Find out more at these links:
Astoria Magazine – Lifestyle Magazine
Gluten-Free Trina – Recipes and Articles about A Gluten-Free Life
Trina Astor-Stewart – Author & Illustrator
On Amazon – www.amazon.com/author/trinaastorstewart
Astor Media Group – Publishing
We began our adventures in the online world in 1996 after working in the corporate world, as entrepreneurs and small business owners. Since beginning our work online there have been numerous changes. Before our entree into the online world, Breck and I operated traditional brick and mortar businesses. We engaged in traditional manufacture and delivery; marketing, advertising, and sales. Our entry into the digital and online world at first, was because we just wanted to broaden the scope for our own business by reaching our customers online.
Thanks to Breck’s foresight we were one of the first businesses in the Greater Toronto Area to have a website and this led to others asking us for help. One of our first clients came because of friends who were Yellow Page salespeople. They were trying to close an account and needed someone to help a small businesswoman with a website. She had a small storefront downtown, and similar to our business needed to be able to attract and qualify customers prior to appointments as her business was a specialized niche. She needed to be able to devote most of her time to actual fittings rather than answering the same questions over and over again. Websites at the time were little more than Online Brochures, but they served the purpose of being able to quickly change without the huge cost of print brochures and also provide a great deal more information.
Today’s online world is far more sophisticated and in many cases leads a company’s offline activities rather than the other way around. The backend of the online structure or platform as it is sometimes referred to has become more and more sophisticated. Now spreadsheets and reporting using data gathered from customers interacting with a website and social media lead marketing and sales in an interactive web that is only just beginning.
An age-old figurative business question asks, “How do I get people to come to my business and look. How do I sell in an empty store?” The answer to that is available, it is a very creative answer many times backed up with unseen technologies and software operated by a myriad of digital workers.
Massive Disruptions caused by the Digital Divide…
Whoever would have thought in 1996 that we would be chatting live with customer support personnel from a website? That we could find out anything we need to know, almost immediately, through a Google search query? I remember needing to research subjects and spending days in libraries trying to find the answers.
The digital world has been a blessing and also a major disruption in people’s lives. Breck began working with clients to bridge the biggest generation gap ever, the ‘digital divide’, making sense of things for clients who were amazing business people, technicians, and savvy in the construction, electrical, and services industries but who did not have the time to run their businesses, employees -and manage their digital advertising, marketing, and reporting needs.
It has become increasingly relevant for companies to operate in two worlds. Offline and Online. Our business became more and more Online Focused and eventually grew to help others like ourselves understand this new world.
The online world has changed everything. The future is here. We can now put in an order for groceries on our cell phone and pick it up at a special section on our way home from work to save time. Thousands of products from books to peanuts are available in online stores and dropped at our doors within a day or two. The variety of products, all with every detail about them, given in writing together with customer comments and ratings is overwhelming. Comparison shopping is easier than ever.
Brick and Mortar businesses are not the source any longer, they are just one finger of a much larger hand orchestrating customer engagement. This is true for a store, a services business, or a museum!
‘Life-Long Learning’ takes on new meaning.
None of our life or education before the Information Age and the Digital Divide prepared us for this kind of disruption. Over a period of years, it took massive re-training efforts and continuously changing and learning new things, new software, new algorithms, digital everything, and how to implement it. It took constant changing of our mind-set.
The Information Age is the largest and fastest-changing era in modern history. Our children are part of the Millennial generation, and we could see the changes for them too. We made it our aim to somehow keep up and help others do the same. Unfortunately, we have watched as some of our peers balked at changing only to be left behind, almost functionally illiterate.
Everyone’s environment and education come together to create their ‘Frame of Reference’ for the world they live in. Changes in just the last twenty-four years from 1996 to 2020 have changed everyone’s frame of reference more rapidly than in the one hundred years previous.
I remember watching TV as a child and thinking, “There ought to be some way we could talk back to these people…” Now our children have no idea what life is like without instant messaging, live streaming, and being able to comment back.
An online journey starts with one step at a time!
We joined forces using our varied skills in Astor Media Group. We Consult, Collaborate, Create, and Implement Ideas for our clients. Together we keep up with the times and translate ever-changing online practices into effective strategies that help our clients reach customers and make informed decisions.
We often function as a Consulting Agency with an educational component to help clients navigate their online strategies.
Yes, some clients who have been with us for a long time still just want a Brochure Site, a set it and forget it approach, with someone to host it that can look after things in a pinch or an emergency. To other clients, we are retained on a monthly basis as their secret source for online management of their businesses keeping them up to date on trends, how to implement marketing strategies, and measurement of the impact on ROI.
As entrepreneurs, we are firm believers in the admonition for success, “Find a need and fill it…” We have carved out a wonderful niche helping our clients solve one problem at a time.
Breck has a technical brain and Trina has a creative one, so between the two of us and the rest of our ad-hock team that is pulled in as needed, Astor Media Group gets the job done!
“Business,” as a wise woman in retail once told me, “Starts with ‘lookers’ and if you do a good job there, you will end up with buyers and even long term clients who come back again and again”. This turned out to be very good advice as most of our clients have been with us for years.
When you are in business and something goes wrong online, you need help immediately. That is not always possible when you are dealing with multiple suppliers who are located somewhere else in the world. You need to reach the person accountable. The person who can solve your problem now. This has been Breck’s forte he can keep track of everything from the smallest to the largest and get it done. The case for having things organized in one company like Astor Media Group.
I remember many times when a frantic client would call with a problem that needed a solution asap. One such time we were actually on the road on vacation. A call came in, we pulled off the highway and Breck had the server and email issue fixed then off we went again enjoying the sunset.
Some scenes from various client events
Trina photographing on location 
From the Analytical and Technical to the Whimsical and Magical, everything is possible!
