I never owned a dog growing up or even heard of what a corgi was until a series of coincidental events lead me to become the “Corgi Whisperer” and the leader of the NYC corgi meet ups. I used to work for 3D printing company called Shapeways as their Social Media Manager. While there I started a online store where I collaborated with talented 3D artist to create awesome 3D printed figurines and wares based on memes and internet pop culture.

I came across a viral photo of a corgi dressed as Thor and it prompted me to create a figurine called Thorgi, designed in collaboration with artist Corretta Singer. The 3D printed Thorgi figurine went viral and started selling a lot, when I saw the momentum of sales I wanted to learn more about the corgi community. I began to use Instagram to connect with Corgi owners in NYC. I would meet up with them, they would bring their corgi, and I would learn about the corgi breed. …

I have been recently experimenting with sponsored post on my business Facebook fan page, Raw Legend Collaborations, and I noticed a little trick you could do after a boosted ad has finished. Often times when a boosted post ends we check the results, learn, and optimize for the next post. What you should be doing afterwards is look through the reactions that the post received (likes, hearts, smiley face, shares) and you can see the engagements from people who have not liked your fan page already.

In the winter of 2015 I collaborated with award winning 3D designer and animator Corretta Singer on Thorgi, The Corgi God Of Thunder figurine. Since then I have launched a series of popular 3D printed corgi figurines that cosplay super heroes and puns. It’s been a very fun journey designing products that have become very popular in the corgi community as well as the internet. Most of my marketing has been through engaging the corgi community on social media and occasionally getting featured on popular websites such as The Nerdist and Mental Floss.

As a digital hustler, I do most of my marketing and communications online. Earlier this year I decided to experiment with meeting potential customers in the real world to gain feedback on my 3D printed work. I decided since my 3D printed corgis were my most popular designs, that would be the niche I would focus on. I live in New York City and there are several ways I looked into connecting with corgi owners. Here are three outreach tactics I experimented with. …

Facebook Live is Facebook’s live video streaming feature which allows anyone to stream live video through their mobile device. It is essentially Facebook’s response to Periscope. I have been following Facebook Live video for several months now and have been paying attention to the way brands and publishers have been using it. My initial thoughts on it is that it’s a very cool product and great for real time video content. It’s especially great for live coverage of events, conferences, interviews, and product demos.

I’ve recently started experimenting with Facebook live for my 3D printing business and I am just beginning to wrap my mind around how big the potential Facebook live can really be. The way I use Facebook live to promote my products is going into Facebook groups which my products appeal to and starting a live video showing off my products, It’s almost like a QVC segment pitch of my products and services. …

With Facebook organic reach going to crap in 2015, there are still several ways you can amplify the organic reach of your Facebook posts through these sharing methods. It just takes a little bit of work but the free organic reach will be worth it, especially when you’re targeting the right audiences.

1. Share on your own Timeline

By clicking the share button on a Facebook post, you can easily hit “share now” with your personal Facebook friends. I’ve seen friends turn their own personal timelines into a RSS feed of just content they care about. …

For the marketers and community managers out there, one thing that we’re always told is that our community members are our most important customers and brand evangelist. When I built Raw Legend Collaborations and started to see sales and high engagement around the products I was promoting I began to take note of who were my most enthusiastic customers, especially the ones who were repeat customers. I would listen and pay attention on social media. …

One of the features on Facebook that I have been impressed by recently has been Facebook’s search functionality. Facebook allows you to search posts posted by you, your friends, and public pages. You can also filter out search results based on top posts (Posts by you, post from friends, and groups), latest, people, photos, videos, pages, and places.

What I care most about Facebook’s search functionality is the ability to search public posts about any particular keywords and topics. This is especially useful for doing research and identifying media, publishers, and mentions of your brand, service, or products. For example I wanted to see all of the public posts about my 3D printed products that have been mentioned publicly on Facebook. …

I worked at Shapeways for two years as their social media specialist from 2013–2015. Shapeways is currently the world’s largest 3D printing service and marketplace where anyone can upload a 3D file to have printed on demand in many different materials and shipped to you. You can also make products and sell them on the Shapeways marketplace.

During my time as the Social Media Specialist at Shapeways, I lead the brand voice on social. I created content, engaged with users, managed relationships with community members whether they’re a shop owner, a shopper, a investor, and everyone in between. …