With the rapid innovation in the technology field, many industries are undergoing a massive change as people begin to take their businesses online.

Young entrepreneurs like Marty Evan Jacobs are leveraging their expertise with social media and digital media to start businesses around their passions and monetize their hobbies. From his first time out at sea, Jacobs fell in love with the ocean. Specifically, the intense sense of freedom that he experienced with the salt in the air and crashing waves with his father at the helm. He quickly became infatuated with the ocean and fishing and sought a way to use his social media savvy.

Starting his first business at the age of fifteen, Fish Free, he quickly began using his social media savvy to post pictures of different fishing products. As a lifestyle brand, he wanted to start a movement for people to pursue the freedom that comes with fishing. After an initial boost, followers began to unfollow and social engagement declined dramatically. Jacobs couldn’t figure out why the drastic decline and so he decided to just scratch his own itch and post more like a lifestyle brand. So he dedicated himself to posting three weeks of ideal content: incredible catches, amazing boats, and the highest-quality equipment.

The catch was fantastic. Engagement rose by over 1500% and the Instagram account gained over 27,000 new followers in the following weeks. Soon, Jacobs had a little movement on his reel with a few hundred people posting under his signature hashtag #WeFishFree. His first business was a success and he decided to help out other small fishing businesses and help them break into digital media and leverage it to grow their audience and streams. Soon, he had helped hundreds of small businesses and decided to start Columbia Marketing and Management agency to provide small businesses the digital media solutions they needed to break into a whole new world of opportunities.

He quickly developed skills outside of just social media like search engine optimization (commonly known as SEO), website development, writing sales copy, creating effective sales funnels, and more. His consulting firm which had started out with just small fishing businesses had grown to hundreds of clients from all kinds of industries and trades.

In late 2019, he decided to shut down Columbia Marketing and Management agency to join forces with Astra Media, another disruptive digital media agency making waves in the industry. Pooling their skills and connections, Jacobs and Astra Media have continued making bigger and bigger waves with their proprietary network of more than 500 million followers on Instagram alone, with the capability to garner traffic, attention, and engagement at levels unreachable by any other digital media agency.

According to Astra, “We provide GUARANTEED media placements in some of the most highly esteemed publications on earth. We consistently secure features for our clients in outlets like Forbes, ABC, NBC, Yahoo, and many more. Further, we offer TV and podcast placement opportunities for those who need it.”

Jacobs is looking to embark on new seas with Astra Media and continuing to help businesses leverage digital media to increase their catch!