What do you do when you are on the cusp of emerging
technology? Not many have caught onto it yet, but you know it’s going to be
big. Well if you’re like Shama Kabani, then you build a company and turn this
new form of exciting technology into a million dollar business. That’s exactly
what she did between 2008 and 2009 when she became the Founder and CEO of The
Marketing Zen Group.
While earning her Masters at the University of Texas, she
wrote her thesis paper on the impacts of social media, focusing mostly on
Twitter. Today this seems like a standard paper topic for any student studying
communications, but Shama took a chance on this site in the days when it was
new. This was a big gamble when it came to her career because the demand for
social media had simply not evolved yet. She often says, “I remember writing my thesis for graduate
school on Twitter when the social network had only a few thousand users. I knew
then that it would be a powerful force in the new media world. When I speak, I
joke with the audience that it was my
favorite thing long before it was Oprah’s or Ashton Kutcher’s.”
The hot demand for
social media and experts who know how to most greatly utilize these tools to
enhance your business seem commonplace in today’s workforce, yet it was Shama
and The Marketing Zen Group who helped pave the way. They officially became a
million dollar business in 2011, and Shama herself has had several prestigious
awards bestowed on her in the business industry. In addition to being featured
in magazines such as Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Entrepreneur, her honors include:
·
Being featured as one of Yahoo! Finance’s “Seven
Self-Made Immigrant Millionaires” (2012)
·
Being one of Business Week’s “Top 25 Under 25
Entrepreneurs in North America” (2011)
·
Winning the Technology Titan Emerging Company CEO award (2009)
·
Being dubbed “The Zen Master of Marketing” by Entrepreneur
magazine (2011) and often being referred to as “Master Millennial of the
Universe” and an “online marketing shaman” by FastCompany.com
·
Accomplished author with her book The Zen of Social Media
Marketing, which is due to be in its 3rd edition January of 2013
So what exactly is it that The Marketing Zen Group does?
They are a full service firm that helps provide online marketing and digital PR
so that businesses may be better able to utilize the Internet. This means a
site that’s more easy to search for, social media pages to help fans and
customers stay informed about that’s happening with your business, and much
more. Some of the services they have listed that they perform are: social media
marketing, search engine optimization, website design and conversion, content
marketing, blog design and development, as well as providing training,
consultation, and seminars. You also have the option of using them to handle
your entire online presence, or they can lend their services for just one area
you have difficulty in.
Just because it was a blossoming industry with no real
foothold in the business world at the time, Shama did not let that stop her
from developing her company. Now social media and digital marketing are some of
the cornerstones of a good PR campaign, and it’s only been a few short years.
Some of the advice that she gave Yahoo! Finance was, "If you have an idea, put it out there and then figure out how to
improve it. Look beyond the bottom line and toward the bigger impact."
This is sound advice for any budding business mogul, or anyone looking to make
a name for themselves in this ever-changing industry.
To find more
information about Shama you can visit her website http://www.shama.tv/
where, like any savvy social media user, she has ample and immediately recognizable
links to her YouTube page, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn so that you
can always stay connected to her. To learn more about The Marketing Zen group,
or become one of their clients, please check out http://www.marketingzen.com/
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