In this week’s year-end episode of the Social Media for Small Business podcast, Suzi Dafnis and Cat Matson interview Mireille Ryan, the CEO of the Social Media Marketing Institute and founder of the Social Media Marketing Awards, about three social media trends she’s going to watch for in 2017: live video, influence in marketing, and understanding and quantifying social media as a return on investment.

Content is more powerful than advertising, and having a solid, cohesive brand story across all your content can mean the difference between a customer being compelled to read on or just clicking away.

In this episode of the Social Media for Small Business podcast, Suzi Dafnis and Cat Matson interview Amey Lee of Heart Content -- a content consultancy firm that helps brands find the story they want to tell, and share it with the right customers -- about how small business owners can create a better brand story.


Jeff Walker is author of “Launch: An Internet Millionaire’s Secret Formula to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love, and Live the Life of your Dreams.”

In this episode of the Social Media For Small Business podcast, Suzi Dafnis talks with Cat Matson about attending Jeff’s LaunchCon – a three-day even with over 800 attendees, where current and potential small business owners can learn and share their experience about launching a product or service.


Digital is more than just a marketing channel. In this week’s episode of the Social Media for Small Business podcast, Suzi Dafnis and Car Matson talk with Holly Tattersall – the founder and CEO of Women In Digital and Digital Talent Co, two digital recruitment agencies that help match clients and companies that understand the value of digital – about unlocking the full potential of the digital medium.


Tim Reid is the host of Australia and New Zealand’s #1 business and marketing podcast, the Small Business Big Marketing show. In this episode of Social Media for Small Business, Suzi Dafnis and Cat Matson invite Tim back on the show to talk about podcasting, social media, and marketing.

Storyboard is a new social media app that matches your photos and videos to the places you visit -- creating a more engaging story than you could get from Facebook, Snapchat, or blogging alone. In this episode of the Social Media for Small Business, Suzi Dafnis and Cat Matson interview Darren Tonkin, the creator and director of Storyboard, about how small businesses can use the app to create more quality interactions between customers and their brand.

Listen in to find out more about:

• Why Darren created Storyboard
• How Storyboard communicates who, what, where, when, why, and how
• Getting people from your social media networks to Storyboard
• Why visual storytelling is so important for small businesses

Videos are becoming an increasingly important tool for small businesses. In this episode of Social Media for Small Business, Suzi Dafnis and Cat Matson interview social media strategist and coach Rachel McLean about why small businesses need high-quality, well-targeted videos, and how to get most from your video content. Listen in to find out more about: Where video fits in a social media content cycle, Using selfie sticks, and other technical tricks for recording high quality videos yourself. Pros and cons of professional vs. DIY videos, Learning from your competition, Why a call to action is so important, and how to use one in your videos.

Melinda Samson of Click Winning Content (www.clickwinningcontent.com.au) is our guest. She speaks to Suzi and Cat about why small businesses should consider advertising on YouTube, how YouTube ads work and tips for not paying a cent for your ads, how long a YouTube advertisement should be and what sort of budget you need to get started. Listen to learn how you can use this really targeted and affordable way to reach new clients. Plus tips and updates from the social media world to help you make the most of social media in your business.

Loren Bartley of Impactiv8.com.au joins Cat and Suzi as they talk about the power of Facebook advertising for small business. We look at why small businesses should consider using Facebook advertising in their marketing mix, the three steps to really effective Facebook advertising and why it starts with building an audience, what kind of budget you need to get started (it’s not as much as you think) and ways to measure the effectiveness of your Facebook ads campaigns. Plus tips and updates from the social media world to help you make the most of social media in your business.

You've no doubt heard the buzz about Snapchat. But, before you launch into yet another social media platform, we introduce you to Snapchat, who's using it, what it's good for an how it may work as one of your marketing vehicles. We interview Jo Scard of agency Fifty Acres. Plus what s in the news (LinkedIn is bought by Microsoft) and some great resources for your small business.

Social media is an easy and effective way to build a reputation. In this episode Suzi Dafnis and Cat Matson speak with Mel Kettle of Mel Kettle consulting about how Twitter brought her 95% of her referral business, how she creates meaningful and productive conversations on social media and how to grow the 'know, like, trust' factor using social media. Plus Mel tells us all about the highlights from the Social Media Marketing World conference she attended (the big names AND the big themes).

Nathan Chan, owner of Foundr magazine, has built a following of almost 1million instagram followers using a simple strategy of matching his messaging to his market and posting inspiring quotes that his audience loves and resonates with. In this episode he speaks to Cat and Suzi about the must-dos if you want to use Instagram to grow a following and to cross promote your products and services.

Jack Stone is the co-founder of Bee One Third (named for the fact that one-third of the world’s food is pollenated by bees), a Brisbane-based business that works to educate locals about the role that honeybees play in pollination and how to increase their numbers. To help shift the negative stigma against bees, the company installs rooftops hives, re-homes wild swarms and colonies, produces absolutely delicious raw organic honey, and more.

In this week’s episode of Social Media for Small Business, Cat Matson and Suzi Dafnis interview Jack about how he uses Instagram to foster engagement and excitement in Bee One Third’s audience.

We speak with Jaclyn Carlson of Blog Society about how to use your blog to connect with your community. How long does it take to build sufficient critical mass (or a community big enough) that makes this kind of business model viable? Plus news and views with Cat Matson and Suzi Dafnis

The South by South West Interactive Festival hosted President Barack Obama, authors Brene Brown and Gretchen Rubin, the fouders of Under Armour, Wikipedia and the brains behind the super-popular podcast, Serial, Ira Glass. Cat Matson interviews Suzi Dafnis about what she saw, heard and learned at the festival. Plus they discuss post virality according to popular site Buzzfeed.

Queensland Police Media administer an extremely popular Facebook page to provide important public safety and public interest information in a timely and efficient manner. Cat Matson interviews social media manager James Kleimt about how the page works to educate the audience and how the decisions about content are made on a daily basis. Plus news and views on social media.

Ben Bradshaw, CEO of SponsoredLinX is our guest. We talk about the Facebook features small businesses need to know in 2016. There's some great new ones you will want to know about. Plus, the importance of a content plan and a focus on three things - traffic, conversion and retention are key to your social media success.

Georgie Summerhayes of Brandata is our guest. We talk about how Brandata helps you discover, compare and understand your brand's social rank and how authenticity, personality and micromarketing can boost you online presence.Social media marketing is a new and rapidly-changing frontier, and businesses that can quickly interpret and respond to community feedback will be a big step ahead. 

We introduce a system for brands that allows managers, marketing directors, bloggers and influencers to understand the “social hotness” of their brand.

Marc Cowper, Founder at Recomazing is our guest. We talk about how small businesses can use Recomazing to drive word of mouth marketing and how to get started getting recommendations for your business.