Nurturing people through their careers is something I’ve always enjoyed as part of my own work-life.
3 years ago, we were approached by Jade Bell for a Year 10 Work Experience placement for a week. We offered 👐 hands-on learning to see if the marketing space was something she really wanted to get into. Each school holidays thereafter, Jade would ask us for more work experience. Many agencies exploit interns like this by taking free labour and limiting what they actually learn. We took the opposite approach, paying Jade for all her work hours and giving her a chance to a) work remotely during 🦠, and b) dovetailed around her exam studies.
Jade’s now commenced at University of Wollongong in a Bachelor of Communication and Media degree 🎉. Her continuing 1-day a week internship keeps her practical skills top-notch whilst she builds her comms capabilities.
Jade is one of us, always was, always will be, and now we get to see our youngest talent grow day by day. It’s pretty special 😊
Say hello Jade! 👋
Valentina xxx
What’s the Metaverse?
I felt like it’s essential to get this definition understood and part of our vernacular 🗣️ . First, Metaverse is not Facebook. It’s not new either. Generally speaking, “Metaverse” can mean any number of ways that brands provide VR or interactive 3D-image experiences. That’s it. If you remember Second Life in the early 2000s, it was our first real taste of a virtual world where we could engage with brands and experiences. My avatar in Second Life was created 15 years ago – I’ve been floating that world a while now.
This terrific article from Martech explores what the metaverse means, where marketers can implement a metaverse strategy, and where they should be putting their 🔍 focus. There’s no shortage of options, but it’s definitely not for everyone, not yet anyway.
Image Credit: Sean McCabe
2022 Meta Focus
I promise I won’t spend the whole of this year talking about Meta, so let’s get this part over and done with: the 2022 focus points for Meta give marketers a chance to prioritise content that will win across the platform. Keep one thing in mind at all times – Meta is constantly competing with TikTok. The top 7 areas for Meta this year are:
1️⃣ Reels
2️⃣ Community Messaging
3️⃣ Commerce
4️⃣ Ads
5️⃣ Privacy
6️⃣ AI
7️⃣ Metaverse
So if you’ve ever been unsure 🤔 about the use of Reels and actually being in a social two-way conversation with your audience, this ought to put those thoughts to bed. With Reels now also being global across Insta and Facey, what’s the bet we’ll see them extended to 10 mins? Embrace it and get used to it! You don’t have to take my word for it either, hear it directly from Zuck if you like.
The Collective Impact
For 60 years, BDCU has supported our community and local businesses. As part of their own evolution, BDCU has launched The Collective Impact – comprising Financial Advice and Business Spaces together with Business Services Consultancy.
Banter’s role in this history-making move included bringing the service offering together 🤝 with the new brand design, the website to match (phase 1 completed, phase 2 currently underway), and working together with the team on strategic marketing initiatives and communications rollout.
We know the changes that businesses are facing after two years of a 😷 pandemic 😷 – we have new rules to play by with lean budgets, remote workers, staff shortages, and ongoing disruptions. The Collective Impact is there to help with strategic thinking, agility, and resilience strategies that ensures business owners can achieve financial freedom and their life goals.
It’s so meaningful for us to be part of this exciting journey for our local businesses, the region in which we all live, work and play, and The Collective Impact who will be there to support us throughout.
Keep It Simple: Beaumont Air | Turf 2 Trees
We love working with small businesses to deliver what they need, fast and effective.
Beaumont Air is owned and operated by Eric. They have your air conditioning, gas heating, solar power, and electrical installation and maintenance sorted.
Beaumont Air came to us for a new website to make it clean and simple, easy for customers to navigate services and to get in contact. The business now services across to Wollongong and down to Canberra & Goulburn as well.
Support small businesses. Support Eric. Need Air? Got Beaumont!
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Turf 2 Trees is owned and operated by Michael. Michael creates amazing landscapes and also maintains them – being an acreage and show garden specialist. You might have seen the grand Pepper Tree Creek Estate on TV show Better Homes & Gardens in the past. Michael does gardens, Banter does websites.
Got gardens? Need Michael and this Turf 2 Trees team!
Less than 5 min reads for you
This section: Short reads, 👀 not just about marketing.
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ON THE BLOG: Email Marketing – Finding Your Content Niche
You might have a newsletter 📰🗞️ but you also might struggle to know what to write about. On the blog, I’ve broken down the steps you need to take to undertake a content audit, identify your gaps for communications, and a plan on what to write about and when. It’s easier than you think once you have some structure.
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A Year In Search: Think With Google reports are a fascinating read 👀 and definitely worth your while. The 2021 A Year In Search report is now available, exploring 5 key insights (and beautifully presented), particularly off the back of 2 years of a pandemic and how our behaviours have changed. Not surprisingly some huge increases attributed to the pandemic and lockdowns – hello click and collect! 🛒🛒
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Coke Gets Milk: Coca-Cola might be well known for 🍬 sugar-laden softies, but the raft of brands in their portfolio is continuing to diversify and grow. Fairlife produces ultra-filtered milk 🥛 and has now surpassed US$1 billion in annual retail sales. Coca-Cola took full ownership of fairlife two years ago, bucking a consumer trend away from cow’s milk. Fairlife is reporting growth in the US and Canada while also expanding into China.
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Seen a Facebook Protect notification?: It’s ok, it’s legit. You might receive a notification via email or on your Facebook account – and it needs to be turned on. This is Meta’s attempt to better secure our accounts. Even if you have a strong password, 2FA set up and any other ‘advanced security protections,’ you’ll likely still get the notification that you have to turn on Facebook Protect or you’ll be locked 🔒 out of your account.
PowerPoint Recording Studio 🎤🎙️
I might be a Mac user but I still have a soft spot for Microsoft’s PowerPoint – I’m a presenter and educator and it really is still one of the best tools for that purpose. This isn’t a lesson in creating good presentations or presentation skills.
PowerPoint has embraced the digital presenter with new features that are truly designed for the remote and recorded! PowerPoint’s new recording studio gives you an enhanced recording experience and more options when recording your presentation. Simply click record in the top right corner in PowerPoint – and you’ll be taken to a personalised view that you can customise. Once you’re ready to start the recording, click the red “Record” button for a countdown to start speaking. You can also annotate on your slides as you go, using ink and laser pointer.
There are three view options you can use.
Teleprompter view: This is the default view you’ll see when you click Record. Instead of fumbling with a printout of your notes or juggling two laptops 💻💻 to read notes from one, you can simultaneously look at the camera and read your notes.
Presenter view: Need to be reminded of what’s coming up in a presentation? Choose this view and on the same screen, you’ll see the slide you’re presenting and your note on the right side of the pane, along with thumbnail views of all upcoming slides so you can be prepared.
Slide view: one slide at a time – this view is great for annotations as you go and need a larger canvas.
Here’s the full blog if you’d like to check it out screenshot at a time.
Catch you next time 😃
Image Credit: Andrea Eoanou
