Michael A. Stelzner is a social media marketing leader, internet marketer, entrepreneur, author, and radio personality. He is the CEO & Founder of Social Media Examiner, a media company that teaches people how to utilize social media platforms for their businesses. ^[undefined]

He is also the creator of events hosted by Social Media Examiner, including the Social Media Marketing World. ^[undefined]

In addition, he is the host of the Social Media Marketing podcast, the weekly Morning Social Media Marketing Talk Show, and an episodic video documentary called The Journey. ^{[undefined] [undefined]}

He is also the founder of the Social Media Marketing Society. ^[undefined]

He has written two books: Writing White Papers ** (2006) and Launch (2011). ^{[undefined] [undefined]}

In the mid-1990's, Michael was working in Corporate America. He got terminated because the CEO of the company thought he saw him doing drugs; he did not even know the CEO had a drug problem. ^[undefined]

In August 1995, he started his own creative agency. ^[undefined] Using his last name to name his consulting firm, Stelzner consulted businesses and helped them create their first websites.

During that time, he worked on web design, annual reports, things related to corporate identity (company logos, brochures, and other forms of collateral development), as well as anything else creative within advertising and copywriting. ^{[undefined] [undefined]}

While working at Stelzner Consulting, he established a name for himself in the high-tech space and focused his efforts on writing white papers for major corporations. ^[undefined] He wrote persuasive, educational, long-form articles for companies like Microsoft, FedEx, Motorola, Monster.com, Hewlett-Packard, and SAP. ^[1]

To date, he has written over 100 white papers over the course of his career.

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In the summer of 2009, Michael Stelzner founded Social Media Examiner, a media company that teaches people how to utilize social media platforms for their businesses. They aim to help businesses learn how to best use social media to create relationships with customers, drive web traffic, generate outreach, and increase sales. ^[undefined]

His original idea was to start an online magazine or blog, writing detailed articles related to social media. His business partners, many of whom were writers and marketers, were not as excited about the experimental project. ^{[undefined] [undefined]}

After learning he was going to present at two major conventions in October that year, he hired web designers and illustrators to create a working website before then; they launched the website on October 12, 2009, two days before the convention. ^[undefined] He attended one of the events with a video crew and interviewed a number of the social media gurus there, and uploaded the interviews over time throughout the month. ^[undefined]

Within the first month, Social Media Examiner reached over 12,000 visitors.

^[undefined] In less than five months, publisher advertising platform Technorati ranked them the #1 business blog in the world. ^[undefined]

As of February 2017, there are now 1.2 million people that read the blog.

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Since starting Social Media Examiner, Mike Stelzner has created a number of events, some of which happen annually.

One notable event is Social Media Marketing World, a three-day conference where thousands of marketers, influencers, and students of social media network and discuss different concepts and discover some of the latest tactics. ^[undefined] Several people have been keynote speakers for the summit, including Gary Vaynerchuk, Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith, Jay Baer, Ann Handley, and Pat Flynn. ^[undefined]

On August 10, 2012, Stelzner launched the first episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast. The podcast aims to help listeners boost their marketing skills and keep them up to date with the social media world. ^[undefined]

His first episode was with Mari Smith, a Facebook marketer and thought leader. She shared her insights into Facebook on mobile as well as the opportunities for how businesses can share their Facebook content shown to a large mobile audience. ^[undefined]

Since then, the podcast has over 250 episodes and over 250,000 to 300,000 downloads per month.

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On October 13, 2017, Stelzner and Social Media Examiner uploaded their first episode of The Journey. This weekly video show reveals what happens withing Social Media Examiner, as well as how he inspires and mobilizes his marketing team to take action. ^[undefined]

He is using YouTube for the platform, with a mission to grow his company’s customer base by more than 62% year over year. ^[undefined]

In addition, Mike founded the Social Media Marketing Society, the largest membership community for social media marketers. It helps marketers discover new ideas, avoid trial and error, and implement the newest social tactics. ^[undefined]

Members receive live original training three times per month, along with access to 100+ on-demand workshops.

They also have exclusive access to Social Media Examiner staff during online video Q&A, as well as access to a Facebook group.

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On October 1, 2006, Mike Stelzner published his first book: Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged . ^[undefined]

The first of its kind, Writing White Papers shows readers how to create outlines for white papers, master interviewing techniques, find research data, and apply marketing techniques that attract and persuade their respective audiences.

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On June 21, 2011, Stelzner's second book was released.

Entitled Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, the book was written to help marketers create content that is highly shareable and meets people's needs. ^[undefined] It also shows people how to identify and work with outside experts, many of whom will promote your content. Finally, the tips he provides in the book aim to show people how their businesses grow on social media as well as generate revenue in non-traditional ways. ^[undefined] [19]

Stelzner is a devout Christian. ^[undefined]