This is what happens when your college professor tasks you to interview a local CEO about their work, and that interview, as it turns out, helps you land an internship at their dynamic, growing agency. Word of advice for job seekers — always go above and beyond; you will be rewarded. That’s just one of the things I learned from Colton Bollinger. Hope you enjoy my findings about Jumper Media!
Since its inception in 2016, Jumper Media has skyrocketed from zero to $6M in Annual Recurring Revenue.
Our 2-year-old company, providing social media marketing tools & services for small business, now serves over 3,000 clients and employs more than 50 people like me. The boss has plans to double those numbers by next year!
When you imagine a business owner making such great strides and meeting those mammoth milestones, who do you picture, and how would you guess they pulled it off so quickly? Allow me to introduce the man behind the plan — and his success story.
Jumper Media was founded unconventionally, and CEO Colton Bollinger hasn’t shied away from doing the unthinkable since then. When other brand-new companies would have jumped at a chance to pitch to angel investors or VCs for money, he went another way.
One key difference between Jumper and other fast-growing upstarts? We’re profitable, and have been since the very beginning. Instead of asking VCs for startup capital and risk losing control on creativity, I decided to ask my current and future customers. I asked them to prepay for three, six or 12 months and, miraculously, some agreed, which gave us the cash we needed to grow.
It was this kind of disruptive, ‘no-box-what-box?’ thinking that took our team from minions to Millions in two short years. Thing is, Colton didn’t set out to become a social media marketing expert. In his guest post on business.com, he shares what actually happened that led to starting Jumper Media.
“After college, I noticed a trend: My friends were talented golfers stuck in minimum-wage jobs and lacking opportunities to coach or teach. They had knowledge and skill that they wanted to share but no idea how to get the word out.”
“I predicted that social media would be the way to bridge the gap.”
And what a prediction that was! Call this a calling, if you like, but everyone who works with Colton knows that he is gifted and passionate — perhaps even obsessed — with helping small businesses win using social media. It’s no wonder he’s managed to attract thousands of clients to our young marketing firm.
Fresh, insightful metaphors like this one from another guest post on entrepreneur.com further prove Colt’s talent in making relatable connections:
“Just as it happens in real life in our efforts to meet that special someone, most of us also go on a blind date with social media. We settle for the ‘one-night stand’ of a few likes and reciprocated follows, then hope to find true love with great returns.”
Those of you looking to lock down better loyalty with the time and ad money you spend on social, instead of waking up alone day after day and starting over, should pay attention to this next bit. He goes on to explain his solution,
True social media success stories are not developed overnight. They are built with strong foundations and strategies in place for sustainable, value-adding content creation that engages with target audiences. Imagine how much more successful you could be on those blind dates if you had your date’s life story pulled up in front of you to stir conversation, instead of awkwardly sitting there for half the night twiddling your thumbs.
If you’re having fruitless one-night-stands with prospects on social — getting mini results for your mega efforts — it’s because you’re guilty on one or more of the following counts, says the boss:
➔ You’re not telling your brand story
➔ You’re not engaging consistently
➔ You’re missing out on paid advertising opportunities
As you might guess, these are the very same social media blind spots that Colton and our team at Jumper Media manage and handle for small businesses all day, every day. It’s exciting to be part of the daily success stories that result — we play matchmaker and our clients are finding themselves happily engaged with their followers!
