Adventures in the new media landscape - how can small business tap in?

Small Biz Matters – #169 Providing the small business community with educational content and advocacy since 2014
with Alexi Boyd, broadcaster, advocate and small business owner.
Date: 11 August 2020

Podcasts, videos, radio, TV, socials, posts, comments and notifications. The world has an unquenchable thirst for content, and no shortage of new platforms for you to tap into. And the pressure is on to nail the communication with your potential clients or audience across a number of these online spaces.

We all know that we should be constantly working on our marketing strategy as our business grows but are you tapping into all the best channels available to you as a small business? We are spoilt for choice and many of these are free but we can drown in the options too.

Here to join us on Small Biz Matters this week is Stefan Sojka a Media expert who will take us on an adventure through the new media landscape where you can learn how to tap into this unique marketing resource to grow your business.

Topics we’ll be covering:

What sort of media opportunities are available to small business?

First define what we mean by “media”, because understanding that will go a long way to where we might fit in and discovering the opportunities.

The digital age has redefined the meaning of the word ‘media’.  It used to refer mainly to mass media, like TV, radio, newspapers, magazines as it has with a few other words, like, platform and channel.  A USB stick is media, as is a Website, a billboard, a t-shirt with a message on it, social media post, a reaction to that post, a search engine result a text message.

I take an extremely broad view, that media is the delivery of information, material or data via a delivery mechanism that reaches a destination and/or audience.

When we say media now, we can mean the content, the platform, the delivery mechanism, the format, we can even be talking about artificial intelligence algorithms and agents sorting, ranking and delivering information to us.

This broad definition ensures you take into account every possible format, channel, device, touch-point, reaction.

Also media is a two way street now.  It used to be one to many, now it is one to one, one to many, many to many and everything in between.  

Before digital technology, media opportunities were plentiful, but now they are almost limitless.

Traditional channels vs digital - The huge spectrum of touch points available, from social to directories, podcasts (of course) magazines, how to videos, walk throughs, Google’s numerous channels, like Google my Business, reviews, street view, 360 degreee walk-throughs of your shop, business networking groups, newsletters, etc.  Even things like old school discussion forums, local groups, complementary channels that may not seem logical but may have your target audience there.  Sports clubs use apps to communicate to their members.

The huge range of channels actually creates a unquenchable thirst for content, so you can tailor your output to suit what they are looking for (kind of like what I am doing right now).  Councils and other levels of government provide many opportunities for businesses to engage and feed their channels, too.  Exchanging reviews between customers if you are B2B (I’ll review you if you review me - so long as it's genuine)

Finding the right media to align with There are as many right answers as there are people looking for the answers.  I’d be asking a bunch of questions first, because if you don’t, you risk disappearing down a digital media rabbit hole:

What do you do?

What do you have to offer, both as products/services but also as good content?

What are your values?

Who is your audience? Where do they hang out? What are they looking for?

What are you best suited to create?  Are you a good writer, or presenter?  Or more technical?  Helpful hints, etc?

Where are the gaps in the media landscape that you can fill?

What are your competitors doing?

Can you use tools like Google’s keyword tool, to inform your content?

Where do you see yourself positioned in the marketplace?

How much time/effort/money have you got to dedicate to marcomms?  Usually never enough so go for the low hanging fruit and quick wins.

Etc.

The answer to all these helps you determine where to focus and what to create.

As a small business, you are now a publishing house and a Public Relations agency.  So you need to think like this.

Publishers are in the business of creating content and finding ways and means to publish that content.

Public Relations agencies are on the lookout for opportunities to get their clients’ messages out there.

This is what you need to do. 

How to make the most of every media opportunity and get your goals when it comes to your marketing strategy and business planning?

Analytics and measurement to help decide what is working and what isn’t.  Try different things.  Be creative.

There is no magic formula, although certain things are more measurable and certain than others (eg GoogleAds can give you all the data and stats, but you still need to have your own unique way of dealing with the customer when they arrive)

Tighten up and improve all the related activities and processes within the business.

Marketing is much more a holistic exercise now, so the entire business needs to look at itself holistically to ensure better outcomes.

This digital age is also an age of information overload and overwork.  No one can really afford to do absolutely everything (big businesses have whole teams looking separately at every aspect of digital marketing - analytics teams, user experience teams, media buying teams, content creating teams etc) Small business must be realistic and work within limitations so try to find out what fits and works well for you and focus on that, with a little openness to explore new channels and opportunities.

Now that you are a small business media publishing mega corporation, you can find your niche, and your most suitable channels and mediums, and start feeding the digital media machine.  Every morsel you give it, creates an expanding and more refined unique footprint of your presence and your activities.

Tips

Develop your own skills and get experience – jump at learning opportunities

Spend time googling to devour as much information as you can about media, marketing, publishing, content

You can never do everything, so focus on what works, what you are good at and get help if you need it.

The one irony about the web is so much of it is free, so considering the huge benefits a small business can get that traditional businesses never had, why not spend some money here and there to achieve what you want.

Even business is different every industry more or less competitive.  If you are in a competitive industry, you need to try harder, because your competitors are, or you need to find your niche

Examples/Anecdotes
Political Video

Rotary Afghanistan School
Message - Flag eCommerce - “Wholesale enquiries welcome”  

Ideas International - Tech journalists, Twitter

Envato - MVP then SEO.  Build ecosystem with Freelance Switch / Job Board / Blogs / Tutorials

Cleverseal - Facebook, Blogs, Focus on USP and Family Business angle, nurture installer network
Star Jewellers emphasise 50+ years trading and bricks and mortar presence, custom Commerce theme and constant iteration and customer engagement, reviews, Google merchant, SEO, Consulting
GSSM - Single Product Websites with dual language.

Wavelink - 20 years.  PRL

Motexion - Walk-through videos, ecommerce, SEO, facebook, one-on-one meetings with key people eg dealers and manufacturers, refine the business processes, team, supply chain, etc

Me personally: Youtube planted link on journalist site. 
SEO Good Website - messaging prequalifies, establishes trust, communicates values.

About our Guest:

Cyrius Media Group http://www.cyrius.com.au/about

A media, events and marketing consulting agency, centrally located in Ryde, we design, produce and manage all aspects of digital media, marketing, events, Website design and Web development for: individuals, businesses, agencies, departments and community organisations across Australia.

We’ve been building and managing online assets since the mid 1990s and more recently have expanded into live events, podcasting production and taking the opportunity during the pandemic to pivot towards doing some of our own in-house pet projects. 

Stefan Sojka  https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefansojka/

Stefan spent the first 20 years of his career as an entertainer and musician, playing thousands of gigs from major corporate events for companies like Microsoft, Optus and Sony to backyard parties, weddings, clubs and pubs all over Australia. When the internet came along in the mid-90s, Stefan became a convert. 

He became a staff writer for numerous national Internet magazines, then gradually evolved into a small business owner, employing designers, programmers and multimedia creators in what became the Cyrius Media Group digital agency.  His background in music and entertainment seemed to fit nicely into the new media landscape, as he found his writing, creative and communication skills were a great asset for the business and for his clients.

Stefan is big on mentoring and encouraging others to succeed, and many of his employees have gone on to be hugely successful, and his clients have benefitted by increasing their combined revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of working with Stefan’s agency.

He’ll probably write a book about it all, because a brief biography simply can’t cover everything. But today we’ll be focusing on helping your small business improve digital networking, search engine visibility and positioning your business with the right messaging and image.