Melanie Spencer: Social Media, Women in Business, & Overcoming Obstacles | Ep 103 | NZ Podcast

Melanie Spencer  00:00

Thinking about, you know that two way conversation rather than, than that one way broadcast? Where where’s your talk target audience playing. And think about your target audience also has a bit of a split personality. So I am a completely different person on LinkedIn to the person I am on Instagram to the person I’m not on really on Facebook anymore, don’t exist.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:22

So so so can be big for some companies. Yeah. So think

Melanie Spencer  00:25

about think about that. Yep. And the other thing is, you must pay to play. And you must have somebody who knows how to target and optimize your ads. Otherwise, it’s just going to be go into.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:44

Good afternoon, and welcome to another episode of Better Business Better Life. Today, I am joined by Melanie Spencer, who is the Group CEO of Socialites Group. And she joined socialites about three and a half, four years ago as the Group CEO. And as he recently has bought into the business is now also a part owner of the business that right

Melanie Spencer  01:00

It sure is. Hi Debra, nice to be here and to meet you.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  01:04

Absolutely. lovely to have you in here. So we’ve had a little bit of a chat before we came into the podcast, obviously, to sort of get a sense of who you are. And you have quite an interesting story in terms of how you got to be where you are today. So why don’t you share that with us?

Melanie Spencer  01:15

Yeah, sure. Definitely a little bit of a squiggly line. I was born, I was born overseas, and then came back to New Zealand and then went back overseas for 13 years. And I started my agency life in a PR agency in Sydney. And that’s where I got my taste for telling stories and, and the agency world. And you either love it or hate it. And I definitely got the bug. And after 10 years in Sydney, and having three babies, came back to New Zealand, and had a stent in a couple of agencies in New Zealand, a PR agency, our PR agencies. But the funny thing is actually in Sydney, we were looking after really high profile chefs in the eye, I think back and I’m like, actually there was influencer work way back then so and then came back here. And then I went client side. And I absolutely loved it. And that was my sort of first foray into growing a business. I became GM quite quickly and, and was in a commercial interior design business and helped grow the business and the people and everything. So that was my first sort of my taste of growing a business and not just looking at it from a marketing perspective. And so was that deliberate or accidental that you got into client side? Definitely accidental. I got tapped on the shoulder. And I was like, Absolutely, I want to give it a go. Because I’ve never worked client side. And after a few years, I said, I’m never going back to agency ever, ever, ever again. And then I got tapped on the shoulder again. And I went back to agency. And now I’ve got the bug again, of course.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  03:06

Perfect. And so that’s what we’re about Socialites. You know, for those who’ve never heard of social lights, the name is pretty self evident. But still, let’s have a bit of an explanation.

Melanie Spencer  03:14

No problems. So social acts as a full service, social media agency. And we’re deep experts in everything social media. So when you think we’ve got teams that are experts in the content creation, we’ve got team of experts and the media, the the media, and performance side, the influences, and community management. So we’ve got a team of just over 40 ish. And that’s just about to grow. Right? Us. Yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  03:51

And it grew reasonably quickly, didn’t it? I mean, I actually, as I explained to you, I know Wendy from way, way back when we spoke at the Ice House, but it’s actually been an agent. So that’s kind of grown quite quickly and more so in the last few years. Is that right?

Melanie Spencer  04:02

Yeah, yeah, no, we have, um, it’s really taken off I think COVID Although when COVID hit, I felt like I was on a trading floor and and our clients was saying, Hold hold. I was like, Don’t you go quiet on your community now. And but then all of a sudden, everybody realized that it was one of the only ways that they could keep in touch within community. So you know, things really, really started rolling and growing very, very quickly.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  04:33

Perfect. Now in terms of you I always ask my guests this in terms of your your journey so far in life, what are the things you’re most proud of professionally and personally?

Melanie Spencer  04:40

Personally, I would say my children 100% I think most moms would actually say that but they pretty

Debra Chantry-Taylor  04:48

That’s to surprisingly when I bring them in here.

Melanie Spencer  04:50

Yeah, they just really cool humans and I love hanging out with them. And they’re just very smart, ambitious but lovely people, which is really important. I think professionally, I think the growth of socialites has been my main sort of most proudest thing professionally, for sure.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  05:18

So it’s been about sort of three and a half, four years. So when you came into Socialites, how big was it, then? And where is it? So you said it’s about 40th is now about to get bigger again, with more acquisitions. What was it like four years ago?

Melanie Spencer  05:28

Yeah. So I think there were about 12 to 12 employees at that stage. And we’ve had about 590% growth since then. So that’s, that’s pretty significant. And I think that is really, because of Wendy and I are teaming up and working really closely together during that time and, and just, we just lean on each other, which has been just a wonderful, wonderful ride.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  05:59

So what’s Wendy his role in the business now?

Melanie Spencer  06:01

Yeah, so when he’s founder, and she looks after special projects, and also leads any acquisitions as well that we might be doing. So we’ve done two. Over the last couple of years, we acquired the Social Club, which was New Zealand’s largest influencer marketing agency, and also Flying Tiger, which is a Chinese social media marketing agency. And a couple more, but which I can’t divulge just yet.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  06:30

That’s fair enough. I understand. We don’t want to put any of the secrets out there. So I suppose in the Eos language, we actually talk about these two roles. One being a visionary one being an integrator. And the visionary sounds a little bit like Wendy, she is the founder. She’s the one that kind of took the business to where it was was certain level, and they do the big special projects, mergers, acquisitions, and then the integrator sounds like you who’s really keeping all the, the wheels oiled and making sure he’s doing what they should be doing. Hold them accountable. Is that what it is in the role in your business? Is that how it works?

Melanie Spencer  06:56

Yeah I think so. I’d like to see myself as a visionary as well. And Wendy and I, but we are so aligned with our vision, it’s really weird. Like, sometimes I’ll be texting her when I’m getting ready in the morning. I’m like, Oh, my gosh, I’ve just had an epiphany. And she’s like, Oh, that’s awesome. And, and we’re very, very aligned in that regard. And she will absolutely build that foundation, or get it going. And then, and then I’ll start running. Excellent. And jumping around.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  07:31

So it’s great that you’re on the same page, from a vision perspective, you two of you, how do you keep the rest of the team involved in that? And how do they know what you’re trying to do?

Melanie Spencer  07:39

Yeah so we have quarterly sessions with our senior leadership team, and bring them along the journey for sure. And in fact, we get them to help we get them to build the strategy and plan on a page with us. You know, we Wendy and I already have it. But we really, really want the senior leadership team to to help us build on that. And it’s quite interesting, because they’re super aligned with us as well. And, yeah, it works really, really well. So we do quarterly sessions. And then we then present it to the team.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  08:21

Fantastci. For pretty much all we can advocate in the US as well. So I’m really intrigued. So you know, the growth that you’ve had been phenomenal, right? That must have come with some challenges along the way. Without again, giving were the secret sauce and competitive information, can you share with us some of the challenges that might have presented to you,

Melanie Spencer  08:38

There’s definitely no secret sauce, there’s might be a lot of winging it. And look, look, the challenges, definitely would, especially last year, we’ve got a young team. And you can imagine when the borders opened, they were like freedom. So they, you know, a few left to go overseas. And I was a massive supporter of that I was overseas for 13 years. And I think it’s really, really important for for New Zealanders to go abroad and get some experience. So that would have been, you know, it was an unsettling period. And I think everyone was just unsure about everything. And that just caused, I think, just a level of uncertainty for everybody. So that was really, really challenging, and filling in the gaps and making everybody feel secure. When it was not that secure was quite was very challenging. I found last year the most challenging, I’d have to say.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  09:48

And so how did you get yourself through that because you’re obviously very supportive of the staff which is great, but then they’re also leaving holes in the business that you then have to fill. So what kind of strategies do you employ personally to to ensure that you could actually get through that. I’m liking this already,

Melanie Spencer  10:07

It was hard because I had a young baby as well. So that’s right. Yeah. So that’s probably why I found it really difficult because I had lack of sleep. Yep. And quite a difficult sort of year with, with, you know, everything at work. So I found it really, really hard. And what I’ve done at the end of this year, and over the summer break, I’ve thought long and hard about what I need. And I’ve realized that I just need to be a little bit selfish. Yeah. And also, I’ve actually worked on some, I’ve only really just started, but in the last couple of weeks, I’m trying to train myself to get up at 530 in the morning, and do at least five to 10 minutes of yoga exercise, that sort of thing. So I’m trying to train myself to be a little more selfish. So I can give back to everybody else this year. Yeah,

Debra Chantry-Taylor  11:02

I think that’s actually really, really important. I mean, we, you know, we want to help others want to be there for them. But at the same time, the oxygen mask concept, you know, if you haven’t got on yourself, and I mean, I’ve been through this myself in my various businesses, when I’ve actually, you know, been so focused on looking after everybody else that my health suffered that, and not just the not just the health, it’s the mental health, because if you’re always giving, giving, giving, then you don’t have anything left in the tank to actually do the strategic work that’s required.

Melanie Spencer  11:26

It’s pretty taxing. Yeah. So I’ve made a big mental shift that this year is going to be quite different.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  11:34

Awesome. Okay, great. So the socialites, obviously, he said everything social media, and there’s some things I hadn’t even thought about in there that are part of social media. It’s not about the kind of work that you do with clients and what that looks like.

Melanie Spencer  11:45

Yeah, so we ran a big campaigns. And it could be across everything that we do. So we could do the big audit and strategy, and then do all their content creation across all the platforms. So think, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn. And, and then we, you know, you need to get eyeballs in front of those ads. So that’s the performance side. And then the community management is we’ve got CMS 9am to 9pm 360. I want to say 365 days a year now, but yeah, those are amazing. CM, hit a CM worked on Christmas Day this year.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  12:33

Oh, no.

Melanie Spencer  12:36

So they’re the ones that are responsible for that. Two way banter on social, and also answering any questions. And we’re sort of moving into a little bit of more of customer service as well. Because you can imagine people who are asking questions about products or services or anything really, or have something bad to say about their product or service, they go on social media now. So it’s our team’s responsibility to to go back and help the customer with whatever they need. And of course, influencers and influencers are becoming such a massive part of, of marketing. And in fact, I read somewhere that it’s going to be like the second highest line item now on the CMOS for spent Yeah,

Debra Chantry-Taylor  13:30

But that’s interesting, because I was actually thinking maybe it was starting to go down a bit there, but it’s still still growing.

Melanie Spencer  13:37

Yes, absolutely. still growing.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  13:39

And there’s micro influencers and there’s obviously you know, what I call them what are called micro influencers? Yes, yeah.

Melanie Spencer  13:45

You’ve got micro macros. You’ve got celebs, and we run influencer campaigns all over the world. And, and that’s the that’s a beautiful, beautiful thing about running a digital agency. You can run it from New Zealand and we’ve run campaigns across 69 countries. Wow. Yeah. Fantastic.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  14:07

Okay, what’s the thing you’ve enjoyed most about that sort of growth journey was socialites.

Melanie Spencer  14:14

Look, I I just love seeing my people and the growth and the people. But also the growth in the clients and the brands that we work on. Like there’s nothing better than seeing a business grow because of the work that your team has done. And our team is they are so incredible what they do. Like having a brainstorm with our team is just slight you walk out and you’re literally fuzzing well. And what I say is, you know, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been at the table for five minutes or 20 years, the you know, the person that’s an intern can have some of the best ideas. So That’s it’s just that’s the fun part. And just watching the growth and everybody.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  15:05

So it can be hard sometimes to get the right people. So how do you go about finding the right people to actually come work with socialites?

Melanie Spencer  15:12

I think the most important thing for me is values and attitudes. And I always say that you can learn any skill.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  15:20

completely. That’s what I used to do. In my early career days, it was like, I mean, Google wasn’t quite so prevalent then. But if I’d been there, then I would have been even better at what I was doing, because I just go, okay, don’t know how, but I’ll find out how.

Melanie Spencer  15:33

Exactly, so I that values and attitudes, and just, you know, decent, awesome human being is, is number one. And I think we’re all we’re all quite different, but all quite similar people. And it just works. And we’ve got a huge amount of respect for each other, sometimes we can have a little bit of a, you know, lack of, I guess I was gonna say before, but not not quite

Debra Chantry-Taylor  16:04

Heated debate.

Melanie Spencer  16:07

And I love that. And it’s like, we just were so open and honest with each other, and you have a huge amount of respect for each other. So we can just, I will literally nip them in the bud. Straight away. Yeah, this grammar room, this talk about it, and then it’s like, alright, let’s, let’s go on it.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  16:23

So you can see there’s an elephant it’s over, that’s one of the things that I think is really, really important is that teams, it’s okay to actually have a bit of a fight, as long as it’s for the greater good, then we absolutely should have those discussions. Because if we’re all sitting around a table disagreeing all the time, yeah, we’re not gonna have a diversification, we’re not gonna have exploring all options, we’re not necessarily getting the best results from it. So I actually think that whatever you want to call it, having a heated debate is actually really important for business.

Melanie Spencer  16:46

And it’s important, I don’t like confrontation at all, I’m not good at it, I don’t like it, I’d rather not have it. But I am learning in my old age, to have those courageous conversations and also, probably bringing my team along. For the ride as well. As I’m learning to do that myself.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  17:07

It’s one of the things I’m I’m a little bit older than you. And I remember I had to learn that because I love people. And so for me, having a conversation that was a bit icky was what didn’t work for me. And so I learned that I actually had to write things down, before I went into the meeting. So I actually knew what I had to say and couldn’t let it go. And then I actually thought the conversation was like, I’d much rather stick my head on a toilet and have this conversation with you. But we have to have this conversation. And I just found that really helped to lighten the mood a wee bit and show the other person that you’re, you’re not really comfortable doing it, but it has to be done. Yeah.

Melanie Spencer  17:36

And I think that vulnerability is really important. Because we’re not robots, even though we’re business leaders. And, you know, we want this thing to grow. And well, we want this thing to work. But it is also really important to remember that we’re also human who was, yeah,

Debra Chantry-Taylor  17:55

All of all of us, the leaders and the team. Exactly. So I mean, I we weren’t big proponents of you know, core values, and making sure you actually living, breathing, hiring, firing by them. But often when you interview somebody, you know, they can put on this beautiful front that actually isn’t the real them. So how do you test those values? In the initial interview process? Or even yet? Well, at the beginning?

Melanie Spencer  18:16

That’s a really interesting question. We’ve actually just changed our values. And so it is something that I will always do the I pretty much always do the first interview, funnily enough, even if it’s a junior Junior role. And, and then I like to have a big team interview, informal team interview. And there’s, there’s nothing that we’ve got set in stone, and probably we should, I haven’t made too many mistakes. But yeah, I think it’s a feeling that you get, and the information that you get from the previous jobs, but also the life.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  19:02

Yeah that’s right. Yeah. And I think that team interview thing is actually quite important, because different people will get different reactions from other people as well. So it’s really cool. Okay, have you ever had somebody who didn’t kind of fit those core values?

Melanie Spencer  19:16

Yeah, yeah, ofcourse.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  19:18

 Yep. How do you deal with that?

Melanie Spencer  19:20

You know, with difficulty. Yes. As I said, I don’t like confrontation or like to make people feel not great about themselves. But, look, my mom taught me to do everything with grace. And, and I think, in any situation, if you’re not happy, they’re generally not happy either. And I don’t want to see anyone failing, ever, ever, ever, ever. And so it’s really, really important that if it’s not the right role, or the right company, and they’re not feeling good about it, then we need to have that conversation. Because at the end of the day, they need to be happy. Yes, yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  19:59

Yeah, and I completely agree. And I think sometimes we think, Oh, this is such a nice person, but they just don’t fit in here. And you need to be really, really confident that they will find somewhere else where they really do fit in, and they will be happier, your entire team will be happy, because often that person that’s in that team, you don’t realize what a negative impact they’re having on the entire team. And I’ve seen it with teams that I work with, where somebody finally leaves, and the whole team goes, gosh, it’s so much better another than over here, you know, so yeah, but that person will be happier in the new role as well.

Melanie Spencer  20:28

And my number one priority is the business and everybody that’s in that business. And sometimes you have to rip the band aid, or you pretty much have to rip the band aid off pretty quickly to resolve that issue. And everybody is so much happier. Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. Nobody’s done anything wrong? Oh, yeah. I just wanted to stress that nobody’s ever done anything wrong. But I think it’s just a process that you have to go through.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  20:55

Yeah absolutely. And I think that, you know, I think as you grow, when you age, sometimes we change and what worked for us in the past doesn’t work in the future. And the same with the company as a company grows, you know, the people you had in the beginning may not be the right people of going forward, because it’s not about core values. But what roles do you have? What role can they play in the business? How do you because when you’re growing so fast, how do you kind of manage that and know what kind of roles you need to have? And how do you stay ahead of the curve ball?

Melanie Spencer  21:24

Yeah, so I, again, I do it really intuitively, I’m thinking about our team all the time, and imagining where they can move within the business. I’m really, really big on developing our team members and giving them breadth and depth of experience. But of course, you move one person, it’s like a domino effect with the rest of the team. So it takes time. But I have a plan. And it’s about communicating with the team members as well. You know, these are, these are the options. This is what I’m looking at what are your thoughts? And then they’re, uh, they’re like, Yep, this is this is the direction that I want to take, then I will just form a path, clear that path for them, which, of course takes time. But yeah, that’s something that I’m really, really big on. Because A is retention of your best team members. But also change change is really important, especially for fast moving ambitious young people absolutely. Love it.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  22:33

Okay, what are the plans for the future? You know, again, without giving away anything too much what where do we see socialites in the future? What do you think’s coming up? Obviously, a couple of new potential acquisitions?

Melanie Spencer  22:45

Yeah, yea definitely. We are looking at a couple of acquisitions. And I think socialites will be looking a little bit different to what we have looked like in the past. You know, we like to turn things on its head. Yes. And like to just flip things around a bit. So it will be Yeah, be an interesting couple of years.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  23:09

Cool. Because there’s a lot of stuff going on in the in the social media spaces. And I mean, the whole AI, GBT three is changing the way we do things. And I know a lot people are very dead set against it. But I was talking to a client the other day, who was saying they actually use the AI stuff, to get them started on something. And then they put their own flavor on it, and they do whatever. But it gives them rather than a blank piece of paper, you’ve got something to start working with.

Melanie Spencer  23:29

100% gives you a framework. And it’s just like, I was my team and I were talking about, you know, when I was studying, I’d have to go to the library. Yes. And open a book. And then the internet came along. Yeah. And now there’s chat GVT. And that’s just, that’s just the next

Debra Chantry-Taylor  23:48

Level. Yeah.

Melanie Spencer  23:50

Brilliant. Yeah. So you know, you’re never going to not have your deep expertise, and FLIR and that’s something that we were talking about with the team, I say, we can never lose that socialites flair in that magic. But if there’s something that can help with a framework of like a position description, or a contract, or something that helps us just go faster, go faster. Yeah, bring it on. I say.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  24:19

And just level up people. Yeah. Okay, cool. So I have to laugh. If you notice in the workshop space, I’m actually going to sort of encyclopedias up on the top shelf. And that is because when I was growing up, like there wasn’t that, I mean, we had the internet just but there was actually it was encyclopedias, that’s where you went to kind of find your information. And so I had a bit of a play with the AI stuff the other day, because I hadn’t really got into it, it’s actually it’s actually really, really helpful. And I say it doesn’t take away because the way that I write the style that I have is always gonna be my own style. But it does make things a little bit easier. And I don’t think it will take away from jobs. I think it will just change the jobs that humans are actually doing, which brings more value to those jobs. We’re looking at some growth, potentially some turning things on its head. Yeah. In terms of But we haven’t asked you about. I know you work with larger companies, but the companies that we generally talk to are more midsize. They’re, they’re not small, but they are, you know, 50 to 200 staff, they’ve been around for a while. A lot of them social media is still quite a new thing for them. Like I was gobsmacked in the whole lockdown number of people who actually joined LinkedIn for the first time. And I’ve been on LinkedIn for I don’t know, however long it’s been going for, but some people have never even been on it or been involved with it. You’ve now got obviously you’ve got Tik Tok, you’ve got all kinds of things, including global social media translate and see over here. What’s the advice to somebody who’s kind of thinking about getting into social media for the first time or wants to know, what do I say? What do I do? What would you say to them?

Melanie Spencer  25:41

We do work with a lot of mid tier brands. What I would say is make sure that you’ve got your strategy. Yeah, that’s really, really important. Because if you just start throwing things up willy nilly, and it’s social media is not about posting up pretty pictures anymore. And, you know, like, a selfie. And it is actually far more complicated than that. Yeah. Have a strategy. Have a plan? Yeah. But also have some confidence. Because I think a lot of people like I don’t, I just can’t do it. I just, you know, I don’t know how to start. Just start. Yeah. And also focus on a couple of platforms don’t try and do all of them. Because it’s expensive, you’ve got to pay to play. Yeah. It’s no longer can you go on social media, and just throw up a couple of posts and hope to get, you know, a community of hundreds of 1000s of people, it just doesn’t work like that anymore.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  26:45

And even if it’s, um, it’s a, there’s a cost of actually purchasing to get that stuff happening. But there’s also a time cost as well, if you’re trying to be on all platforms, there’s a time cost to actually to manage that. And you know, I go back to traditional marketing, you need to be very targeted, where are your audience actually playing? Where do you want to be seen with? What do you need to and offer value as well, you know, it’s all very well, if you’re thinking it’s all about selling, really isn’t about it’s not selling at all?

Melanie Spencer  27:09

No, it’s not think about social media as your long term solution, rather than sort of short term hits. And think of it as a brand building exercise. And once you’ve built that brand, then you can start selling,

Debra Chantry-Taylor  27:23

Well then have conversations at least.

Melanie Spencer  27:25

Yeah, exactly. And remember, you know, social media is a two way conversation, not a one way broadcast. And nobody likes to be sold to, if if you don’t have a relationship with that person, I’m like, it’s like, you know, going on a first date with someone

Debra Chantry-Taylor  27:43

And ask them to marry you. Well, I like and I use this when I go to a lot of talks to students about networking, what networking really means to me. And networking, to me is actually about building a community of people that you want to help who may eventually help you return. But you’re there to actually ask how I can help you and how can I add value? And you know, as social media, it’d be like walking up to a complete stranger in the street and going, Hi, my name is Debra. I’m a business coach. I do blah, blah, blah. You want to fancy going in a fancy working with me? I mean, you wouldn’t do it to a complete stranger on the street. Why do we think it’s different on social media?

Melanie Spencer  28:13

You would run a mile.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  28:14

Yeah. And yet, sadly, I especially on platforms, like LinkedIn, there’s a lot of people who just blast that stuff at you. And it’s like, wow, yeah. Back off. Yeah, yes. Okay. Um, what about tips for people? So, even if they’re going to be doing on their own, or they’re working with an agency, what were the three top tips that you might give them about building a business about you know, social media?

Melanie Spencer  28:38

This talk about social social media? First tip is to get your strategy done. Yeah. And your strategy will include, you know, who your audiences, what is your brand’s personality? You know, what, how do you encapsulate their personality, on on social and your tone of voice? And who, who wants to buy your product or service and think about, you know, always think about, they don’t want to buy a drill they want to? They want to hold? Yeah, you know? So think about, you know, that two way conversation rather than, than that one way broadcast? Where where’s your talk target audience playing and think about your target audience also has a bit of a split personality. So I’m a completely different person on LinkedIn to the person I am on Instagram to the person I’m not on really on Facebook anymore, but you

Debra Chantry-Taylor  29:37

Don’t exist. So it’s over. So can be big for some companies. Yeah.

Melanie Spencer  29:40

So think about think about that. Yep. And the other thing is, you must pay to play yeah. And you must have somebody who knows how to target and optimize your ads. Otherwise, it’s just going to be go into.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  29:57

Are you gonna spend I mean, I remember back in the day when we it was for Very early on, you know, the online stuff was considered the cheap part of advertising and TV, you had radio, you had print press, that was all the expensive stuff. And the online was the cheap stuff. But that’s not the case anymore. I mean, actually, it’s yeah, it can be effective. But you can literally throw big money down a hole.

Melanie Spencer  30:14

Yeah, you can. Yeah. And you don’t need to. That’s the beautiful thing. If you get it right, you shouldn’t have to spend a ton of money yet, but it is now becoming one of the largest, biggest, most effective way of marketing businesses. So why wouldn’t you spend money?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  30:36

You can make just $1.50 from $1? Why wouldn’t use them to spend? Okay, so get your strategy done. Really importantly, know who you’re talking to how you’re talking to them? What they want from you how you add value? Number two?

Melanie Spencer  30:46

Oh, that was I thought that was 1 2 3.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  30:48

And oh no, no, this is the one I want to go on. And

Melanie Spencer  30:53

I think in terms of social, what else? Goodness me this. I mean,

Debra Chantry-Taylor  31:00

You’re working with an agency that there’s lots of agencies out there, right. So how do you pick the right agency? Because you know, there’s, there’s one man bands who tell you that experts are a big competitor that X was you’ve got complete full service agencies or say, Oh, yes, we’ve got a team that does that as well. So how do you pick a good agency?

Melanie Spencer  31:15

Oh, you just pick socialites.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  31:18

No brainer.

Melanie Spencer  31:20

I think it’s really, really important to have the rapport and the trust. So there are lots of cowboys and cowgirls out there. Especially in digital and social. So you need to know that they’re deep experts, and not just throwing up a pretty picture and some copy like it is it’s so much more convoluted than that now. So that is really, really important. We tend to work with some of the biggest agencies, creative agencies and media agencies, and we’re now at the table with them. And you know, some of the bigger agencies are amazing at social. But they’re not specialists, or experts in social, their expertise are really those massive brand ads. And then what we do is feed into the latter up to those brand ads and make it sing on on social. So look at it really depends. It’s unique to every single business to the type of agency that you work with. Yeah. And you just need to look at the work that that they have done in the past. And also maybe even get a couple of speak to a couple of clients. Yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  32:38

Okay, perfect. And personality fit? Of course, there’s actually really there’s like a marriage, isn’t it? Yeah,

Melanie Spencer  32:43

It is a marriage, like we literally talk you should be talking to agency every other day, or having some sort of communication with them. Sure. So you’ve got to like each other.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  32:54

Love it. The top. The third tip, I’m actually going to ask you, we had a bit of a conversation, we came in here about the fact my podcasts brief talks about you know, it’s very much aimed at men, because most of the listeners are men. And I explained to you that, in my experience, a lot of larger companies are actually run by men like it or not. What do you think women can do to kind of be at the table a bit more? And how do we encourage women to actually want to take their business from being a small business to a big business?

Melanie Spencer  33:24

That’s a really good question.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  33:27

Sorry, to put you on the spot.

Melanie Spencer  33:28

No, no, that’s, that’s, that’s okay. I you know what, I think it’s almost a little bit of selfishness. I think number one, you’ve got to be a little bit selfish if your kids are going to be okay. And if that they’re going to be really, really proud of you. Be, you just need a ton of gusto You’re going to work really, really hard. But so much comes out of it. Yeah, you know, you’re going to get so much out of it. husband’s going to be okay, kids are going to be okay, you’re going to get a lot out of it. Yeah. So just go for it.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  34:10

I think it’s really interesting, too. I think that people are really scared that if they go from being a one man to man band being a larger business, it’ll actually be more work and more hard work. But in actual fact, there’s a real sweet spot that once you get to a certain size, it becomes easier. And you actually get back to doing what you love doing. And all the other stuff is dealt with by other people. So in actual fact, I believe the larger you grow, the better that becomes for you. Because you actually get to do the stuff you really, really love. And you can delegate everything else. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So my advice is, you know, don’t be don’t be scared about growing it doesn’t necessarily have to come with more work. And more hours. Yeah

Melanie Spencer  34:43

And we talked about, you know, taking those risks and change and, and humans need to do that. And we you know, that’s just innate in us. So I think it’s really important to push the boat out and yeah, He looked back and go, Well, I did that. And if you don’t try it, you will never know.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  35:06

You’re great. I got some advice from my father about it. You should try everything once otherwise you won’t know what’s good. We know what it’s like. I don’t think I want you to go literally. Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Melanie Spencer  35:17

There’s no issue. Yeah. If it’s not your your back then.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  35:22

Yeah. It’s okay. That’s great. Hey, look, I really appreciate you sharing all this with us. And really nice to actually meet you. In terms of if people want to work with you. What is your ideal kind of client? What they look like, I know that you do you know, various sizes? Is there a particular type of person or team that you’d like to work with?

Melanie Spencer  35:39

Anyone that believes in social media? Okay, so if you’re not digging social media, then you’re not quite there yet. We’re very happy to educate and bring you along and hold your hand. But we’re at the stage now where, you know, social media works. And, you know, we want to take you on that on that journey. Yeah. And look, we work with all sorts of sizes of businesses, big international, big corporates, medium sized mid tier businesses, where, you know, you’ve got a marketing team of a few people. And you really just want to, to blow your social media out of out of the water. And you have a person that can dedicate the time to pulling all the assets together and the creative and helping the agency do their best work. So that’s probably our optimal client.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  36:33

Perfect. Yeah. And I suppose there’s a couple of people who might be listening and who think, oh my god, I’m working for socialites. So if they want to either come and work with you, or work for you, how would they find you?

Melanie Spencer  36:41

Just send me an email. Yep. melanie@socialites.co.nz

Debra Chantry-Taylor  36:46

Wonderful. I look. Melanie, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. I look forward to seeing what happens in the next few months with all these big plans that you’ve got. I’m sure we’ll be very excited. And by the way, congratulations on what you’ve achieved.

Melanie Spencer  36:57

Thank you so much. It’s lovely to be here.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  37:00

Pleasure. Thank you.