Your company IS a MEDIA and a TECH company, no matter what you do

I know it is hard to accept, but those are the facts: your brand is out there in the world where people are talking about it. They are talking about and comparing it to the experience they have daily with Uber, Amazon, Nubank, and Netflix. Even if you are a b2b industrial supplier of tail-spin. Trust me. No matter how much you want to avoid, YOUR COMPANY IS ALREADY A MEDIA AND A TECH COMPANY.

And what does it mean to your business? It means that you have to control your narrative, your data and invest in platforms you can "own".

Those are critical issues that should be part of your conversations at the board level as strategy and oversight risk management. It also should be a big part of your Digital Transformation and reputation plans. 

Social media influencers claim that digital content creation has been a key in generating revenue for most companies. There is a list of articles and posts to support the above. They believe that purchasing is higher as customers browse through the net before investing or buying. But looking deeper into their claims, it proves that all this happens because of technology used to find the content. And there is nothing wrong with that. The problem is that reputation and customer database should be a long-lasting strategic asset.

Don't rely exclusively on hyped social media.

Companies rely on technology provided by third-party platforms and overlook the fact that these platforms have access to customer details and information. These platforms can let them off the peg at any time. An early adopter from Clubhouse mentioned how a slight change of algorithm halved his audience. All his tireless work of helping to build off the service user's base to the biggest audiences was useless. Owning an online destination of content is an asset rather than millions of followers. This is evident when Trump was blocked on Twitter and Facebook.

Own your tech stack.

It is crucial to building a sustainable business with an owned media presence buoyed by technology. A simple algorithm tweak can take away email addresses and your customer base. 

So as you gear up, remember that to build a sustainable digital business, you require an owned media presence that you can control on your online destination. Do note that if you do not do the above, you would be building a digital business for someone else.

Content is already your business, and you don't know that yet.

There is a famous saying that content is the king, but technology is the queen, and the queen rules. It takes time and lots of work to shape your voice, your message, your brand's beliefs, and purpose. Your content - internal and external - affects your brand on the deepest level. Care about that as you care about your cash flow, your shareholders, your employees, and your supply chain! Maybe you need more than a regular marketing department. DraftKings, the official sports betting partner of the NFL, hired Brian Angiolet, the former chief business officer at Verizon, as the company's first Chief Media Officer to oversee the procurement of content companies.