Welcome to the very first of our staff spotlight series on the Metter Media blog!

In anticipation of Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating our status as a women-owned and -led business. Meet Lauren Metter, our founder, president and (of course) namesake. We *truly* couldn’t do this without her!

How did you start Metter Media?

I was working at the alternative weekly DigBoston as Web Editor & Social Media Manager. I started a series called #ReportingLive where I went to music festivals and told the stories of the experience — not just music reviews, but the people there too. Tweeting live videos and photos and tagging the artists, and getting retweeted, got our little paper seen by thousands of people.

I also did political reporting, and covered #OccupyBoston, which was one of the first times people started really understanding citizen journalism and social media. The only way you could follow what was happening with the protestors was on social media.

There was supposed to be this big crackdown on the Greenway in the middle of the night, and the major news networks couldn’t take their giant cameras in to report on it … but I was 22 and had my iPhone. So I ran into the thick of it and recorded a video on my phone of the crackdown on the Veterans for Peace, who were protecting the protestors. I uploaded the video to Youtube and tweeted it — and it was shared more than 300,000 times. I got back to the office at 3 or 4am and my phone rang: it was The Guardian looking to interview me about citizen journalism and social media.

The next day, every major media outlet wrote about how social media was changing the way reporting was done — The Atlantic wrote about how people could now see what was happening across the world in the middle of the night by following the hashtag #OccupyBoston, which was updating every .03 seconds. That was my first “aha!” moment.

The second “aha!” moment — we had a bunch of restaurants that advertised. But when you go into restaurants, people are all just on their phones taking pics of food. So I thought: why not just do their social media for them?

We got eight restaurants. We started running their social in March 2013. Then the Marathon bombings happened a month later. Three of the restaurants were on Boylston Street, and they had friends who were injured in the bombings.

Suddenly, amidst this terrible tragedy, we had to make a public statement from these restaurants.

And that’s when it really hit me: When you do someone’s social media, you are their voice online. That’s a HUGE responsibility.

Eventually, those eight restaurants became the start of Metter Media. The rest is history.

What helped you start Metter Media?

Having a journalism background helped. Social media is all about storytelling — what makes you special and different — and a lot of times, that’s the people. The staff, the customers, the history, and the impact the business has on the community. Storytelling and social media are always about people.

What’s your craziest social media story?

My husband David proposed to me on Twitter. That’s a good lesson to stay on top of your notifications. Imagine if I had missed that!

https://twitter.com/haveyoumetter/status/539964419401601024

What makes Metter Media different from other social media agencies out there?

We become part of your family. Multiple clients have said this. You’re not just a number to us, we take the time to get to know the people at each of the businesses we work with, very well. We spend lots of face time with you and your team.

Although our business is online, nothing is more important than building a personal connection with our clients.

 

We want it to feel like you hired someone in house, or an addition to your internal team, even though you’re outsourcing the social.

How to take on (and slay) the MASSIVE task of owning a business?

It’s important to have a good partner in business. I tend to have these ginormous ideas on a daily basis, and need to be checked frequently. Slow down, calm down, don’t try to do everything. Lyssa Goldberg constantly helps me with these things. It also helps because once a week we have to deal with some big blowup — sometimes you just have to laugh about it together first to get through it. Lyssa makes me laugh on a daily basis. I couldn’t ask for someone better than that by my side. I always imagine us at 70 years old laughing together — I can only imagine how jaded I’ll be by then.

Advice for future women business owners?

Find someone who owns their own business and ask them to be your mentor.

After we started, I immediately asked my friend Jess Maniatis for advice. She had owned her own web design business JSGD for 10 years and gave me valuable advice, like how to incorporate your business, and to make sure you put 20% of everything you make away for taxes when I was a sole proprietor. She also made our first website and logo. There’s no guide for starting your own biz, just find someone who’s already been there, who inspires you, and ask them a bazillion questions.

Okay #GirlBoss, what’s your proudest moment… if you had to pick just one?

Our team and watching it grow. Every day walking into the office is the new best day of my life. I’m not exaggerating. Seeing all of these amazing talented people who all believe in the same thing and have that passion for working hard, coming up with creative new ideas, and connecting with their clients… really blows my mind.

I am so proud of our team and every person on it is vital to the success of this company.

 

My favorite thing to do is scroll through Instagram and see the posts from all 60 of our clients — I laugh, I think, “Wow, how did they do that” … and then probably get emotional and think about how this started from nothing and now look how far we’ve come.

Follow Lauren on Twitter and Instagram to learn more.

Metter Media LLC is a Boston-based social media management company that implements community-based, localized social engagement strategies for small businesses and corporations alike. Need help with your social media? Email Lauren today.