Gina has worked extensively in front-line business management for over 20 years. Executive and GM roles in the Tourism and Business Development sectors have allowed her to develop a sound knowledge of successful business management practices, including effective marketing and promotion. In 2018, Gina combined her passion for promoting and supporting small business, and established Obsidian Marketi
ng Solutions and ventured into the Digital Marketing Space as a professional Facebook Strategist. Gina honed and developed her organic social media strategies and applied them across the various industries of Obsidian’s client base, managing diverse business pages such as plumbing, electrical, earthmoving, real estate sales, skincare products, concreting, fencing, property management, the legal industry, bookkeeping … even a political campaign! The results have been very successful for her clients and her business continues to grow:
“I felt there was a need for small business to access affordable marketing solutions, that actually WORK. I had heard SO many nasty stories about small businesses being promised lots of things and taken for lots of money by professional marketing people, with very little or no return for the business. I felt there were too many ‘professionals’ in the marketing industry taking shameful advantage of small business owners’ lack of marketing knowledge. Selling them an awesome sales pitch with lots of marketing buzz words, and making lots of unrealistic promises that were simply designed to make the marketing company profit, not support the said small business. I am very familiar with 'bottom lines' and fully understand that small business needs value for money for their marketing investment, not empty promises.”
Along with page management, Gina also conducts small group workshops and provides affordable one-on-one mentoring options for small businesses wanting to manage their own social media. She has successfully helped many, many businesses take control of their own marketing, with a strong focus on brand awareness and long-term organic strategies to build a genuine audience:
“I could see there was a massive gap in the Social Media Marketing Industry, which seems to primarily focus on ‘paid strategies’ (Facebook ads, sponsored posts, Google ad words etc). ORGANIC strategies, however, are an incredibly successful way of building genuine audiences that turn into customers who stick around for the long term. This is crucial for repeat business and on-going referrals needed for long-term sustainability of small local businesses. I identified that there is also a lack of quality education/training available for those businesses wanting to learn the organic strategies. Many ‘social media workshops’ will offer the attendee only enough to get them to sign up for something and seem to serve more as a sales platform for the marketing company, than as a learning opportunity for the attendee.”
Gina has a unique ‘straight-talking’ approach to her marketing that her clients respond well to, and she is very results-focused for her clients’ businesses, so a great outcome is achieved by everyone.
