Over time, social media has become one of the most powerful sources on the internet as both a median of communication for billions of people worldwide, but also an asset for businesses and brands. To most people, it is simply a form of entertainment; they can scroll for hours with endless content to view. For others, it is a business; it is their way of generating a side income and creating a positive footprint on society.
In many cases, large companies and well known personal figures create accounts on various social media platforms to strengthen their already powerful brand. In other cases, however, people and businesses have been able to generate their success strictly from social media alone. Influencers like David Dobrik and Jake Paul are among those whose influential careers began online, which they have expanded into much more than just a large following. Their entire lives are surrounded by their social media platforms, and they are capitalizing on every bit of it. Not every influencer with a success story has become as powerful on social media as them, but that doesn’t take away from their success and ability to create content for millions to view.
These five influencers are some of the best of the past five months and represent the next generation of social media:
1— Dylan DeGennaro
Age: 20
Social Media:
Instagram: @RapMusic @Male @Rapping @Tracks @Trillion
Personal: @Trippin
Connecticut, USA
Quinnipiac University
In 2015, Dylan DeGennaro started a football highlight page and was investing all of his money into growing it. His account had reached around 300k, with an arrangement of different content and methods of growth. Eventually, he switched the football page into a motivational themed page, and expanded it to around 700k with this theme. This theme started to produce less gains for him, so he decided to switch it once more into a rap theme. Dylan acquired the username @Freestyles and grew that to three million followers. He was growing his account with an influencer video shouting out his page. He placed this video across a variety of different pages with USA/Male followers. Just recently, he changed his page username to @RapMusic to cover more news/updates within the rap community. He has used similar methods to grow his other pages as well, and has expanded @Male to over two million followers within 1 year. In the future, he aspires to turn his Instagram page @RapMusic into a media company. To the viewers, Dylan says, “Social media is a very powerful platform. If you were to start a page, you should create the theme around something you are interested in. This way it is much easier and fun to create content for the page.”
2— Brandon Fleming
Age: 20
Social Media:
Instagram: @BrrandonFleming
Canada
Brandon Fleming created his first Instagram page in May of 2014 while he was still a student in highschool. Creating content he enjoyed and broadcasting it to viewers started off as simply a fun and interesting hobby for him, and he has been lucky enough to grow a network of over 6.5 million followers. In doing so, Brandon has been able to make a living off of social media after graduating. Throughout his journey, he has also been able to create and grow several successful online businesses, utilizing his knowledge of social media and content creation. In the future, Brandon wants to continue to work on growing his network, as well as expanding into more areas of social media growth that can help him grow his social network.
3— Noah Harmsen
Social Media:
Instagram: @n0ah
Age: 18
Wisconsin, USA
Noah Harmsen began growing sports themed Instagram pages when he was only 14 years old. Now that he is 18, he has been in the social media industry for a while and has been able to establish a name for himself on Instagram. Currently, he has moved onto creating more niche themed pages and has grown to over 4 million followers across all of his accounts. What started as a hobby for Noah has quickly become a lifestyle, and in the future he hopes to continue to expand his network as well as create new opportunities for possible career paths. His advice to viewers is, “Find work you love doing and you will never have to ‘work’ a day in your life.”
4— Nick Coutracos
Age: 19
Social Media:
Instagram: @nickcoutracos, @shopethos, @sickmediaagency
LinkedIn: Nicholas Coutracos
Massachusetts, USA
Bentley University
In 2013 at 13 years old, Nick Coutracos combined his passion for sports and music and created the page GAMETIME on Vine, where he made 6 second sports highlight videos and grew to over 250,000 followers. This is when he learned the power of e-commerce and monetizing an audience. He utilized the knowledge and skills that he had learned from my time on Vine and applied it to his Instagram account formerly known as @catches, which he started in December of 2015 and grew to over 1.2 million followers. Within the past year, Nick decided it was best to sell his account and focus on other business ventures, but a return to Instagram and becoming a social media influencer again in the near future is most definitely not out of the question for him. Although he was making a great deal of profit from his Instagram account, he wanted to keep exploring new ways he could make money from social media. He then created his own online dropshipping store, Ethos (@shopethos on Instagram, ethosshops.com). Through utilizing the techniques that he learned from Instagram advertising, he generated over $3000 in profit in just the first week. Creating this store has also taught him a lot about product advertising and how to effectively attract customers. He is also currently working at Sick Media, an influencer marketing firm with a combined network of over 1 billion followers. In the future, Nick hopes to continue to work at Sick Media and help gain exposure for the agency, all while following his own aspirations of creating a brand centered around pop culture and sports. Nick’s advice to viewers begins with a quote from Jim Rohn, “Either you run the day or the day runs you.” Through this quote, he implies that you should not just let your dreams be dreams, go out and work for them; put in the time and dedication. Nothing good and worth having is supposed to come easy, you need to be determined and have the mentality that you’re going to achieve your goals no matter what.
5— Shawn Ernest
Social Media
Instagram: @MemeGod, @HotMidnights, @SexyHotGrl, @KaylaPluto, @LiamBustaBruno
Age: 21
Hawaii, Oahu
“Harvard DropOut”
Shawn Ernest began his journey when his father gave him his first account on Instagram with 3 million followers as an investment (@hotmidnights @memegod). While running his numerous social media accounts, Shawn made his first bitcoin on bustabit. His username is shawncw, and he ended up selling it at a record high of $4,000. He is currently on a weight loss journey while running his successful seven figure business. He has gone from 270lbs pounds to 267lbs in just one month and has cut back from having monster energy drinks, cheetos and white claws. In the future, Shawn hopes that there is another event that changes social media so he can take advantage of it and use the “explicit posts method” to grow his accounts again. His advice to viewers is, “It’s okay to sometimes stretch the truth to get into new business opportunities as long as what you are doing is completely legal.”
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