The Canberra Business Podcast
A podcast about all things Canberra Business.
The Canberra Business Podcast
From Bookshop To Social Strategy
Hello and welcome to the Canberra Business Podcast. I'm Greg Harford, your host from the Canberra Business Chamber, and today I'm joined by Suzy Bassiako, owner and founder of the Social Nest. Susie, welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00:So tell us a little bit about Social Nest. What is it? What do you do?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so the Social Nest is a social media marketing, I guess, agency. And I've been in business now for almost five years. So I currently I'm a social media strategist, so I help businesses with their strategy behind the social media. So it's about finding who your target audience is and what content we actually want to be putting out there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And is it is it just you? Have you got a team behind you?
SPEAKER_01:It's just me at the moment. I am looking to expand my team. Fantastic. It's always a yeah. We're getting there, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, good. So um what what inspired you to start a social media business?
SPEAKER_01:So um I actually used to run an e-commerce um store online. I did that for six years and uh ended up in a space where there was I so I sold secondhand books, gifts and stationery, and I did it from my house. Um so you can imagine having over a thousand books was quite, yeah, quite a lot. Um and it got to a point where it was just all a little bit too much. So I took a year off and I thought I'm going to, what can I do? And social media was the one thing that stood out. Um so that was kind of how the social nest was born. Um I went and studied, and the the social nest was actually born from an assignment. Um, so my very first assignment, we had to have access to a business or a hypothetical business. Um, I'm a salt trader and I had an ABN and I was like, well, why not? Let's go, let's see what happens. Um, five years on, the assignment hasn't finished. So fantastic. So it's got going well.
SPEAKER_00:Um so so did you find your your background in e-commerce and sort of running that secondhand books, gift stationery um store online, did that give you a grounding to start the social nest?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes. Um having the experience um of six years of as it was an online-only store, um, I had the only way I got my clients or customers um at that time was through social media. So that was um something that yeah, I was able to do.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Now there might be some people listening to this who who think, yes, social media is is is an obvious thing for businesses to do, but there might well be some some firms out there, people listening to this who who perhaps don't necessarily think that um uh social media is important to them. Um what would you say to them?
SPEAKER_01:Um social media is actually part of the marketing mix. It is very important. Um almost I think I can't remember the stats, but I I do know that I think it's like 80% or above uh on social media. Um the one thing that social media does is it gives you an even playing field. So the cost that you would spend on an ad is the same cost that a bigger company would pay. It's just the amount of your budget that is the limitation. So yeah, um, there is definitely the the chance to build your own community online and having that um creating a group of advocates who will actually go and then refer you on, um, that is where I find it's priceless with social media marketing.
SPEAKER_00:So, what sort of businesses are your customers?
SPEAKER_01:So I work have worked with um a whole heap of different um clientele. Um so generally working at the moment with micro businesses and small to medium businesses. Um I do have one business that um is quite a large, uh, large business. Um but I've worked with stonemasons, I've worked with fashion designers, I've worked with um chemists, I've worked with hairdressers, um yeah, it's a lot of different things.
SPEAKER_00:So quite a quite a range and across both retail and services by the sounds of it. So um yeah, that that's really interesting. So when you're looking at building a social media strategy for a business, for one of your customers, um what are the things you're looking at and how do you tailor your approach?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so things that I'm looking at is where the business is positioned at the at that time, um looking at what's their point of difference, I'm looking at what campaigns might be coming up, looking at their content pillars that they want to discuss, looking at the pain points of their customers, and um yeah, that's kind of the that's where I start with. And then to actually pinpoint their strategy and tailoring it for them, um, we might go back and look at the content that they've used previously and what's been successful and what hasn't. And then we might look at well, this content has worked in the past. If we tweak it, how can we make it work a little bit more? Um so you might have some long-form content that you might want to be re-creating into video or short form, yeah, short-form content. Um, so but giving the the direction and the strategy, it's like setting the KPIs and going, okay, so what are you what is your most important thing? Um everyone says uh dollar, you know, and I always say to people, you with social media, you can't propose on the first date. You know, it's not all about just sell, sell, sell. It's about getting to know so the audience can know, luck, and trust you. They need to know who you are, what you do. So we bring them through that by a journey. Um, and so you know, we'll start out with some brand awareness posts and then we'll move them through that, through those stages and move them through the marketing funnel.
SPEAKER_00:Social social media is a big amorphous kind of collection of platforms out there now, and it seems to be growing all the time. There's there's all sorts of um different platforms that are available for businesses to try and connect with their customers on. Are there particular platforms that you think are important for Canberra businesses to be thinking about when reaching their customers? And are there are there some that perhaps are less important?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I do think um highly recommend LinkedIn is actually I I feel that it's almost underutilized. Uh LinkedIn has got quite a lot of growth and a lot of like a lot of reach. Um obviously, you know, Meta has got Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Um, they're quite good. TikTok is good if you are in that sales or products. Um it's pushing, it's it's starting to expand into more the sales and ads and things. Um for customers who are on wanting to get their services out, um then I kind of tend to lean towards LinkedIn and you know, sort of more the traditional, I guess the meta, um, because TikTok is about trends and you don't want to be following the trends all the time. You need that consistency, you need your messaging to be getting out. So as long as you stay true to your messaging, um, Blue Sky is actually um a I guess a platform that is starting to gain a little bit more traction. Um there were some people like me who've never heard of Blue Sky. So what is that all about? So um Blue Blue Sky is uh came out um against, well not against, but came out when um Twitter became X. Um some people decided they didn't quite like the direction, and um it's um owned by the people. So um all the sourcing of the um information is good. Yeah, it's yeah, it's just another platform for like twit like Twitter.
SPEAKER_00:Um so yeah, I'll have to I'll have to check it out and see how we go. Um you know, in terms of um uh kind of getting your message out though through social media, it's all very well to um produce content and uh put it up, um, but the world is drowning sometimes in content going on to social media, and you've got algorithms that are massaging what people see. So um it's easy to put something up, it's a little bit harder to get uh your audience actually to see what it is that you're you're putting out there. Um what's your sort of general advice on that?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so my general advice is to be authentic and to stick to your values. Your audience will find you. So I call um followers and likes. They're what we call vanity metrics. So the number of followers that you have, you know, it's great to have followers, obviously. We need followers, but you want to have the right followers.
SPEAKER_00:The the and the right followers are the people who will engage with your content and um ultimately go on to buy from you. Exactly. When you started the social nest, it grew out of your studies and and an assignment that you you were doing um there. Um did you did you expect that it would last five years and flourish in the way that it has?
SPEAKER_01:Not at all. Um I when I was studying, I was actually in a bad mental health um state at the time, and I actually was looking to just go back to work one or two days a week for somebody else. That was my goal. I was not expecting um it to take off like it did. Um so when I started um sort of getting things in in motion, I put it out to some people, I started networking, I did um some pro bono work, and then I started getting testimonials and case studies. So by the time I'd finished my studies, I actually had a business starting up and that was ready to go. And so it was through that journey that's how it came about.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, fantastic. And and what what happened to your book business?
SPEAKER_01:Oh that had closed down, yeah. That I had I'd closed that so I closed that down in 2019, and in 2021 is when I started the Social Nest. So I had that year. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:A gap, yeah, so to speak. So yeah. Um what were the what were the biggest challenges that you faced starting up the business?
SPEAKER_01:Initially it was gaining the confidence to sell myself. Um selling a product is very different to selling a service.
SPEAKER_00:So how did you navigate through that? Because that's a common experience for for many people. Um, you know, what what was it that that helped you kind of gain that confidence?
SPEAKER_01:I think starting starting out and having um people around me in the business community who I was able to sort of say, hey, I'm going through this struggle, and they're going, yeah, it's okay, me too. Um being able to lean on people's expertise and pick people's brains when um problems were arising. Um networking has been, I guess, my yeah, cushion. It's what's kept me afloat.
SPEAKER_00:And networking in Canberra is critical, right? Because you've got to be connecting with other other other people. Um are your customers all here in the ACT or are they?
SPEAKER_01:No, um so I have clients in Sydney and I have clients um in over down on the south coast as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I guess that's one of the advantages of your sort of business. You can operate um from Canberra about service customers anywhere, right?
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Um and uh you know, five, six years into a business, um there must be things that you perhaps have learned and would have done differently. Um what what perhaps are the couple of things that stand out for you?
SPEAKER_01:Learning to say no and setting boundaries. Um when I first started out, I said yes to everything. Um I was working really, really, really long hours because I didn't want to let people down. And, you know, like taking phone calls at nine o'clock at night, eleven o'clock at night, you know, getting staying up until three in the morning, getting work done because I was worried that I wouldn't meet the client's, you know, expectations, which I realised were my own expectations. Um not necessarily the client. I don't think the client wanted me to be up at three in the morning, but that was my my own mental, yeah. Um so I think yeah, just having setting boundaries early and no being able to say no, that was yeah, and that requires courage, right?
SPEAKER_00:To be able to say no to a potential customer. Um did you find that challenging to kind of get through? Definitely, definitely. And and what was the learning from it? I mean, did did your customers kind of did you lose customers as a result of being able to say no or or or did it was it a question of managing expectations?
SPEAKER_01:I think it was about managing expectations. Um setting on the first meeting what I am able to do and what I am not willing to do, I think is actually important. Um having clear expectations from what the client is. So asking more questions, I think that was probably a big one. Learning to ask more and listening more effectively.
SPEAKER_00:Because had you had you worked in a consultancy capacity previously, so so that was a bit of a bit of a change for you professionally.
SPEAKER_01:Professionally complete pivot. Um, I'd worked in retail, I'd worked in administration, um, but consulting was completely different.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you're enjoying it though? I am. Yeah, fantastic. Um now now social media uh again um there's a million approaches that people have. Um and and the use of um video, audio, uh graphical content um has changed a lot over time. How do you how do you see that kind of continuing to evolve in the future? Do you think it is all about video now in 2025?
SPEAKER_01:I think it will continue to be about video for a while, uh especially with the use of AI coming in and people are creating some very interesting videos on AI. Um yeah, I think video is here to stay. I don't think it's going anywhere. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And in a practical sense, if you're a plumber or uh an electrician or uh uh even even perhaps a retailer, what does that mean for your social media? It means you've you've got to be investing in uh development of video content.
SPEAKER_01:Yes and no. You don't necessarily need to pay thousands of dollars in um lots of like little video, you know, professional videos. Um what you can do is just um get your your smartphone out and just do some general behind the scenes, do some um face-to-camera. There's so there are some ways, but yes, if you have the budget, definitely be in in investing in video um because then you can create a content library and you've got access as long as it's evergreen.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Do you find some of your customers are a bit nervous about getting in front of the camera?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they are. So I always say start with your feet. Um if you can just even do, you know, photos or things of do a video of your room, of your, you know, and talk about what you've been, you can have as long as your voice is there and as long as you're part of it, you're showing your value or you're showing, you know, your brand, then we can work with it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And and how far does your service offering go? So you're about strategy, but do you help with execution as well?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. So um I create content calendars and do the scheduling on behalf of time poor um customers. So I also um have people who, if I need to reach out to, if they need videographers, then I can put them, send them through. So excellent.
SPEAKER_00:Well, look, just to close, let's talk about emojis, which I know can be can be controversial. Um, some people love them, some people hate them. Um what's your view? Are they overused?
SPEAKER_01:I think they can be overused. Um, I tend to only use them a couple of times. Uh, one thing that I've noticed is that when you're writing an organic post and you're writing it yourself, if you pepper it with emojis, it can look a little bit like it's been generated by AI because AI likes to pepper with lots of emojis. Um I tend to be more on the cautious side and don't use as many.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Are there any particular emojis that you think are used too much?
SPEAKER_01:Um probably the rocket.
SPEAKER_00:The rocket?
SPEAKER_01:I've seen the rocket.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think I've ever used a rocket.
SPEAKER_01:I've seen the rocket a lot, and it's you know generally used in you know power and growth and when you're sort of doing those sales, you know, ones. So the the rocket, I've seen it a fair bit.
SPEAKER_00:Excellent. All right. Um have you got any advice for anyone thinking about starting a small business focusing on digital marketing? I mean, what would you be telling yourself if you were starting again?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, jump in, do it. It's fun. Um, just yeah, it it's it's a a roller coaster of emotion, and you will learn, and it's probably the best self-growth journey ever. Um, but it is a really wonderful thing to have that freedom and flexibility and to know that you're helping people at the end of the day, building a community and building their businesses.
SPEAKER_00:Fantastic. Susie Basiako, owner and founder of The Social Nest, thank you so much for joining me today on the Canberra Business Podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Greg, for having me.
SPEAKER_00:Um, I'm Greg Harford from the Canberra Business Chamber. It's been a great pleasure today to talk to Susie Baziako. Um, don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast platform for future episodes of the Canberra Business Podcast. We'll catch you next time.