Melanie
Welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. For all decision makers and action takers. Take it away, Esther.
Esther
And we're back with another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Today, we're joined by Xandrina Allday, Head of Social Media at LeBec Media Group, author, speaker, and founder of Social Retreats. Welcome, Xandrina.
Xandrina
Hello. Thank you so much for having me, ladies.
Esther
You're very welcome here. So that's a lot of stuff that you do. Can we start with the speaker part? Tell us some of the places that you've spoken at, some of the topics you speak about, and share some gems of knowledge, if you can.
Xandrina
Absolutely. Well, I'm a bit of a born chatterbox, so we're going to have a great time today. But I love speaking about social media. It's obviously that's what I do. The natural inclination to start speaking was an easy one. This year, I have been starting to get up on some of the bigger social media conferences. Social Day, which takes place in London every year. I was part of a fantastic panel and we were discussing what's happening now in social media. On the Social Day website, you can actually read the recap of that as well. Those details are on there. That was really interesting, looking at what's trending, things that have been changing. One of the things we were discussing in that panel in particular was talking about LinkedIn and how LinkedIn has risen, really, through the popularity in social media. In recent years, LinkedIn was always B2B and very much corporate, just for obviously job searching, and now much more of that, much more than that, should I say. That's one of the things that we talked about. Then one of the other big ones I spoke at this year was the International Social Media Summit, and that was in Barcelona, so that was fantastic.
Not in That's true. That's true. That's the way as well. I actually got awarded best speaker for that one, so that was fantastic. My talk there was called The Power of One, How to Connect with an Individual, even when you've a global audience of millions. It's making that content really relatable to those individuals who are following you because even though they're part of a community, really essentially people care about themselves. They're happy to be part of a community, but if you're not talking to that individual meeting where they're at or what they want to hear or see, then essentially you're not bringing them any value. That's what social media really distils down to. That was obviously quite well received. I think that was maybe a bit of a different take what most people are used to, which was nice.
Esther
Yeah, that's brilliant. So in your role as head of social media, are you over all platforms or is there one in particular that you focus on or you enjoy the most.
Xandrina
We work across a variety of different platforms at LabX Media Group, depending on the brand. We've got multiple different brands, so they've obviously all got different USPs. We've got a lot of large on Facebook sites. We've built big followings over there over the years, so we actually spend a lot of time still on Facebook, but we are building up a lot of our brand pages over on LinkedIn and also spending a lot of time with our individuals and ensuring that they have the tools that they need to be creating content if they should wish to as well, because we're seeing, again, the rise of people's personal brands, but that could be a great amplification tool for companies as well.
Melanie
So, Xandrina, for the benefit of our listeners, because you so heavily work in the social media space, like us all, how much of your time is spent with people who also work in the traditional marketing space as well? Do you do campaigns together frequently?
Xandrina
So we do work with a lot of clients. I mean, our clients work with us in various different mediums in terms of marketing methods as of publications, they obviously place ads with us. But on the social media side, it's still, in the scheme of things, a new offering for us. We work with clients on there, they place ads with us on some of our pages, but we also do work with them to create content, too. With that, I do find that some companies in the life science and biotech space, we are a bit behind the times, really, with social media. I think because they're big corporate brands, maybe we don't have the infrastructure yet for social media, and also people are a bit scared at times, I may say, to take the risk to try new approaches. But we are seeing that people are very much interested in that now and taking advice from us and taking the lead. We can take the lead and show them what is possible. We've been doing that for some of our clients and the results have absolutely blown everybody's minds, really. Because what you can do when you think outside the box on social media, even for heavily B2B brands, is amazing. You just need to remember that the people we're talking to at the end of the day are just humans. We're multifaceted. We're not always just thinking business. We've all got a sense of humour and things like that. Let's appeal to people and meet them wherever they are when they're essentially on social media.
Melanie
You do both, the social media and the traditional media side of things.
Xandrina
Yeah.
Melanie
Because of the niche that you're in, the life sciences side, and it's such an intriguing and huge international platform, have you found a way that you can actually monitor what's working and what's not working for that particular niche? Because I don't think we've ever had a life science guest on here before from that industry. I'd be really interested to know how How much we can actually learn from the presence that we create? Can we find who our ambassadors are? Can we find who... And what tools you use, especially for your niche as well?
Xandrina
Yeah. So one of the tools we used to use quite heavily was a tool called CrowdTangle, which is owned by Meta. They bought it, I mean, several years back now, but they're actually reducing that down. But that's always been our primary social listening tool. With that, That's been really useful. Obviously, gathering data, not only what our brands are doing and collecting that, but looking at our clients, but looking elsewhere in our space, but also across other areas in business to see what's working well. I think I take a lot of inspiration from, like I say, companies that are excelling at B2B on LinkedIn and things like that. There's some great companies out there that you can take inspiration from that aren't not necessarily in your niche, which I think is a really good thing to do because especially, I think when you're comparing yourself on social media as any company, if you compare yourself to people in the same space when you're looking at trends or anything like that, you can often then to literally try and copy and paste. But if you do that, you're never going to see the results that you want to. I think looking outside of that space is really important. But I think social listening, you can use the tools natively themselves. I mean, LinkedIn is great for that. But yeah, there's a lot that obviously people can use. There's so many different social listening tools out there. I don't want to just pinpoint one. I've got friends here, several of them are doing it that way. So I don't want to pick any It's so good.
Melanie
For me, the person to go to, if anybody was in this area, that you could make suggestions, recommendations, that thing on a case by case basis, could you?
Xandrina
I think, yeah, if anyone wants to know about social listening tools, I could absolutely recommend, but they aren't necessarily specifically for life science. They're just big rules that help you across any social media, if that makes sense. But I think it's knowing where to look, knowing who are good companies to look at as well. Another thing that's quite interesting is if people are looking to learn more about what companies are doing employee advocacy, for example, on LinkedIn, specifically, which is something that I spoke about earlier that's on the rise. There is one company that I'm happy to give a shout out to. It's called DSMN8. Wow. It's disseminate, but it's spelled... All right. See what I mean? It's spelled the letters and then 8. It's disseminate in abbreviation. They are an employee advocacy tool, but they've also got loads of amazing resources, and they provide reports and things like that. They've done some on the biotech industry, for example, and they'll show you who is performing really well. Then you can then obviously go and see what content that they're producing and their employees are producing to then obviously help inform your strategy on social media. So I think obviously reports are really interesting because, again, they've already gathered the data for you. If you're a company that doesn't want to invest yet into a tool, perhaps, then that's a great way to start somewhere.
Melanie
Cool. Thank you.
Esther
So you mentioned strategy there. And when it comes to determining the strategy for LabX Media Group, do you sit down in a big meeting? Do you present it or Does a smaller group present it? Does somebody just run with it? Because a lot of people, like myself and Melanie, I have an agency, but it's mainly just me makes the decisions. Melanie is a sole trader, so she's the only one makes decisions. But when it comes to a bigger group, how are those decisions made? And is it a long process to get the strategy approved? Or is it just like, yeah, we trust you, you run with it?
Xandrina
Yeah. Is That's actually a really interesting point. One thing we've been working on this year is actually doing brand new strategies for all of our brands. Since I came into this role, I've always worked, well, I say always worked for the company. I've worked for the company for seven years, but I've been in this new role for about a year. One of the The big things that we've been looking at is strategies. Obviously, like I said earlier, every brand is different, so they all need a unique strategy. The way we've done it is I have a template, a social media strategy template, and we work with each brand, and we work with our sales leaders, our editorial directors, and then our social media managers for the respective brands, and then myself. Then we all collect what's important, the goals, the types of content that we produce, how we're going to mix that in, how we're going to do it to optimize. Also We're thinking about our clients, how we're going to put that in the mix. It is a bit of a collaboration, really, that comes together. We create this big document, which is the meeting. If you really want to get into the weeds, it's got everything from tone of voice to literally the OKRs, how we're going to try and achieve them, frequency posts. You could go down the rabbit hole, crisis management, you name it. That's the meet, right? But then we also have this new document, which is a one-page strategy. So if you just want to say you're new to business, you just want to see, okay, what's happening for that brand? You can have a quick skim. These are the goals. This is the type of content, frequency of posts. It's all on one page. You just get a nice overview and you've got a bit of an understanding of what we're doing on social media. So that's how I approach it. Obviously, I guess people in other social media roles may approach it differently.
Melanie
Can I ask about your clients? Because obviously, social media requires, these days, for more appropriate visuals. That can be photos of people, maybe the staff, or even videos, stories, reels, that thing. Have you had any difficulty finding somebody who will fund this? How do you negotiate people to do it in the first place?
Xandrina
Yeah. One thing we do a lot of on social media is we create a lot of video content For our clients, a lot of the time what you say is, the challenge is they don't want to be on the camera themselves or they've not got a key member that wants to be on the camera. Our clients, because they're such big corporations, they obviously work with research scientists things like that. We often have somebody who's a mutual connection. So somebody they're working with that doesn't necessarily work for the company. Then they will talk about the research that they've been doing, for example. Then they might mention I guess, how the client has supported that with their equipment, with their tools, and that thing. Then we talk about the story behind that, and then obviously, storytelling is at the heart of social media. It's not always necessarily people who work for our clients Sometimes it is. Sometimes there are people who are absolutely happy to be on camera or to be the face of a company, but often it's somebody who works closely with the client that's the face of that. Then internally, we have individuals within our team who are happy to be on camera for our brands. Then there's obviously people who are very much want to take a behind the scenes, but then they often contribute to content in written word, for example, instead. Or they're happy with photos, they just don't want to be video.
Melanie
Fair enough.
Xandrina
Yeah.
Esther
Well, also then, speaking of the written word, you have published a book called Dear Social Media Manager.
Melanie
Here's when I prepared earlier.
Xandrina
Yes.
Esther
As if she knew I was going to ask her about it.
Melanie
It's mad, isn't it?
Xandrina
I know. Magic.
Esther
So what brought about wanting to write a book, the content for the book because also it was released on Social Media Day. So it was all very planned and coordinated. So how did it all come together so nicely?
Xandrina
Yeah. Well, you know what? It didn't come together so nicely to be a win. It was very chaotic, I must have been. I'm quite impulsive with some things. I always knew I wanted to write a book. Didn't know exactly how I'd end up there to become an author. But after attending and speaking at Social Day and the International Social Summit, the idea dawned on me that I love social media events so much because you have your community right there. You're with your peers, They are some of the best days I have all year because I'm surrounded by people who just get it. We face the same challenges. We really understand, obviously, what we do. It's so nice to be around other people who are in the same position. I was like, Well, why isn't there a book that embodies that essentially and has that community voice and paints a picture of the social media industry. That's when it dawned on me that I could create a book where it's all about the benefits, but also the challenges that we face as social media managers. I worked with my network, I spoke to people, I said, who would like to be involved? There's 46 different letters within the book that share different people's stories, ideas, challenges, the opportunities they've faced, their career journeys. Every letter is different, so it brings something different to the book, essentially. But I did it. I made the decision in between those events. Then I think it was just shy of seven weeks from the moment I decided to publish the book. There was a lot of late nights, but it was worth it. It's been very well received. I've had lovely feedback. My point for the book, it wasn't to become an international best seller or anything like that, but it's about giving back to the community. That's what I really wanted to do. I wanted to create something that I wish I'd had sooner. And every time I pick it up, I still find value in it. I feel like it's one of those things that you can turn back to time and time again and never get bored of reading it because there's just so much to take away. Whether it's a good day or a bad day, I say, it's something that you can You don't have to read it all in one go. You can literally pick it up and read a letter every now and then. It is marketed for social media managers, but I think anybody who wants to learn more about social media or the challenges or just be inspired of what's possible, it is a really interesting read.
Melanie
I can think of another use for it. I can think of one more use for it is you find a social media manager and they send this to the client. Then you say, This is what you're buying. These are all the dilemmas. These are all the things we have to work through. These are all the questions we have. These are all the trials and tribulations we have. This is why it costs so much. I think that would be a must read for any potential new client.
Xandrina
Yeah I agree. I think so many people would seek value in it. I think it would make people have a whole new appreciation of the industry, which is, again, one of the reasons why I wanted to create it. I did even say this, one of the One of the challenges people often face is that their colleagues, their C-suite board, or like you say, the clients, they don't understand. I actually make a nod to that in the book and say, This is a book you might want to get into the hands of those people. You did I'm glad you're thinking along the same lines as well.
Melanie
Where's next for Xandrina? I mean, you've been in the space for seven years. You're well known, well respected. Have you got any future projects coming up?
Xandrina
Yeah. There's a few different things. I have obviously written the first book, but I hope to write a couple more social media books in the future. That's definitely on my vision, on my radar to start thinking about and planning. But the next big one is I'm now founding my own company called Social Retreats. So I'm doing this in addition to, obviously, heading-.
Melanie
So you're bored, evidently.
Xandrina
I'm not bored. I'm just somebody who can't sit still.
Esther
We've spent lots of time on our hands. Have you not heard?
Xandrina
No. I mean, I'm also a mom of two. I'm renovating my house, but I-.
Melanie
Lord, help us.
Xandrina
I do not like this stuff. My other half sometimes is like, what?
Melanie
So is that why you were thinking social retreats? Because you need to break yourself.
Xandrina
Yeah, that's it. So I was thinking, you know what? Again, home back to community because I really enjoy events. My background actually before social media was in events management. That's what I did my degree in. I spent my first few years managing events. It's my two passions combined, really. It's an event, but also bringing social media professionals together, so the community side, and then teaching workshops throughout that, but also holding that space for people to actually log off because we are chronically online, whether we're actually working in it or whether we're scrolling in our own time, it's hard to get away from it. I think having social retreats and getting that dedicated time, but also as another extension to social retreats, I'm going to be hosting webinars and online trainings as well. I think So sharing more in-depth of my thoughts and my knowledge as well in the online space too, so that whether people are following me on LinkedIn or they know me through being one of my clients in the day job, then they can get more knowledge and more value from me and quite accessibly too.
Esther
Brilliant. And where can people find out more about the social retreats? Where can they find out about you, the book, everything else. Where do people go?
Xandrina
All of those things. Well, people can find me on LinkedIn. If you search Xandrina Allday, for social retreats, it's socialretreats.co.uk. And on there, any of my trainings and retreats will be listed. And as for the book, I will be adding that to the social retreats website soon, so you'll be able to find it via that. But if you search it on Amazon, it is available globally. And I have just seen yesterday that Waterstones are now stocking it online as well. So that's pretty-.
Melanie
Cool. So you didn't know about it.
Esther
For our American audience, that's like Barnes and Nobles.
Melanie
So you didn't know, you just found it, did you?
Xandrina
Yeah, I was looking at it, so I was copying out some of the links for the books from Canada, from US, from my newsletter. And then when I did that, I was like, Hold on, Waterstone? So I was how did that happen? I was very excited about that.
Melanie
Well done. Congrats.
Xandrina
Thank you.
Esther
That's brilliant.
Melanie
Okay, well, that's it from us for today. If you've got any other questions that you'd like to direct as Xandrina, do follow her up. We're absolutely delighted to have you on. It was quite a niche area, and I think we got a bit more industrial, commercial knowledge from you today rather than just the smaller business. And we have listeners from every single corner of marketing in general. So we're delighted to have you bring your knowledge today. We'll be back next week with another podcast, and we'll speak to them. Bye.
Esther
Bye.
Melanie
Okay, I'm sorry, did I sound like a complete nerd there?
Xandrina
No.
Melanie
Did I totally just nerd out on Xandrina? That's highly embarrassing.
Esther
You need to get her onto Irish tech news, just saying.
Melanie
Okay. That was subtle, very subtle.
Esther
While you have her here, you might as well ask.
