Maggie Fox: Be Yourself, Deliver Value And Think Differently

Maggie Fox of the Social Media GroupMaggie 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 marketing strategies for the  likes of Ford Motors, SAP, Thomson Reuters, 3M and CNN.

Maggie is a regular speaker at top social media events and is often asked to share her views on social media. She has, among others, been interviewed by The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, CBC Radio and CTV News. Maggie was also named one of the Top 100 Marketers in the 100th anniversary edition of Marketing Magazine. Finally, Maggie sits on the Advisory Board for the Social Media Today and My Venture Pad sites.

I asked Maggie how she got involved in social media marketing, how her social media “behaviour” looks like and what her views on the social evolutions are. Maggie was an early adopter and started her social media life where many of us did: blogging.

Maggie: “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!”

Where are, indeed, the days that the blogosphere was still a relatively close community? Blogging now has become mainstream for many people and businesses (although there is still work to be done) and the social sphere has become so much vaster than those early day communities with the arrival of social networks, micro-blogging, etc.

So, how does Maggie’s social media life looks like now?

Maggie: “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 often upload pictures to both Twitter and Facebook. Finally, I make an effort to comment on posts that link to us and connect with people who find our work interesting”.

Twitter is the social interaction channel Maggie uses most often and Facebook her favourite social network. This partially responded my question on her favourite social media hang out sites but there are more. Maggie: ” I am 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 great for sharing content and connecting with the folks I work with”.

Keeping up-to-date with the social media space

Since Maggie checks out new platforms as often as she can, she obviously needs to stay updated regarding all these new tools. As CEO of one of the largest social media agencies she also tries to keep up-to-date with the latests evolutions in this constantly evolving landscape. How does she manage it?

Maggie: “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!”

On top of that Maggie follows a few social media thinkers and “social media citizens”. When asked about her favourites one she names Mathew IngramJeremiah Owyang, Aaron Strout, and Sarah Prevette.

Maggie’s social media marketing tips and experiences

I further asked Maggie to share her three social media marketing tips that she values most. They are: be yourself, deliver value and think differently

When asked about the future of social media, Maggie answers “everything is social”. And what doesn’t she like about social media? Maggie: “It can be a time suck – it’s true!”.

Finally I wanted to know what was the most funny or unexpected thing that happened to her due to social media and if/how social media changed her life.

Maggie: “Being able to start a business and do ground breaking work year after year; it’s been amazing. I also have never met so many new people, or had such a diverse group of friends. Social has changed my life by allowing me to”.

You can follow Maggie on Twitter , Facebook or LinkedIn.

Watch a video interview with Maggie Fox below.