in the candle business—they’re in the business of selling the dream.

For the average maker without a big following, candle sales are brutally hard. The market is saturated, with thousands of Etsy shops offering nearly identical soy candles. Margins are razor thin once you account for supplies, packaging, shipping, and marketplace fees—often dropping profit below five dollars per candle. And without a built-in audience, most sellers end up relying on ads, spending more to reach customers than they make back in sales. It’s not impossible to succeed, but it is far harder than influencer videos would have you believe.

So why do people still fall for it? Part of it is psychological. Candles symbolize warmth and comfort, so it feels believable that you could build a business around them. Success stories are seductive, especially when packaged in glossy videos that tap into our desire for independence. And in today’s climate of rising costs and unstable jobs, the idea of turning wax into wealth feels like empowerment.

Yet for many, the pursuit ends in disappointment: shelves stacked with unsold inventory, ad budgets drained with little return, and the sobering realization that the influencer was selling a course, not a candle. Meanwhile, the few who do succeed aren’t necessarily the best candle makers—they’re the best storytellers, marketers, and community builders.

A more honest take is that candle making can be a rewarding craft and even a modest business, but only if expectations are realistic. The path forward is to think niche—whether that means luxury branding, ritual candles, eco-friendly designs, or quirky novelty pieces. Build a community first and let the product serve that audience. Treat candles as the medium, not the dream.

Otherwise, the candlepreneur phenomenon risks becoming just another case study in modern hustle culture—where the brightest flame isn’t from the candle at all, but from the lighter being sold to those hoping to strike it rich.

Some experts argue that certain influencers profit financially from the broken dreams of many of their followers. With messages like: “You can achieve it too, just don’t give up” and “If I made it, you can make it too.” This ignores the fact that the influencer did not reach their dreams through conventional means such as going to university, working hard, or simply relying on positive thinking. Instead, the money is generated from selling illusions and false hopes of success, sustained by their followers’ views and likes.

In this blog, we will explore one type of influencer: LIFESTYLE AND FAMILY because of its strong ability to shape culture and societal values:

So, why do we follow influencers who do not promote human values but instead consumerism and vanity? An analysis of materialistic culture and its impact on society.

In the digital era, influencers have gained surprising power to shape our perceptions, desires, and aspirations. Figures like @evesther or similar personalities have an almost magical ability to connect with thousands, even millions, of people. Many of these influencers display lifestyles full of luxury, material success, and apparent personal achievements. But why do we follow people who, despite not always offering deeply human messages, manage to wield such strong influence over their followers? Is this really the society we want to build?

The fascination with material things

We live in a world where success is measured in material terms. Luxury homes, expensive cars, exotic trips, and high-end brands are symbols of status that were promoted back in the 1950s and have only continued—and become more accentuated—in the present day. In one way or another, we have all aspired to what we believe will bring us happiness: STUFF.

STUFF: Buying and consuming equals “Status = value”.

Source; https://youtu.be/l60VadBewk4?si=IKn3wu1x5k78PO1d&t=19

NARCISSISM: Persuading people by imitating empathy for others just to manipulate you into  following them.

Source: https://youtu.be/bYQsxYxKjJg?si=BJi9frqXtdaEPg9F&t=235

Social media companies only focus is to tell for its advertisers, something that viewers  forget to recognized that the business model of these social media platforms  is gains to reinforce this idea that happiness is having stuff, so their advertisers can sell us more stiff.  Therefore, behind with every post, every story, and every video from our favorite influencers, are the tech companies, pushing algorithms that promote materialism instead of values and human depthless– which ultimately have been proven to be a long-term source of real happiness.

Instant gratification and dopamine:

Beyond the superficial shine of these influencers’ achievements, there is an emotional void that many of us fail to see. Influencers like @evesther or @manage to hook their audiences not only because of what they own but also because of how they make us feel: they sell us the idea that if we follow in their footsteps, we can have something similar in our lives. They sell a promise of material success that appears to be the path toward happiness and fulfillment.

Is it really the influencers’ fault?

Although influencers bear a large share of responsibility in the way they manipulate our emotions and desires, the blame for this fascination with superficiality also lies with us, as a society. We live in a culture that prioritizes material values over human ones. Success is no longer measured by good deeds, integrity, or empathy, but by the material goods we can acquire or the status we achieve. Social media feeds this mentality, creating constant competition to show what we have rather than focusing on who we truly are as people.

Why do we follow empty figures?

It’s true that many of these influencers are not known for intellectual depth or moral principles. Yet, they still manage to connect with their followers in surprising ways. How do they do it?

• Social aspiration: Followers are not only looking for entertainment; they are looking for something to aspire to. Many see in these influencers a role model, a path toward self-improvement that, in most cases, is tied to owning more, being more visible, and earning more money.
• Creating emotional connection: Influencers like @evesther don’t just share content; they create an emotional bond with their followers, often touching on universal themes like adapting to a new country, the feeling of loneliness, or the search for purpose. These topics go beyond what they have and tap into what the audience feels, making followers identify with them and feel part of a community.
• The illusion of authenticity: Many influencers create a sense of closeness through informal or “genuine” posts, though in reality, it’s a carefully designed strategy to generate empathy. This deception creates an illusion of connection that keeps people believing they are following someone authentic.

And what about the good people?

Good people—those who truly make a positive impact on society but do not seek the spotlight or wealth—are often ignored or even rejected. Why? Because, sadly, we live in a society that does not value people for who they are but for what they have. Genuine acts of kindness, empathy, solidarity, and authenticity are not always rewarded with attention or admiration. It is easier to admire someone who shows you how to gain material success than someone who teaches you how to be a better human being.

The responsibility of content creators

Nevertheless, content creators carry great responsibility. With so much power over the collective mind, they can choose to reinforce materialistic values, but they can also promote humanism and authenticity. Some influencers have chosen to use their platforms to educate about issues that truly matter: mental health, healthy relationships, ethics, sustainability, and the importance of community. Unfortunately, they are often the least visible.

What can we do as a society?

It’s time to change the narrative. As a society, we must begin to value what truly matters. Not everything in life revolves around what you own or what you display.

• Redefine success: Start valuing people more for their integrity, empathy, and authenticity, rather than the material goods they possess.
• Promote human values: As a community, we have the chance to highlight those who truly make a positive impact on their surroundings, beyond the possessions they may flaunt.
• Be mindful of the content we consume: While influencer content can be entertaining and aspirational, it’s important to stop and reflect on what we are consuming. Is this a healthy model? Is it teaching us something valuable for our lives, or is it only selling us an illusion?

Conclusion

Influencers, though often superficial figures, hold great power over the emotions and aspirations of their followers. But we must not allow that power to divert us from what truly matters in life. We should not fall into the trap of measuring human worth by possessions, but rather by how we live, how we interact with others, and how we contribute positively to society. In the end, true wealth lies in the values we cultivate and the authentic relationships we build.

What do you think about this issue? Do you believe society is truly trapped in a cycle of materialistic admiration, or are there ways to change this narrative?

¿Quieres que te lo prepare también en formato más periodístico/blog, con subtítulos en inglés como “Introduction, The Appeal of Luxury, Responsibility, Conclusion” para que quede listo para publicación?

Algunos expertos consideran que ciertos influencers se benefician económicamente de los sueños rotos de muchos de sus seguidores. Con mensajes como: “Tú también puedes lograrlo, solo no te des por vencido” y “Si yo lo logré, tú también puedes lograrlo”. Esto, sin tomar en cuenta que el influencer no alcanzó sus sueños a través de medios convencionales como ir a la universidad o trabajar, ni únicamente con pensamientos positivos, sino que el dinero generado proviene de ofrecer ilusiones y falsas esperanzas de un éxito logrado gracias a tus vistas y “me gusta”.

En este blog exploraremos ¿Por qué seguimos a los Influencers que no promueven los valores humanos, sino consumismo y  vanidad? Un análisis de la cultura materialista y su impacto en la sociedad

En la era digital, los influencers han adquirido un poder sorprendente para moldear nuestras percepciones, deseos y aspiraciones. Figuras como @evesther o similares tienen una capacidad casi mágica de conectar con miles, incluso millones de personas. Muchos de estos influencers nos muestran estilos de vida llenos de lujo, exito material y aparentes logros personales. Pero, ¿por qué seguimos a personas que, a pesar de no siempre tener un mensaje profundamente humano, logran una influencia tan fuerte sobre sus seguidores? ¿Es realmente esta la sociedad que queremos construir?

La fascinación por lo material

Vivimos en un mundo donde el éxito se mide en términos materiales. Las casas lujosas, los autos costosos, los viajes exóticos y las marcas de lujo son símbolos de estatus que, de alguna manera, todos aspiramos a alcanzar. Las redes sociales refuerzan esta idea con cada publicación, cada historia y cada video de nuestros influencers favoritos.

Sin embargo, más allá del brillo superficial de estos logros, hay un vacío emocional que muchos de nosotros no vemos. Influencers como @evesther logran enganchar a su audiencia no solo por lo que tienen, sino por cómo nos hacen sentir: nos venden la idea de que si seguimos sus pasos, podemos tener algo similar en nuestras vidas. Nos venden una promesa de éxito material que parece el camino hacia la felicidad y la plenitud.

¿Es realmente culpa de los influencers?

Aunque los influencers tienen una gran parte de responsabilidad en la manera en que manipulan nuestras emociones y deseos, la culpa de esta fascinación por lo superficial también radica en nosotros, como sociedad. Vivimos en una cultura que prioriza los valores materiales por encima de los valores humanos. El éxito ya no se mide por las buenas acciones, la integridad o la empatía, sino por los bienes materiales que podemos adquirir o el estatus que alcanzamos. Las redes sociales alimentan esta mentalidad, creando una competencia constante por mostrar lo que se tiene, en lugar de enfocarse en lo que realmente somos como personas.

¿Por qué seguimos a figuras vacías?

Es cierto que muchos de estos influencers no son conocidos por su profundidad intelectual o sus principios morales. Sin embargo, logran conectar con sus seguidores de manera sorprendente. ¿Cómo lo hacen?

1. Aspiración social: Los seguidores no solo buscan entretenimiento; buscan algo que pueden desear. Muchos ven en estos influencers un modelo a seguir, un camino hacia la mejora personal que, en la mayoría de los casos, está relacionado con tener más cosas, ser más visible y ganar dinero.
2. Creación de una conexión emocional: Influencers como @evesther no solo comparten contenido; crean un vínculo emocional con sus seguidores, a menudo tocando temas universales como la adaptación a un nuevo país, la sensación de soledad o la búsqueda de un propósito. Estos temas no solo se limitan a lo que tienen, sino a lo que la audiencia siente, haciendo que se identifiquen con ellos y se sientan parte de una comunidad.
3. La ilusión de la autenticidad: Muchos influencers crean la sensación de cercanía a través de publicaciones informales o “genuinas”, aunque en realidad, es una estrategia cuidadosamente diseñada para generar empatía. Este engaño genera una ilusión de conexión que permite que las personas sigan creyendo que están siguiendo a alguien auténtico.

¿Y qué pasa con las buenas personas?

Las buenas personas, aquellas que realmente tienen un impacto positivo en la sociedad pero no buscan protagonismo ni riquezas, a menudo son ignoradas o incluso rechazadas. ¿Por qué? Porque, lamentablemente, vivimos en una sociedad que no valora el ser humano por lo que es, sino por lo que tiene. Las acciones genuinas de bondad, la empatía, la solidaridad y la autenticidad no siempre son recompensadas con atención o admiración. Es más fácil admirar a alguien que te muestra cómo tener éxito material, que alguien que te enseña a ser una mejor persona.

La responsabilidad de los creadores de contenido

A pesar de todo, los creadores de contenido tienen una gran responsabilidad. Al tener tanto poder sobre la mente colectiva, pueden optar por reforzar los valores materialistas, pero también pueden promover el humanismo y la autenticidad. Hay influencers que han decidido usar su plataforma para educar sobre temas que importan realmente: salud mental, relaciones saludables, ética, sostenibilidad, y la importancia de la comunidad. Pero son, desafortunadamente, los menos visibles.

¿Qué podemos hacer como sociedad?

Es momento de cambiar la narrativa. Como sociedad, debemos comenzar a valorar lo que realmente importa. No todo en la vida tiene que ver con lo que se tiene o con lo que se ve.

• Redefinir el éxito: Empezar a valorar más a las personas que muestran integridad, empatía, y autenticidad, más allá de los bienes materiales que poseen.
• Promover valores humanos: Como comunidad, tenemos la oportunidad de destacar aquellos que realmente impactan positivamente a su entorno, más allá de los bienes que pueden ostentar.
• Ser conscientes del contenido que consumimos: Si bien el contenido de los influencers puede ser entretenido y aspiracional, es importante que nos detengamos a reflexionar sobre lo que estamos consumiendo. ¿Es este un modelo saludable? ¿Nos está enseñando algo valioso para nuestra vida o solo nos está vendiendo una ilusión?

Conclusión

Los influencers, aunque a menudo son personajes superficiales, tienen un gran poder sobre las emociones y aspiraciones de sus seguidores. Pero no debemos dejar que ese poder nos desvíe de lo que realmente importa en la vida. No debemos caer en la trampa de medir el valor humano por lo que se tiene, sino por cómo se vive, se interactúa con los demás y cómo se contribuye positivamente a la sociedad. Al final, la verdadera riqueza está en los valores que cultivamos y en las relaciones auténticas que construimos.

¿Qué opinas tú sobre este tema? ¿Te parece que la sociedad está realmente atrapada en un ciclo de admiración materialista, o hay formas de cambiar esta narrativa?

So what is a micro-influencer then?
A Micro–influencer is an influencer with fewer followers than a big influence, but I would say it has no less than 10K and the cost to advertise is less. A micro-Influencer fits into the influencer marketing landscape, in that they have a direct, personal connection with their audience. They have a very intimate sense of who they are, and what they like. A micro–influencer not only understands his or her audience members but respects them.

Micro influencers have been touted for high engagement rates, but as some experts point out that these aren’t the only metrics relevant to marketers. As the influencer marketing industry continues to grow, it’s important that marketers understand the role that micro influencers play in the industry, the pros and cons that come with working with micro influencers, and how they might prove effective for some marketing goals and strategies and ineffective for others.

What are a macro and a micro-subculture and how it is different from an influencer?
On the other hand, Micro-Subcultures or Subcultures are part of a large macro culture. For example, the United States macro-culture is predominantly composed of persons of European ancestry with English as their preferred language and Christianity as the religion of choice. From within that culture as a whole, there are smaller groups called micro-subcultures.

Micro-subcultures are described as distinct groups within a larger group that share some sort of common trait, activity or language that ties them together and or differentiates them from the larger group. A micro-subculture is also not limited to how small it can be. Latin-speaking residents of the United States would be a micro-culture to the larger macro-culture of a State or a Nation.

Furthermore, micro-cultures can be divided into further subsets based on many different factors, from things as gender, religion or occupation to specific brands they follow. For example,  for some baby items, Johnson and Johnson can target and sell to “ALL woman with children under five.” That would include Asian-Americans and Hispanic-Americans in one group.

Influencers used to have a point. They had a unique perspective, and they led sub-cultures, but now influencers–particularly micro-influencers on Instagram— all seem like carbon copies of each other or Kim Kardashian look-a-likes. Brands are at risk of compromising their authenticity by paying these ‘influencers’ to post on the promise of reach, ‘If you’re talking to everyone you’re talking to no one’ Georgie Harding co-founder of tastemaker based e-commerce company Semaine noted on an influencer marketing panel.

With macro-influencers losing their relevance, and Gen Z more likely to try a product if it’s recommended by a friend instead of influencers or traditional advertising, brands need to start paying attention to their top 1% of fans; the individual, their immediate peer group, and the micro-subcultures they inhabit. Using a combination of natural language processing and computer vision companies like Zyper,  have been able to identify thousands of these micro-subcultures that house peer to peer influence networks. From #curlyhairdontcare to #bookstagram or #memoriesofmotherhood these are places where smart brands have an opportunity to find their true fans and secure product placement with extremely high levels of engagement.

Sahar Saidi of Lus Brands (another startup in this current Y Combinator batch) produces a range of products for people with curly hair. Her brand’s Facebook page is a place where members of a subgroup of a subculture – women with curly hair – are participating as an interactive audience while simultaneously building networks.

When brands can facilitate building these networks with their own community hashtags #theplantone #popcornenthusiast #flowerstoyourdoorstep the effects are powerful. The communities we are building for our clients are in many cases driving a lower cost of acquisition than Facebook, a 5x higher LTV and on average, a 16% higher repeat rate of purchase. Influencers used to have a point, but the point is now every customer is an influencer. Smart brands should cultivate a more open-source ecosystem that allows the individual to market with the brand instead of being marketed to.

If you’d like to learn more about community marketing and how to turn your passive followers into active brand advocates reach out @digitalscrm

Once you know the message and values you want your brand to communicate and represent, then you pick a color that matches that brand message.

TIP: A good way to know what message you want to give is by knowing what type of consumer (target market) you want to reach.

ASK YOURSELF the following questions:

1) What are their needs and pain points? (aside from good prices, it could be reliability or family friendly or trustworthiness or fast service, etc).

2) What your competitors are not offering to their customers that you can? This is called ISP (Unique Selling Proposition—Sales people call it Value Proposition).

3) How can your products and services help meet those needs and desires?

The psychology of color is the study of color shades as a keen determinant of human behavior. For years people have studied how color influences human perceptions that are not obvious, such as the taste of food or the trustworthiness of your brand.  Many marketers know that color is an important part of marketing because color can be used to influence and persuade consumers’ emotions and perceptions of products and services.
The chart below is the type of color guide used by us, marketers, to work on logos, websites, and many other iterations of brand messages.

Let’s take a quick look at how major brands utilize the psychology of colors to convey the right message.

McDonald’s

McDonald’s uses Red and yellow. The Red color stimulates appetite, urgency, huger and it attracts attention, and yellow stimulates the feeling of happiness and friendliness. The combination of red and yellow color cause a psychological effect of speed and quickness.

Fast food giants are not a place where you seat and get comfortable for long meals.  With these colors, McDonald’s archives to bring customers in and despatches them out fast creating a fast return on their investment, which it’s perfect for their potential market. The red and yellow combination is seen not only with McDonald’s but with every other fast food giants.

Apple

Apple uses shades of gray which represent balance, calm and control. Other brands that  also use gray to convey the feeling of calm and balance are Honda, the New York Times, Nike, Puma, among others (see color chart below).

Facebook

Facebook uses one of my favorite colors. Blue is the color of trust, strength, and dependability. In fact,  many of you might have already heard people saying to use a blue shirt when attending a job interview or a sales pitch, in that blue transmits that trust needed for the other person to trust and approve of you or your ideas. Likewise, Facebook was a great color for an entrepreneur technology company that no one knew of back when it was founded in 2004.

Many corporations like Dell, HP, AT&T, IBM, American Express, WordPress, and Twitter use the color blue quite often in their branding communications to gain consumers’ trust. Brand marketers’ goal is to gain consumer trust because that turns regular consumers into loyal consumers, hence the reason why we choose our website name Blue Media Consulting. I know we are not Twitter, but we strive for success.

Google

I know what you might be thinking, “wait a minute, if most technology companies choose black and white and gray, why Google and Windows have chosen multi-colors for their brand?” Should we call them greedy because they want it all? Just kidding, the message multicolored rainbow brands try to convey is diversity– more than any other emotion each independent color represents.  It takes a bold move to chose a multicolor logo as part of your brand, but done well it transmits a positive message of openness and inclusion.
Below you can see a chart of the Color Emotional Guide brand marketers use and observe with greater detail what message each of these brands are trying to communicate.

Download the Color Emotional Guide [ pdf ]

Personal Brand

Colors are also very important for personal brands to convey certain messages.

Ana Linares from Spain uses blues, greys, and blacks to convey new, modern, and independence

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfoqT2_nrf5/?taken-by=bannanitas

Kim Kardatian, for example, uses skin color,  pale pinks and whites on her latest post to represent creativity and modern, while at the same time using colors that are currently in fashion.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfjArVllkEl/?taken-by=kimkardashian

Professional Marketers quite often find themselves with a bit of dilemma, they would like to promote marketing related stuff, but more than often marketers have discovered that it is better to pick a personal theme such as health, food, fashion, travel or simply lifestyle.
Famous Moz marketer Rand Fish doe just that. He does not promote marketing, but lifestyle and travel with warm colors.

View this post on Instagram

Popped over to Venezia for a few hours to drop off @cyrusshepard & @dawnshepard20 (who are spending a few more days there). Spent a stunning afternoon+evening traipsing around a city we'd been to only once, before we were even engaged, when we were broke and young and travel was scary and new. Both of us decided being in our late 30s > mid-20s. #DayTripToVenice

A post shared by Rand Fishkin (@randderuiter) on Nov 19, 2017 at 3:14pm PST

Plase, tell us what your business color is, and what brand you have chosen –or plan to choose –for your brand. We will like to hear about your products and services, and would freely provide advice for you.

QUESTION: If you were a brand, what color would you choose?

Good Luck!

A strategy is the set of activities you organize to achieve a specific goal. Lets, for example, think of what strategy you will use for your commercial facebook page. It can be short and specific, or long-term with a series of campaigns and objectives.

Elements of a Strategy

• Mission: The overall impact your organization is trying to make.
• Goals: What you want to achieve through your Page to support your mission.
• Target Audience: The types of people you aim to reach with this campaign.
• Content: The stories and visuals you’ll use to engage people.
•  The metrics you’ll track to determine your campaign’s success.

Let’s break it down quickly:

• Mission/ Goals read S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Your campaign should relate to your overall mission. What needs to be done to support or enhance that mission? How could a campaign on Facebook help achieve your program’s objectives? Starting with a list of ideas will help you choose a campaign goal or goals that are best suited for your business.Target audience you can read more on my post about Creating Personas, and read the chart below about product funnel.
• Content: Well, we all can get great information from hubspot.com
• But Let’s get to the gut of your strategy: measurement. I cannot begin to tell you how many times clients, and even colleges of mine, fail to focus on making sure that whoever goal(short or long-term) and objectives they set up to do, it needs to be measured. The way this work is that when the time comes to write down objectives and goals, we forget to make sure these are S.M.A.R.T. Goals. This way, the goals are actionable and easy to measure.

Measurement: What metrics will you measure to determine your campaign’s success?

A campaign’s success is determined by how well it’s achieving its outlined objectives. The results you measure should be tied to your campaign goals. It’s important to think through what metrics to measure and how you’ll track them. For example:

• Reach: How many people see your posts
• Engagement: How many people like, comment on, share or view your posts and videos
• Conversion: How many people take an action, such as share, sign up, visit your website, attend an event or donate. For Paid, how many people click etc.

KIP Templates

KPIs can measure: Key performance indicators of Sales, SaaS, Digital Marketing, Social Media, SEO, Email Marketing, Financial, Supply Chain and even Call center and retail. You don’t need to start from scratch there are companies like Klipfolio that has pre-designed KPIs templates ready for all types of areas.

So start with their templates, having your goals, and personas (target market) in place. Then is up to you to customize it by creating your own spreadsheets, or by or scale it. — Whatever method or tool you take on, always think, “measurement.”

Product funnel

Don’t forget to measure each goal based on the product funnel. Ask yourself: What stage is my product at right now? Do customers know your brand? Or this is a new product or service. Always use the funnel to guide you before you set up goals.

• On Android, you can use any 3rd party screen recording app. I would recommend DU Recorder app to achieve it.

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UPDATE: Chrome IG Story allows you to download someone else live video..

Originally I wrote this article which contained several steps to capture the video and audio with different applications, but the extension mentioned Chrome IG Story, now allows live IG videos to be downloaded.First, you have to access the 24-hour live video (story). You cannot download a live video in progress, need to wait till it ends and is posted for 24-hour viewing.

Here are the new steps to download Instagram live videos

1. First, you have to access the 24-hour live video (story). You cannot download a live video in progress, need to wait till it ends and is posted for 24-hour viewing.
2. I installed an extension (plugin) for Chrome that allows you not only to see stories but saved live 24h live streams. To access the stream, first search the person’s name, and then you will see his or her stories, but on the left, you will see the name, so double-click the name, and the recorded live video stream will play.
   PLUGIN: is called Chrome IG Story
3. On the upper right of your browser, you will see the Chrome IG Story icon.
4. To access the live video from Chrome IG story extension, double-click the logo/avatar of the account you want to access the story.
5. It will give you an option to download the live story in two tracks (audio and video).
6. The Chrome IG story extension allows you to download the live video in two separate tracks:
7. Once you download it,  put the audio and video track back together with Final Cut Pro or iMovie for Mac, and Windows Movie Maker for Windows.

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THE OLD WAY TO DO IT.

• An option I captured screen with screenCast Matic free software (or use any other one you like).
  So, I recorded the video on my computer screen, but it comes with low-quality audio because the audio is picked up from the mic at the time of recording the video ( Instagram 24 hour live story (video stream).
• Once you have your video, then we move on into recording the audio directly from the computer by using this amazing trick I found on youtube

https://youtu.be/L6rz-Yds5jg

https://youtu.be/L6rz-Yds5jg

• Lastly, bring video into iMovie (for Mac) or Window Movie Maker, and split the video’s original audio, then delete that track. Then import the track that was recorded on the computer with good quality. I use Final Cut Pro, but you can use iMovie on Mac, or Video Movie Maker on Windows.
• All you need is to synchronize the audio with the video, and it is not as hard as it sounds. I did it in about 3 min.
• Save and enjoy!

HERE IS MY FINAL VIDEO: This Instagram live story video was recorded by a client with a phone that had lower low audio quality, so don’t think that your final video will sound like this,. Your final video will sound exactly as it was in the original video source.

First, they identify SEO techniques that get them results.

Second, they put 100% of their resources into executing and scaling those techniques.

But you’re probably wondering:

“How do I find SEO strategies that actually work?”

Well, today I’m going to make it easy for you.

For all these steps don’t  forget to use your business keywords that are relevant to your services or the product you are promoting (keyword tool below).

1. Add your business address and location at the footer of all your web pages.

2. List your site on Google’s maps and Google + for business

3. Add your business to third party directories

4. Look at your competitor’s web activity and keywords used.

5. Video and Media: Use twitter cards for branding and local  SEO marketing

1. Add your address on your site

Ideally, set up what is called NAP (name, address, phone) at the footer of each page- with WordPress CRM you only have to do it once. Also, make sure you have a clear CONTACT US page with clear About_us title and URL.

Here is a simple, but very effective Contact Us page:

If you have more than one location, then your Contact Us page should list the other locations. Moz.com does a pretty good job at this> Take a look below:

As you noticed, not only these Contact Us pages are created for the Google Bot to read through, but also for the user experience (UX). The first contact page above with only address was good enough for google, but you want to make sure the user who lands on the page has more than just the address. Adding a human factor (moz staff) to the Contact Us page adds up a good touch. Plus, including Google Map view option closes it nicely.

2. Register your business’ site on Google maps & Google +

Google maps is a free service. It allows you to obtain more store visits. Many people search on the go, and you don’t want to miss out on foot traffic that is near your location. Plus, google maps offers the option for users to call your store location (s), includes information such as store hours, address, customer reviews, and photos and GPS location. The time to get to the top of the listing via SEO could take between one month up to  6 months.
In comparison, the fastest way to be at the top of the listing is through local search ads.

 Note: To learn more about benefits of Google maps and quicker listing path visit: Google My Business – Get Your Free Business Listing on Google – Google

Google plus for business is one of the fastest ways to get your business listed on the search engines. They give a huge preference to business who have a Google plus page.

To list your site go to:  https://business.google.com/create

IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to tell your customers and friends to leave a good comment (with keywords), those help your listing to move up the list — to page one of google maps or even google main search site.

3. Add your business’ site to third party directories

I’m sure you agree that there are times when we search for a certain local business and it does not show up on Google,. Yet, those local directories can aid in providing local information, and search engines will use that data as a link building signal, which is part of a juice given to google that says your site is listed in several places, hence your chances to rank higher improve tremendously.

Here is a list of 50 Online Local Business Directories you can use to list your business and also develop a strong link building strategy

Google

Bing

Yahoo!

Yelp

Facebook

Better Business Bureau

Angie’s List

Merchant Circle

LinkedIn

YP.com

Whitepages

Superpages.com

Yellowbook

CitySearch

MapQuest/Yext

Local.com

Foursquare

CitySlick

USDirectory.com

Dex Media

BizJournals.com

TeleAtlas

Discover Our Town

EZ Local

Kudzu

CityVoter

MantaUsCity

Advice Local

InfoUSA

Infignos

Get Fave

My Huckleberry

Yellowee

MojoPages

Brownbook

Magic Yellow

CitySquares

Map Creator

Judy’s Book

TripAdvisor

Thumbtack

YellowPages

GoesGreen.org

Advisor

ShowMeLocal

Chamberof

Commerce.com

Yellowbot

Hotfrog

Brownbook

InsiderPages

That will pretty much get you cover and showing up on mobile search and computers when someone searches for your service.

Making sure that you have a presence everywhere your potential customers might find you is critical to any local marketing plan.

4. Look at your competitor’s web activity and keywords used.

Always, always include your business keywords on any place possible (your site, google maps, google listings, on comments, and so on). Once you set up your address on all of your pages and on your contact page, you want to make sure that they find you “not only by searching your business name but by keywords as well–especially when gaining new customers.

For example: When people are looking for: “Computer Repair” or “Computer Repair services” etc. Google will look up for local business (addresses) that contain those keywords.

To get a list of highly searchable and relevant keywords try the SEMRuch Tool (free by requires to create an account):

Google’s keyword suggestion & research tool: Semrush.com | SEMrush

Look at your local competitor internet activity

And lastly, always look at what your competitor is doing online, copy his tactics, and look for weakness you can use to bust your online presence. Example: he doesn’t have a HOW TO BLOG: Create a blog within your website of HOW TO TIPS. You can take it a step further and create HOW TO VIDS on social media like youtube— that helps you improve your brand name and reputation.

Example: This guy show on number two on youtube search with keyword phrase: “computer repair tips.”

Keyword Tool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNiqhO0ZU90

5. Video and Media: Use twitter cards for branding and local SEO marketing.

Video and media Twitter rich cards

Don’t forget that youtube is the second largest search engine–second to Google.

Some tweet pages are indexed by Google, and the Twitter Card contents get indexed with them. Sure, the links on those pages are nofollowed, so PageRank will not flow. However, nofollow doesn’t always apply to social signals, and these tweet pages could also convey local citation value in some cases.  Local citations are a ranking factor for Google Local Searches.

So how do what are twitter cards and how do you go about creating them?

The best way for you to see how twitter cards look and work take a look at the visual example below:

With Twitter Cards, you can attach rich photos, videos and media experiences to Tweets

Simply add a few lines of markup to your webpage, and users who Tweet links to your content will have a “Card” added to the Tweet that’s visible to their followers.

The different Card types each have a beautiful consumption experience built for Twitter’s web and mobile clients:

• Summary Card: Title, description, and thumbnail.
• Summary Card with Large Image: Similar to the Summary Card, but with a prominently-featured image.
• App Card: A Card with a direct download to a mobile app.
• Player Card: A Card that can provide video/audio/media.

To learn more about how the Card meta tags and web crawler work, check out the Getting Started Guide.

The code to enable Twitter Cards is very simple to include in blog posts – it consists of a few meta tags. Here’s an example of tags for a Summary card:

WordPress users can simply install Joost de Valk’s WordPress SEO Plugin and enable Twitter Cards in the settings. There are other Twitter Cards plugins as well such as SUMO , but the SEO Plugin provides an all-in-one plugin for meta descriptions, titles, robots meta tags, Open Graph and more.

On the twitter platform follow these simple steps:

Once the code to enable twitter cards is ready on your website, follow these steps on twitter.In most cases, it takes less than 15 minutes to implement.

In most cases, it takes less than 15 minutes to implement.

1. Choose a card type to implement.
2. Add the correct meta tags to the page.
3. Run the URL through the validator tool to test. If you are working with a Player Card, request approval for whitelisting. All other Cards do not need whitelisting.
4. After testing in the validator or approval of your Player Card, Tweet the URL and see the Card appear below your Tweet in the details view.

Good luck!

How does it work

Why use dynamic remarketing to show ads tailored to your site visitors

Remarketing allows you to show ads to people who have previously visited your website or used your mobile app. Dynamic remarketing takes this a step further, letting you show previous visitors ads that contain products and services they viewed on your site. With messages tailored to your audience, dynamic remarketing helps you build leads and sales by bringing previous visitors back to your site to complete what they started.

More reasons to use dynamic remarketing

• Ads that scale with your products or services: Pair your feed of products or services with dynamic ads, scaling your ads to cover your entire inventory.
• Simple, yet powerful feeds: Create a basic .csv, .tsv, .xls, or .xlsx feed. The AdWords product recommendation engine will pull products and services from your feed, determining the best mix of products for each ad based on popularity and what the visitor viewed on your site.
• High-performance layouts: AdWords predicts which dynamic ad layout is likely to perform best for the person, placement, and platform where the ad will show.
• Real-time bid optimization: With enhanced CPC and conversion optimizer, AdWords calculates the optimal bid for each impression.

What you’ll need to get started

Product or service feed Create a feed that includes all of your products or services, along with details about each item (unique ID, price, image, and more). These details are then pulled from your feed into your dynamic ads. You’ll upload your feed to the Business data section of your Shared library, unless you’re a retailer. If you’re a retailer, you’ll upload your product feed to the Google Merchant Center.

Tag with custom parameters Add the dynamic remarketing tag with custom parameters to all pages of your website. The tag adds your website visitors to remarketing lists and associates them with the unique IDs of the feed items they viewed. You’ll find your tag in the Audiences section of your Shared library.

Dynamic ads Dynamic ads use layouts in numerous sizes and formats for modern platforms, including HTML5 for mobile devices. You’ll create dynamic ads in the Ad gallery.

Stories from businesses who use dynamic remarketing

• Netshoes, the world’s largest web-only retailer of sporting equipment and athletic apparel, saw 30-40% growth in overall revenue with dynamic remarketing during the Christmas season. Read their story
• Sierra Trading Post, an outdoor gear and outerwear retail store, saw their conversions increase 5X with dynamic remarketing compared to regular remarketing campaigns. Read their story

Related link

• Create your first remarketing campaign

How do you know you’ve been successful on your social media campaign?

When at least you’ve increased “engagement” and at best when your hashtag or product is trending. Trending is any social media marketer dream. It doesn’t take a huge corporation to achieve it; I have seen many small guys achieving it too.

YOU CAN ACHIEVE THIS IN TWO WAYS:

1. You create the social media campaign
2. You create a guerrilla campaign that will allow people to share it on social mediaNOTE: Do never forget to include a hashtag to identify the campaign and track results on google analytics.

EXAMPLE 1:  The brand: PwC

Their guerrilla social media won them a Shorty Award for best use of social media in B2B marketing?

PwC usually doesn’t come to mind when thinking of the best in social marketing, but their #BallotBriefcase campaign is an interesting case. The financial firm wanted to raise awareness of their 82-year involvement in the Academy Award’s ceremony and reposition the brand to appeal to a younger talent demographic.

EXAMPLE 2:  King Kong 3D

This guerrilla marketing campaign for King Kong 3D had people snapping photos and sharing their experiences on social media. When creating these type of public display, don’t forget to include that hashtag you would like users to include on other non snapchat platforms like twitter and instragram.  Example: #kingkong

EXAMPLE 3: Flash mobs T-Mobile Dance

Airline: WestJet flash mob

EXAMPLE 4
Ex Machina on Tinder

Campaign designed for those who attended the SXSW festival back in March. This was a campaign quickly went viral on multiple social media platforms. A robot generated woman that sounded as the woman from the movie Ex Machina, began interacting with people on Tinder and then it spread out like wildfire.

EXAMPLE 4
Oreo Cookies & the Super Bowl

On very rare occasion, one company can make headlines like Oreo Cookies did during the Super Bowl—- who’s online advertising agency (360i) seeks the up-to-the-minute opportunity to post an ad. Pure guerrilla style.

In 2013, at about 8PM, the Super Bowl had an electrical relay device malfunction, causing a blackout and living TV viewers in the dark. Immediately, Oreo Cookies posted this ad:

When the Superdome went dark, people went to Twitter to seek out information, and Twitter comes out with funny tweets. Oreo made its mark with this commercial. Oreo to associate the dunkable treat with one of the biggest sports events of the year. The result was a sweet, positive dispatch that went viral across social media — more than 15,000 retweets and 20,000 Facebook likes — with a message that reminded everyone that Oreo is a great comfort food.

As you can see, some of these tactics vary in terms of medium and budget, there are tons of way to utilized images and video in your guerrilla marketing efforts. You can take your brand or product to the streets and let the imagination guide you.

Last tip: There is a photography technique called COMPOSITE PHOTOGRAPHIC, and that is a great way to start your Digital Guerrilla Marketing, now I leave this post with a couple of very cool composite photography.

Composite Photography
For Social Media Guerrilla Marketing 

BRAND: 365
I photographed and composed this image to promote the brand 365 on social media.
As you can see, it looks like it is taken with a mobile phone, so it caught the attention on social media due to the odd and unique approach.

BRAND: VISA
As simple as imposing to images in one with a bit of transparency.