Beyond the Lens: Building a Community-Driven Media Enterprise

Send us Fan MailRobert Campbell shares the journey of Aspire Media, a creative social enterprise based in Northern Ireland that specialises in photography, videography, and social media services to fund their community TV channel.• Launched in November 2022 after three years of development following a local charity project• Created as a response to negative media portrayals of the local Ballysally estate• Self-sustains through selling services rather than relying on grants• Robert maintains a full-time job alongside running the social enterprise• Named operations director while his business partner Andy serves as creative director• Received "highly commended young person of the year" at the 2023 NI Social Enterprise Awards• Reinvests personal income back into the company rather than taking a wage• Achieved significant success with client social media campaigns, including a TikTok video generating 100k+ views• Accredited as an Open College Network Northern Ireland centre to provide training• Planning to expand training offerings to include social media and digital marketing courses• Future focus includes developing consultancy services alongside their training academyYou can find out more about Aspire Media NI at aspiremedia.studio and Aspire Media TV at aspiremedia.tv. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with others who want to create positive change. Connect with Heidi on LinkedIn and learn more about her work at makeanimpactcic.co.uk.Support the showHi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast.  I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have. I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.  I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives. You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.