Advice to help make you indispensable

Fleire Castro has used her training in information technology, as well as her fascination with social media, blogging, social networks and online fora to establish her own digital marketing company.

While a microbusiness by definition, Third Team Media, as a social media and digital marketing agency, has worked with not only local companies, but also clients overseas, mostly from the United States. In 2014, the agency based in Lapu-Lapu City earned a Silver Stevie Award.

Castro’s team has helped various companies synchronize their corporate and marketing strategies with their digital marketing campaigns.

With so much information online, the agency’s goals include helping their clients stand out and communicate effectively to their target audience.

Castro shares with SunStar Cebu some of the books that have inspired her as she continues to explore the world of digital marketing.

“Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?” by Seth Godin is one of her choices.

Castro hints that the book served as an inspiration for her company name, Third Team. In this book, Godin examines the role that a linchpin--the person “who figures out what to do when there’s no rule book”--- plays in organizations, as well as insights on how to become one.

“Business Model Generation” by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur strives to defy outmoded business models and helps prepare tomorrow’s businesses.

According to its Amazon.com blurb, the book was co-created by 470 “business model canvas” practitioners from 45 countries and explains the most common business model patterns, with the end in mind of helping readers “design and implement a game-changing business model, or analyze and renovate an old one.”

Castro describes this as a good book for those brainstorming ideas for their next business.

“Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead” by Sheryl Sandberg is a good read for women professionals and entrepreneurs, said Castro. The book, written by the chief operating officer of Facebook, inspires and shows women how they can be good leaders.