Marketing for SMEs: Jenna Oberstein on the Social Media Mistake That Makes Businesses Look Awkward

Small business owners are often told they need to appear on social media, especially on video. The result can be stiff scripts, uncomfortable filming and content that does not sound or feel like the person behind the business.

I spoke with Jenna Oberstein, founder and director of ATAG Communication, about helping business owners create organic social media content that feels natural. We also discussed consistency, content planning, using artificial intelligence without losing the human voice, and what a social media manager should actually take responsibility for.

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Introduction

Jeremy: You started ATAG while you were still studying. How did you get into social media and build the business?

Jenna: I was always drawn to marketing and the idea that you could communicate something to a wide audience. I studied communications, digital and social media at the University of Technology Sydney.

Jenna: In my second year, I secured my first freelance role and began building a client base while studying full-time. I eventually had to decide whether to turn clients away or grow the business and hire someone. I chose to grow it.

Jenna: My first client was a software company, even though I was not naturally technical. It taught me that if I was going to communicate on behalf of a business, I had to understand who they were, what they did and how to translate it for their audience.

Why a social profile has to reflect the real business

Jeremy: Is there a story behind the name ATAG?

Jenna: I thought about the tag inside a jacket. It tells you the material, size, care instructions and other details that help you understand what you are buying. On social media, a tag also connects someone to a profile.

Jenna: I believe a social media profile should tell the story of the brand behind it. Every business has its own story, so I combined that idea with the social media tag and ATAG was born.

Jeremy: That story-first approach matters because people do not only look at the latest post. They use a business’s online presence to understand who is behind it and whether the company appears credible.

Awkwardness becomes more obvious on camera

Jeremy: A lot of business owners know video matters but feel uncomfortable doing it. How do you handle that during a content shoot?

Jenna: If someone feels even slightly awkward, it comes across much more strongly in the video. There is no point filming on a beautiful chair if the person sitting there is uncomfortable. We move them, change the position or adjust what we are doing.

Jenna: I set the tone on the day so the client feels confident and supported. By the second shoot, you can often see a significant change because they have already watched the first content go live and know what to expect.

Natural delivery matters more than perfect wording

Jenna: I do not want scripts on our content days. When everyone is comfortable and the conversation is flowing, we can edit out the pauses, mistakes and repeated words afterwards.

Jenna: I would rather a client stumble several times and give us something organic than deliver a line that sounds overly scripted.

Jeremy: I tried using a teleprompter when I started recording videos and found that it made me look less natural. Once I stopped trying to read everything perfectly, the delivery felt more like me.

Jenna: People respect someone who knows what they are talking about, cares about the subject and can share something useful. Some clients ask whether a younger person should appear in their videos instead, but audiences generally want to hear from the person who genuinely represents the business.

What to do when you manage social media yourself

Jeremy: What would you tell a small business owner who cannot afford a social media manager and needs to do it themselves?

Jenna: Talk about your expertise and the subjects you care about instead of trying to copy someone else. The biggest practical requirement is consistency. You do not need every post to go viral for social media to have an impact.

Jenna: Build a content calendar in advance. Look at relevant dates and events, then review your own work calendar for training days, meetings or activities that could produce useful content. Planning ahead means you remember to capture the photo or footage while it is happening.

Jeremy: This is also where smaller businesses need to distinguish organic content from paid social media advertising. Organic activity can build recognition and give potential customers a way to assess the business, while paid campaigns are designed to distribute a message to selected audiences.

Use repeatable content segments

Jeremy: Do you group content into categories such as office culture, useful tips and current trends?

Jenna: I call them content segments, borrowing the idea from radio shows and podcasts. A recurring segment gives the audience something recognisable and gives the business a clear category to return to.

Jenna: I usually provide a client with around five segments. Sticking to those categories makes the content calendar easier to build because we are not reaching into the dark every time we need an idea.

Social media can validate the business before an enquiry

Jeremy: A business might not receive many visible likes or follows, but potential customers still check its profiles before deciding whether to make contact.

Jenna: A large part of social media is validation. People want to see that the business is real and not a scam. The difficulty is that you cannot always see how many people visit without following, liking or otherwise interacting with the page.

Jenna: Behind-the-scenes content can help people understand what it is like to work with the company and what it is like to work there. A business with an engaged team and a clear office culture has real material it can show.

Jeremy: That same principle appears in how we present the people and working approach behind Digital Goliath. Prospective clients often want evidence of consistency, real people and how the company operates before they initiate a conversation.

What a social media manager should own

Jeremy: When a business pays for social media management, it is not only buying advice. There is also the ongoing work of planning, filming, captioning, posting, adapting content between platforms and reporting.

Jenna: Different agencies handle different parts of the process. ATAG focuses on organic social media and takes responsibility across the organic work rather than depending on the client to produce all the content.

Jenna: When we have relied on client-supplied content as the only source, it has not always met the filming standard my team can produce. If the content performs poorly, the social media team is still held responsible, so I want us involved at every touchpoint we are expected to manage.

Jenna: Business owners need to decide where they invest time and where they invest money. If they cannot give social media the required time, they can pay someone who can carry the work properly.

Artificial intelligence can help without becoming the voice

Jeremy: Artificial intelligence now makes caption writing and information easier to access. How has that affected your work?

Jenna: Artificial intelligence is an extremely useful tool, but people need to learn how to use it. We have introduced it into several parts of the business to improve the work and reduce repetitive tasks.

Jenna: The value is not simply having access to information. It is knowing which information matters, how to apply it and when to stop consuming more advice and start doing the work.

Jenna: A small business managing its own content can train an AI tool to understand its tone, then use it to help shape a post from a real event, photo or piece of expertise. The human source material still matters.

Jeremy: I see that distinction in advertising as well. The knowledge is increasingly accessible, but daily implementation, monitoring and judgement remain part of the service. Our Expert Perspectives explore similar questions about where tools help and where human context still matters.

Practical takeaways for small businesses

• Remove anything that makes the person on camera look or feel uncomfortable.
• Use conversation prompts instead of forcing a word-for-word script.
• Plan a small number of repeatable content segments and build a monthly calendar around them.
• Judge social media partly by whether it validates the business, not only by visible engagement.
• When outsourcing, define who owns each part of the process from planning through to reporting.

You can learn more at ATAG Communication or connect with Jenna Oberstein on LinkedIn.

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This conversation is part of Marketing for SMEs with Jeremy Yang, exploring how small businesses can create more natural social media content and understand what good management should include. Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen on your preferred podcast app.