Tom Reidy on Building Digital Agencies and Being a Social Media Influencer

Today, I am pleased to interview Tom Reidy, a very well-know social media personality. He is the head of social media and digital innovation at TAG The Agency, editor in chief Social Media NZ and the VP at Magnify World.

The Kiwi social media influencer started his career at an early age. His expertise includes digital marketing, social media & blogging.

Hello Tom, thanks for taking out time for this interview.  Let’s kick off the interview .

Q1. Tom, you have over 45K followers on Twitter. How would you define the work you do? How did it all start?

I started on Twitter in the early days of social networking, in 2009, and simply started to follow relevant and interesting people. At the time I was working in the tech industry as the GM for a web agency, after seeing the rise and adoption of social media and a shift in digital communication I stepped out to start my own agency, then subsequently went on to start another which is where I’m at currently TAG The Agency.

Q2. When you look back, what’re the things you are very proud of? What are the highlights of your career?

I’ve had the good fortune of a career that has seen plenty of success and plenty of failures. The combination is what I am proud of as without the success I have had, or the failures I have walked through, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I’m at the proudest stage of my career as I have matured and deepened in my thoughts and philosophies. These philosophies are now how I operate TAG, with a focus on building the staff up, focusing on their strengths and building our culture around the village philosophy where work and life co-exist, not separated but embraced and nurtured. It is combined with a deeper vision and mission to help businesses and entrepreneurs advertise and market more efficiently in the often complex world of social and digital media. So the proud things and highlights are the story that is currently being written with the amazing team I have at TAG The Agency.

Q3. What  makes a person an “influencer”? Is there a process anybody could follow or it is just luck?

Influencers…this is a fascinating space as advertisers and brands look to create native styled content that impacts on audiences. In my view it’s all about following a passion and doing the things you love, as soon as it gets blurred with paid content the ‘native’ and natural content goes, as it is just a promotion and no longer authentic. So what makes an influencer, to me, is a person who is passionate and who shares an honest view of the world or their industry.

Is there a ‘process’… for authenticity, no it has to be passion. Otherwise you are simply endorsing for money and that’s not influencing or authentic.

Q4. You’re involved in a couple of things. You’re Head of Social media and Digital Innovation at TAG The Agency, Editor in Chief Social Media NZ and VP of Magnify World. Tell us about your ventures? What important lessons have you learned?

The quick summary of each:

TAG The Agency: An agency that specialises in digital storytelling for brands.

Social Media NZ: A web resource for all things social and digital.

Magnify World: Is a event and technology marketing company that specialises in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality.

Lessons learned, great question, I have so many lessons learned and lessons I am still learning. But, the best lessons are:

• Be confident and have belief in your decisions, but be humble enough to know that change is awesome and you’re not always right.
• Own your mistakes and successes with equal measure as both are rich in knowledge through what you can learn and how you can improve.
• Learn and experiment, always.

Q5. You’ve worked with major brands like Huawei, LG, Suzuki and many others. What would you advise to young entrepreneurs and startups? What events should they attend for networking?

You have nothing to lose from someone saying ‘no,’ but everything to learn from the experience, whether they say yes or no. So get out and try!

Q6. Holiday Season is just around the corner. As an experienced marketer, how do you see this season. What will you advice to the ecommerce store owners who are looking to maximize their revenue?

Don’t let the pre and post holiday rush hold off your campaigns or even more importantly, your customer service. Keep your client front of mind and make sure the communication and service is faultless, this makes our jobs as Advertisers much easier 😉

Q7. B2B companies, such as Cloudways, have a hard time realizing the true potential of Social media. What strategies would you suggest to B2B companies for maximizing the potential of their social media footprint?

Businesses are made up of people, focus on being relevant, educational and inspiring, sharing knowledge with these people and the business will follow. Note, when I speak about ‘inspiring’ it is about creating content that inspires people to act and engage, not to simply scroll past.

Q8. Do you use any tool or app (paid or free) to handle such massive Twitter following? How do you keep your engagement levels high?

I’ve relaxed a lot on Twitter over the years, I prefer Instagram as my most active social network, I love the use of images in social marketing. As for apps, I’ve tried and even built some, but I’ve always found active use of your network is the best way to grow it, along with giving it time and energy.

Q9.  Whom do you consider your best buddies within the social media marketing industry? Who has influenced your career and professional development?

I have many friends on social, and a good few who are friends outside of the social channels. Those that inspire me would be my beautiful Wife, Sir Richard Branson, Andrew Butel, Clay Nelson, and Kerwin Rae.

Q10. Now let’s have a quick rapid fire round:

Q12: How do you manage your work-life balance and how do you spend your free time? What are your other interests outside of the work?

My view on work life balance is…work is life and we shouldn’t try and separate the two. A workplace should be more like a village, embrace the culture and people within it, we don’t need to separate the two but be compassionate about the amazing people that choose to work with us. Family and all, at TAG The Agency we embrace the full person who works with us, when we hire, we hire them and their family, with children and partners always welcome and encouraged to be part of the agency.

Q13: Finally, just for our readers, can you please send us a pic of what your desk or workspace looks like!

Here is some pics of the Agency:

Sajjad Shahid

Sajjad is an Ecommerce Community Manager at Cloudways. He loves helping out Ecommerce store owners, merchants and marketers in establishing their businesses and startups. Sajjad enjoys playing table tennis and cricket over the weekend.

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