Social Influencer Series | Social Jedi & Director of Digital Social Media, Clive Roach
I met Clive Roach on Twitter. Seems like the ideal place to meet a true "social influencer." I later had the incredible opportunity to hear him speak at a conference where he gave an inspired presentation on the importance of having a global social strategy. It blew me away and shortly thereafter, we began an almost daily dialogue on Twitter that covered all things social media.
Clive is the Director of Digital Social Media at Signify (formerly Phillips Lighting) and oversees one of the largest global brand's social media strategy. He literally has his finger on the pulse of a worldwide conversation that is happening in real time across the globe about his brand. To hear him talk about it, is truly awe inspiring.
In addition to his day job, he has a blog - The Clive Roach Blog, where he inspires and educates daily as the "Social Jedi". If you are in social or digital marketing today, you should be following Clive on any of his channels. Ideas, information and inspiration abound and there is so much to keep up with given the speed of social.
I caught up with Clive recently and here is a snapshot of what he had to say:
How does one become a Social Media Jedi? I guess a more serious question - you have become a resident expert on all things social. When did that journey begin for you?
The best way for me to answer this question is to go all the way back to 1997. I was a lighting engineer at that time and was learning all about the Internet. I became fascinated with Intranets and started up the intranet for my company at that time which was Thorn lighting. When I was a lighting design engineer I was very meticulous. I wanted to know everything, try everything and also master as much as I could. I had the same attitude when I started to create and manage Intranets. This led me to start learning all about the new trending technologies surrounding eMarketing (as it was called then).
I started to dabble with social media in 2009. This is when I created my very first Twitter accounts. I started following bloggers and experimenting. I wanted to try everything out myself. This is the attitude I still have today with my blog and all my other social media accounts. I try things myself, learn, then apply them at work.
To keep up-to-date and to make sure I have the right information, I created a database of interesting blog posts and research that I can grab at any moment and the information is tagged so that I can find things easily. This database has now grown to over 1,300 articles collected over the past two or so years. I carry this information around with me on my mobile devices and it's all synced. I can find a piece of research or a blog post that I saved within seconds. The range of articles covers all platforms from Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter to Facebook and covers all topics from advertising, awareness building, social listening and social publishing; all topics to do with social media marketing.
Personally, you have built an incredibly robust brand on social media. What advice would you give to someone who is trying to create their business leadership brand with the help of social?
I believe you are asking about personal branding with this question. There are many articles about how to build a personal brand and I suggest that a great place to look for information on this topic is Pinterest. There are many useful infographics that easily explain how to do it. I have pinned many of them to my main social media board in Pinterest called "Social media? Give me a break".
A tip to get started is to brainstorm about what you are an expert in.Everybody is an expert at something and I would suggest to initially get going is to start building your personal brand around the topic that you are an expert in and that you love. This will ensure that you will enjoy the experience of building your own personal brand.
How important is social to a global brand today?
I believe that social media is an essential ingredient for every global brand in one way or another. All brands need to understand what the customer is saying and doing and social media is a great way to learn about those things. This is the very least that a brand can do with social media. Note that I did not say to start publishing to your customers on social media because the very first thing you should do is to listen before you start talking.
There are a lot of brands who have not caught up to the "speed of social". What is the short list of social media "must-haves" on a brand's to-do list?
I like this question because I've just published a blog post that essentially answers this question. The blog post is called "10 things you should be doing right now with social media". Let me highlight one from that list and that is to create a social media strategy. One of the very first lessons I learnt way back in 2009 was to always align with the overall business goals. This is the very first line of the blog post when it comes to the topic of creating a social media strategy. I suggest to read the blog post to find out what the other nine suggestions are.
What are the biggest trends you are seeing in social media in 2018?
One of the biggest trends is in fact an old activity that is getting easier and easier to do in social media. Social commerce is on the rise and this enables shoppers to use social networks to make e-commerce transactions. The number of networks entering this area is growing and they are enabling fresh new ways for the shopping experience to happen. I also created a blog post about social commerce recently.
Speed Round:
Celebratory Cocktail? Don't Have One!
Proudest accomplishment? My Daughters
Go-To Social Channel? First love is Twitter, still is!
Favorite Star Wars Character? Darth Vader
Inspirational Hashtag? #MayTheForceBeWithYou
About the interviewer:
Mark Keaney is a Husband, Dad, Coach, Mentor and Leader. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry and a wild ride in the world of tech start-up & social - Mark is helping brands deliver world class CX at Lithium Technologies, where he is the Regional Vice President of Sales for the East and Central. His mantra is - Brand Globally. Market Locally.
e: markkeaney8@gmail.com or t: @markkeaney2pt0
