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Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Santiago, who is an Instagram expert. Anthony has plenty experience in the world of social media, and in business.
Hey Anthony! How old are you, where are you from, and what do you do?
I am 24, from Westwood New Jersey, and I am an instagram growth expert. I own over 6.2 million followers across 5 accounts and have started to build businesses behind each page.
Did you go to college? Do you believe in college for entrepreneurs?
I went to Rutgers and graduated in 2017 with a biology degree. I don’t believe in college for entrepreneurs. College is for people who don’t know what they want to do in life or for people who do know what career they want to choose and it usually requires a degree.
How did you get into entrepreneurship?
I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset. It started in high school when I was selling weed and sneakers like jordans. I stopped selling both of them once I started getting into growing instagram accounts during college.
What about Instagram interested you so much?
The attention the platform itself was getting and the attention it was creating for other people. It really got me when I realized the ability to create a massive following without the need of being famous. It’s the reason why everyone is so into building their personal brand right now. One piece of content gets uploaded and you get attention (likes/comments/followers etc) that is publicly seen by an insane amount of people. That attention can be used in so many ways.
What does your company do?
My company, ATS Media is currently focused on growing instagram accounts for different niches. We also help clients with Instagram through consulting and a premium growth service.
What are your 3 core principles?
Test everything and have fun with it.
How you do one thing is how you do everything.
If you focus on today, the future will take care of itself.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to a young entrepreneur just starting out?
Don’t chase money and what the current trend is. Provide value (in the form of a skill, product, or service) to an audience around a subject you’re genuinely interested in.
What are your future plans?
Build out businesses behind each of my Instagram accounts. I would also like to start drawing and traveling more.
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