Maggie Fox is the Founder and CEO of Social Media Group, one of the largest independent social media agencies in the world. While working at SMG, Maggie has helped to create and execute social media strategies for the  likes of Ford Motors, SAP, Thomson Reuters, 3M and CNN. Maggie is a regular  speaker at the top social media events and has been interviewed by The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, CBC Radio and CTV News. She was named one of the Top 100 Marketers in the 100th anniversary edition of Marketing Magazine. Maggie also sits on the Advisory Board for Social Media Today and My Venture Pad sites.You can follow Maggie on Twitter , Facebook or LinkedIn.

G: How and why did you get into social media?

M: I’ve worked in the web business for over a decade, but started blogging personally in 2004. It was a great outlet and I really enjoyed the closeness of that community in the early days – I still remember meeting my very first Internet friend!

G: What is it like to be a real Social Media Citizen?

M: I tend and feed my network, which largely centres around Twitter these days, several times a day. On busy days, not as often. That means sharing what I’m doing, reading, and thinking, as well as connecting with people I know and find really interesting. I also often upload pictures to both Twitter and Facebook. I also make an effort to comment on posts that link to us and connect with people who find our work interesting.

G: What are your favourite social media hang out sites?

M: Generally Facebook and Twitter, but I am also finding Tumblr very interesting and also make an effort to check out new and emerging platforms as I can. Internally, we use Yammer, which is also great for sharing content and connecting with the folks I work with.

G: How are you keeping up-to-date with social media environment ?

M: Ugh. I never seem to be able to read as much as I should, and I get inputs in two ways – “human RSS” via Twitter (links people share) and actually via email, of all things – I really need to rely on other people to curate content for me since my time is so limited!

G: How would you define a  Social Media Citizen?

M: Someone who connects and engages on social platform – a member of our social community!

G: What are your favourite Social Media Citizens?

M: My favourites are:

• Mathew Ingram,
• Jeremiah Owyang,
• Aaron Strout,
• Sarah Prevette.

G: What are your Top 3 secrets of social media marketing?

M: My Top 3:

• Be yourself
• Deliver value
• Think differently

G: What do you see in the future for the social media?

M: Everything is social.

G: What don’t you like about social media?

M: It can be a time suck – it’s true!

G: What is the funniest/most unexpected thing that happened due to social media?

M: Being able to start a business and do ground breaking work year after year; it’s been amazing.

G: How did social media change your life?

M: I have never met so many new people, or had such a diverse group of friends. Social has changed my life by allowing me to.

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A big Thank You to Maggie for her great insights!! You can find the rest of the interviews with the Social Media Citizens at SMC List or Social Media interviews category.

Was watching this new inspiring TED talk by Seth Godin and remembered my earlier research about tribes and brand communities which are so important  in analysing the post-modern consumer behaviour . Here are some of the main concepts of tribes and brand communities reviewed in the research:

“In the post-modernity period which encourages a move away from individualism towards a search for more social bonds, these communities tend to reorganize themselves into neo-tribes, networks of people gathering homogeneously together for social interaction, often around consumption and brands (Simmons, 2008). From the marketers perspective it is very important to consider tribal relationships as it may be a powerful tool in building loyalty and trust among the consumers. Even though neo-tribes and brand communities are two different concepts they share very similar features and often are very related to each other. According to Cova and Cova (2002) the main differences are that the brand communities are explicitly commercial whereas tribes are not, furthermore, brand communities are concerned about relationship between brand and consumer, whereas tribes – relationship between consumers. Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) (citied in Ouwersloot and Odekerken-Schroeder, 2008) describes a brand community as a specialized, non-geographically bound community that is based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand. Mairinger (2008) suggests that:

• The brand community is not just formed around a brand; it creates the brand.
• The brand community is not just formed around a product; it is part of the product.

Therefore, the creation and development of brand communities is one of the most important tasks of the marketer as it can guarantee the company success in the long term. According to Mairinger (2008) brand communities can add real experiences and emotion to the brand, reach the long tail, address both individualism and collectivity needs and replace the celebrity endorsers with community brand advocates. Considering that 49 % of people made a purchase based on friends recommendations on social media property (Razorfish, 2008), social media can be viewed as an important channel and tool to interact, manage and enable these brand communities.”

Barry Furby is the Co-Founder of techMAP, the online and offline community for Marketing, Advertising and PR professionals which derived from one of the biggest social media meet-up’s in UK. He is also  the Founder of Fresh Resources, the digital recruitment agency which  provides a specialist service that is truly passionate about social media and digital marketing. You can follow Barry on Twitter and Linkedin.

G: How and why did you get into social media business?

B: My background is in recruitment so I’ve always been in the business of connecting people in the digital space. The recruitment business is typically a great training ground for entrepreneurial folk, where sales is the focus but customer service and relationship management is equally important. I’ve always loved technology and right now I love the way this industry is shaping up. My particular interest is to leverage online tools and community to create valuable offline connections. I’d love techMAP to connect great people and shape the way we do business – big statement, but I’m up for the challenge.

G: What is it like to be a real Social Media Citizen?

B: I treat each platform differently in terms of messages and conversation that take place but across all of them I treat mentions and direct messages like my inbox, responding as soon as possible – although it’s easy with all these things to get side tracked. I try to manage short bursts of work to get things done (30-45mins at a time). It’s important to find a balance of being social AND getting the day job(s) done! iTunes is my saviour, it allows me to sink into my own little work hard world one song at a time!

G: How do you mange to be consistent on social media?

B: Its about people and the platforms that you’re using, I don’t have a strategy as such just things that I believe are the right way to behave – no spamming, lots of conversation, sharing and discussing.

G: What are your favourite social media hang out sites?

B: Linkedin and Twitter mainly for work, increasingly blurred lines between those and letting a few closer connections in on Facebook. Twitter has changed my life and how I do business, it feels natural and has connected me with people that I feel very privileged to know.

G: How would you define a  Social Media Citizen?

B: The perfect SMC is a digitally savvy connector of people, leveraging connections and community help people / business’ thrive and understand their market.

G: What are your favourite social media campaigns?

B: I think the Catch a Choo campaign was a fantastic example of using Social Media tools to connect people offline and help a brand make some big impact in a retail space they wasn’t currently operating in.

G: What do you see in the future for the social media?

B: Mashable has dropped the phrase ‘the social media guide’, we’ve re-branded Social Media Monday to techMAP – maybe that shift is happening right now!

G: Describe yourself in five tags?

B: Aspiring, Motivated, Social, Connector, Dad

G: What’s your favourite hobby?

B: Right now I’m fairly hobby-less, being dad to two wonderful boys and loving my job works. Love motorsport, football and geeky tech things.

G: What don’t you like about social media?

B: I guess there is a frustration inside and outside this small part of the online industry surrounding narcissistic guru types. But I feel there’s shift happening, Social Media needs to fit into the wider business picture, it’s here to stay and I feel the fluffy guru types that aren’t business savvy will have had their day.

G: How did social media change your life?

B: Inspired two business’ that I love running and enabled me to make fascinating connections for myself and to share with others.

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A big Thank You to Barry for his great insights!! You can find the rest of the interviews with the Social Media Citizens at Social Media interviews category