With the ability to earn millions, even as a nano influencer, it’s no wonder that many people are now turning to Instagram for a potential side hustle.
Interested in social media earnings, money.co.uk collected the average annual salary for each European country from Eurostat and used social salary calculator Lickd.co to find out how many sponsored posts* an average European worker would need a year to match their country’s average salary.
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Source: Pxfuel.com
Staying in touch is harder than ever. But in times like these, social interaction is essential for a healthy lifestyle. Fortunately, the digital world is well-prepared to keep you communicating and entertained. There is a range of platforms out there dedicated to bringing people together as much as providing great services. While many of them were already popular, their value to consumers is especially apparent now.
Below are four examples of online activities that have gathered very happy audiences. What is just as impressive is the variety of social entertainment actually available. Whatever your hobbies and interests, you will find something to connect you with friends, family or complete strangers with common interests.
Video Chatting
Demand for telecommunication software that can handle several users at the same time has skyrocketed. Can you imagine the pressure put on brands like Skype and WhatsApp, their status and expertise tested as rivals surge to cover group chat needs? Many would say that Zoom is the most effective of the lot, as it supports everything from conference meetings to fitness classes. Its competitors are on the offence, though, helped by reports that Zoom is not doing so well in terms of the security and privacy it affords users. All these apps are sucking up the attention and striving to maintain, if not improve, users’ experience.
Dating
It is not just about meeting someone special. Several people go on dating apps to simply chat and connect with new faces in their area or even around the world. This friendly, straightforward attitude is what the Badoo Android audience enjoy, for example. A simple design that gives you the chance to filter straight to the kinds of people you want to talk to, with so many opportunities for stimulating conversation. It’s one of the many perks of digital connectivity that make socialising remotely more fun and comfortable.
Video Gaming
When you run out of things to talk about, what do you do? Play games! Social media and video chatting platforms have loads of entertainment for multiple players, whether casual or more intense. But there are bigger titles too that allow a far more exciting way to connect. A great example at the moment is Animal Crossing, Nintendo’s simulation series that is constantly adding new members. Why fight dragons when you can build a home in a virtual world populated by cute animals? It was perhaps the social elements of this game that have made it such a hit, paired with a wholesomeness many gamers appreciate.
TV and Movies
For more laidback fun at home, streaming services are gradually introducing group-watching features. As if Netflix was not popular enough, it now allows for access to a party mode. You simply start by picking a programme and then share the link with a bunch of friends so you can enjoy it together – perfect for a remote Star Wars marathon. Keep in mind, though, that Netflix Party only works on Google Chrome browsers. Apart from minor details like these, great evenings of laughs and popcorn are still very much on the table.
Your day can be as calm or epic as you want. Try out these highly-rated options or explore what other fun you can have with your friends online. You can at least be sure that your entertainment needs are covered. Whether you are in the mood for World of Warcraft or a coffee chat, the digital world is here to serve.
Sponsored Post.
What is your book related job?
I work as Publicity and Social Media Manager at Bookouture (www.bookouture.com). It’s my job to let the world know about our books and authors whether this be through traditional media such as magazines and newspapers or in the online arena so in online magazines or via our social media channels. I spend tons of time on social media too, sharing all our fabulous news and books and reviews.
When I was a little girl my dream was to work at a book publisher because I thought you got to sit and read books all day long and that’s what a book publisher did. Now most of my friends and family think that I actually do that, but I can assure everyone that any reading I do is in my own time as my job is packed all day long with promotional work. I’m very lucky to be working in my dream job though, which I absolutely adore. I thank my lucky stars every single day!
What is the most rewarding part of it?
There are SO many rewarding parts of my job. To see a book get a high profile ranking in the charts and the excitement that causes. Seeing authors give up their jobs to write full time, and knowing that we’ve been an integral part of them achieving their dreams. Helping an author to release their stories into the world and get readers reading them. Knowing that we’ve produced books that our readers love and introducing new authors to our readers.
What do you consider to be your major successes?
My personal success was to win Media Star of the Year at last year’s RNA awards. It was an absolute honour to be even nominated for such a prestigious award let alone win it. And made even more special that Bookouture won Publisher of the Year on the same evening! A double whammy!
Have you always loved books, and what are you reading at the moment?
Yes, I’ve absolutely always loved books from reading Enid Blyton books as a child and wanting to be part of the Famous Five and wanting to fly away on that Wishing Chair and travel to the Magic Faraway Tree, to growing up and reading (and crying) to many Danielle Steele novels and being reprimanded by my mom for reading well into the night.
Last night I finished a novella by Miranda Dickinson called Christmas in St Ives which was wonderful and the prequel to Miranda’s book which is out next summer which I now cannot wait to get my hands on. Before that I read a Bookouture book called Last Cry by Anna-lou Weatherley, which was phenomenal. It’s a new crime series featuring Detective Dan Riley (who I think I fell a tiny bit in love with) and is a diversion for Anna-lou with this new series, but she’s done it so brilliantly. I’m so lucky to work for a company who publish the most talented authors and I love to read as many of the Bookouture books as I can, and certainly the ones that I’m working on, so that I can genuinely share the book love.
Being a book blogger in my spare time (of which there’s not an awful lot) and also being part of a book podcast, and running a book club too, I do try to alternate between Bookouture books and also other novels that are written published by other incredible authors and publishers.
Mom to ten year old Ollie, publicity and social media manager at Bookouture, Kim Nash lives in Staffordshire. Kim also co-runs a local book club, co-hosts a book podcast and also
Twitter is looming large in my mind this week. Not just because the potential to be rude to each other has doubled with the letter count, but because Chindi Authors has launched its pre-Christmas social media campaign. Normally we have an event where we sell festive books but this year we’ve chosen to do the same thing online and of course we’re tweeting about it like crazy.
Twitter is a great forum for authors. It’s a place we meet each other, form into street teams and groups (both formal, like @RNATweets, and informal), link up with readers and bloggers, and generally share news about our books. We all have our own styles, but if I was making the rules they would go something like this.
Although these are my personal foibles my fellow @ChindiAuthors contributed to the debate. So thank you @carol_thomas2, @chirosie, @angela_petch, @julia76871430 & @michael_parker.
Jane Cable’s Another You goes on free download on Amazon…
Two weeks ago I wrote about trying to be empirical in judging the results of marketing – and also that Another You would be on free promotion. While an ideal opportunity to see if I could actually learn what worked and what didn’t, it felt a nerve-wracking and risky time, because if you can’t give your book away, what hope do you have of actually selling it?
Another You proved in spades that it could be given away. The entire week of the promotion it stayed in the Kindle UK top 200, most of that time in the top 100, rising to a highest position of number 20 and topping the free women’s historical fiction chart. Far, far, beyond my wildest dreams. So what did I do to achieve this?
First, the day before the promotion I sent round robin emails and used lead generation software for linkedin to all my friends and contacts who have shown an interest in my books. It was flattering that many of them had already bought it but I am sure there were a few who downloaded during offer week.
It was also a case of extending my network to people I used to know and I used Facebook and Linkedin to reach the alumni pages of both my secondary schools and the large accounting firm I trained with. From my former sixth form in particular the response was most enthusiastic, but then we always were a rather bookish lot.
I devised a number of campaign graphics on Canva, some with review quotes from other authors, another pushing reviews in aid of Words for the Wounded. I used a different one each day on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. I also did some paid advertising and post boosts on Facebook. This included a ‘shop now’ promotion with a link to the Kindle UK download page which received 42 click throughs and cost £18. I messed up another boost later in the week by not noticing I’d reach the spend limit on my account, but by that time the book was flying and it didn’t seem to matter very much.
I also spent a little money (around £10-£15 each) on three free book promotion sites. For the UK market I tried Book Bongo but I have to say I was disappointed with the amount of coverage on social media and the book didn’t appear in their newsletter until after the free period was over. There was also a free listing on Book Angel.
For the US market I tried Awesome Gang and Pretty Hot on different days. The jump up the free chart was far more impressive on Awesome Gang day when Another You rose to number 671. The main Amazon.com marketing came from my publisher, Endeavour Press, who sent out hourly promotional tweets with a link to the site throughout US book buying hours. I can only think this was hugely successful because at the end of the week the book reached the dizzy heights of number 68. Amazing – as a quintessentially British author I never expected to have such appeal in the USA.
Overall the key must have been to reach enough downloads early in the promotion for the Amazon algorithms to kick in. Endeavour advises getting as many people as possible to download on the first morning and I suspect this is the reason.
Although I wish I’d had more time to prepare for the free offer period I really couldn’t knock the results and in the week since it ended Another You has continued to sell well and remained in Kindle UK top 20 women’s historical fiction. Now I need to somehow launch it closer to number one and that coveted bestseller label.
Today I am grateful for social media. Social media is not perfect. It can stop us engaging with the real world and make our concentration worse. But as a self employed freelancer and a (relatively) new mum, I love it. For those who work from home, the internet is like our working office, those on Twitter and Facebook our work colleagues. It stops us feeling alone. We feel connected. Social media has become the social register of our times, a way of keeping up with friends and family. It has negatives but it also allows anyone to promote themselves and have their voice heard. While some of those people may be trolls, many others are good, decent people. I have met some of my friends on social media and my husband added me on Facebook the day we met, hurrying the dating process along. Social media has made the world more democratic, and for that we should all be grateful.
Catch up on other days:
What are you grateful for?
It was my husband Keith who had the idea of producing an e-magazine in the summer of 2014. He has pro web design experience and I had written all the text for his corporate client websites, so we were used to combining our skills and working together as a team.
We called our publishing brand Ryecorn Digital Publishing, after Ryecorn, the fictional Yorkshire town in my kindle chick- lit novella.
Keith designed all the unique graphics for the chapter headings and he also designed the book cover for me, too. I was really pleased with his design. The free android app version looked great too.
To keep costs down, we set up a free website to help promote it: www.ryecorn.orgfree.com
We had already enjoyed minor success with another online project of ours called ‘A quick read.’ This entailed uploading stories onto our website and onto the accompanying free android app.
We didn’t charge writers a fee for publication, and the website cost around £60 a year. Even though we were overwhelmed with work, as time passed, we couldn’t see how the project could develop, so sadly in 2014, after two years, we decided to close it down.
So – we had published online,on kindle and on the android app format. We both really warmed to the idea of publishing an e-mag on 3 digital platforms.
What could we call our magazine though? We thought of hundreds of names, but the domain names were all taken, so we hit upon the idea of blending our names to create something truly different. We really hoped that the name ‘KISHBOO‘ would stick in people’s memory.
It would be non- profit making project. We’d fund the competition prizes through the competition entry fees, and we now realised that we could use online advertising to help cover the cost of our website.
In August 2014, we were ready to launch the project! However, the actual magazine wasn’t published until October, as we needed stories and articles to fill it.
I began to send press releases out and my network of writer friends helped spread the word for us via social media. Keith worked hard on search engine optimisation, and I began to tweet for the first time in my life.
I was worried that we would receive no articles at all because at the moment, we are unable to pay writers. However, we can offer them free promotion of their kindle books and blogs within their articles. I wasn’t even sure we would get anyone entering our competition. I needn’t have worried – the comp entries and articles began flooding in!
Back issues are easily available – here’s what the first KISHBOO looked like:
Here’s the cover of the second issue, which was published in January 2015: 
We are now very working hard on our third issue, which will be published in April 2015. It’ll be packed with even more features.
Please visit: www.kishboo.co.uk
Find us on facebook: www.facebook.com/kishboo.mag
Follow us on Twitter: @KishbooMag
Renowned Champagne house Searcys known for their longest Champagne bar in Europe, have gained sparkling reputation in all of their 120 years of operation. Starting out as a catering service, the brand has grown from strength to strength so it makes sense that after such an extensive time serving up the luxury drink to thirsty patrons, that they have just launched their own unique blend of Champagne.
Don’t let the fact that this Champagne not having been on the market for as long as some of the big boys put you off, they have cleverly selected a blend which is perfectly drinkable alone or with food. The blend itself an instant hit with only 2% Chardonnay grape which certainly for myself removes the headache, overbearingly dry factor.
To make the launch of their very first own brand Champagne even more unique, Searcys have ensured that a taste of their delicious Champagne will be a truly fascinating experience. The drink is served in an innovative tower of six glasses, The ‘Coupe Stack’. The ‘Coupe Stack’ is designed to let the Searcys Selected Cuvée perfectly flow like a waterfall and fill each glass perfectly. This was demonstrated a couple of times at the launch to much ooo’s and aaahhh’s each time the brave pourer took to the challenge.
To encourage customers, Searcys are giving lucky punters the chance to win a meal for two at SixtyOne Restaurant and all you have to do is share your ’stackselfie’ before the 15th of March. To share, you must post a picture of yourself with the Coupe Stack onto social media, using #searcysstack. You can find them on Twitter (@SearcysBars), Instagram (@SearcysChampagneBars) and Facebook (Searcys Champagne Bar).