1289 9:42

Social Media Fan Ties the Knot with Wedding Marketing

When a longtime social media fan looks to add creativity into her life, she combines her passion for weddings and her skills in online communication.

9:42

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What It's About

How a social media enthusiast says "I do" to her wedding marketing hustle.

Business Model
Social Media
Skills Required
Research & Marketing
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
Medium

Words of Wisdom

When it comes to anyone looking for a side hustle, Nina says to “Combine what you are skilled at with something you love. My skill is in social media, but my passion is in weddings. I have done social media in the past for healthcare staffing, and while I was skilled at it, it wasn't something I loved. Keep tweaking til you find the perfect formula of skill meeting passion. This is your side hustle, after all! It should have some fun to it. It is okay to make money having fun!”

Fun Fact

The average person spends two hours on social media every day. That is more than 5 years total in a lifetime! [source]

Notes from Chris

Episode 1289
Nina Addeo was in 5th grade when AOL came out, in high school when MySpace was all the rage, and in college during the birth of Facebook. Social media grew up while she did—and she was always drawn to it.

When she was in college, it was still new enough that few people were studying it for academic use. She didn’t even know it could be a job. So, as Nina continued into adulthood, she gravitated towards administrative work. Still, she couldn’t forget her love of the online world, so she started a blog for the TV show America’s Next Top Model.

The blog soon boasted over 40,000 followers from around the world. Unfortunately, the show ended, and with it so did Nina’s blog.

As the industry grew, however, Nina started to realize working in social media could be a job, and she wanted to break in. She figured that her blog would be the perfect way to showcase her creative and digital talents—so she proudly listed it on her resume … and her hunch paid off.

She scored a job doing social media for a hospitality group of wedding and restaurant venues. The job was both rewarding and stressful. While she enjoyed parts of it, after she got married Nina decided to look for a job where she knew she would be leaving at a normal time every day.

So, working after hours and on the side, Nina created her own Wix website for $30 a month. It was a virtual dream board for the business she wished she had, called I Do Wedding Marketing. The dream was to intersect her passion for weddings and her skills in social media. More than anything, she wanted to help wedding professionals build their social media presence, so they didn’t have to worry as much about marketing themselves.

After a few months, she had the opportunity to attend a networking event hosted by a local wedding officiant. There, she landed her first client: a wedding magazine. It was a perfect match: by working with a magazine, Nina would have access to a whole list of wedding professionals that advertised with them.

The magazine was a longstanding, reputable leader in the wedding industry—and therefore an ideal client to build up Nina’s credibility. From there, she got a lot more clients.

Going full time with I Do Wedding Marketing is Nina’s long-term goal, but with COVID-19 in resurgence and many events on hiatus, it’s not the right time yet.

Ultimately, her goal is to help as many wedding professionals as possible take control of their social media presence. Despite the pandemic, she’s been doing just that!

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: SEE ALSO: Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter
Quote of the Day
"Combine what you are skilled at with something you love. My skill is in social media, but my passion is in weddings."
—Nina Addeo #SideHustleSchool

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