Meet Maggie, Chief Marketing Officer at Hootsuite
We spoke with Maggie Lower, our (relatively) newly appointed CMO to talk about her journey to Hootsuite, and where she’s taking us from here:
🌎 What nest are you in?
I have my own little nest in my home in Chicago. I so appreciate Hootsuite’s distributed workforce approach, allowing us all to decide where we work. For me, it means eating dinner with my family at least 4 nights a week where I didn’t have that before. I travel to the Vancouver office to work with my team and love going there. I’ve also visited my colleagues in Seattle and New York, but working from home is working well for me.
📲 What is your favourite social channel?
I’m definitely most active on LinkedIn. Over the years I’ve built up a large professional network that I enjoy engaging with on that platform. I recently shared a video on my LinkedIn profile to talk about my thoughts on being recognized as a Top 100 LGBT+ Executive and my perspective on the challenges facing our community right now. To be honest, it was a bit scary to do because it comes from a very real place. But I was blown away by the support that I continue to receive from my network and beyond. That’s part of my focus at Hootsuite — I want to be a part of taking some of the tarnish off of social media that has taken place over the last few years. #SocialForGood
😎 What drew you to Hootsuite?
I saw it as a chance to join a company that literally created a market and seems to have a lot of fun doing it. The leadership team is so talented and warm and the commitment to marketing was very clear. The team is youthful, passionate and exuberant and the brand persona is thoughtful but still has room to explore. Perfect combination.
🦉 What do you want your Hootsuite and overarching career legacies to be?
I want to always know that I’ve left a place better than I arrived. I want to be someone that reaches back to bring people through any doors I’m able to kick open (people sure as heck have done that for me!), and I want my teams to work hard but also have fun!
🙌 What’s the best way to stay aligned and work together to achieve overarching communications and business goals?
It’s probably very simple, but you have to stay connected and communicate authentically, if you’re not having real conversations you’re not going to uncover true innovation — people have to feel safe to think boldly.
❤️ What do you love about the work you do?
My brain works a little differently so I think that’s what drew me to marketing. I love the mix of science and art in my discipline. While Marketing has become much easier to quantify, there will always be areas of marketing that you need to grow and develop to be a global company that you can’t easily measure. That excites me. Companies that want to create resonant brands need to have alignment around the art (brand, persona, culture) to be able to hit the Marketing ROI targets that are more measurable in PR, Demand Gen and Performance Marketing as an example.
👏 What are you proud of?
I’m proud of my adaptability and ability to hit the ground running. I started only four months ago and have already represented Hootsuite speaking at AdWorld, SMW London and WebSummit. But I love doing it! It’s exhilarating and really gives us the chance to show that we know social, and are able to help navigate our customers to where social-first business and life is going. Personally, it’s also becoming more courageous about being “out” and receiving global recognition and support for that. I also beam with pride every time someone who I’ve worked with in marketing does something new and amazing, several people from my former teams have gone on to become CMOs themselves, nothing makes me happier, marketing is a community and I treasure it.
💡 What advice would you give someone looking to follow your lead?
I have been privileged to have worked for some people who have been true leaders, who have been willing to stick their necks out to support me. I highly recommend finding those people. And when you do, learn from them. But meet them where they are and when they have the time, and absorb everything you can. I’d also recommend you be brave — do things that are outside your comfort zone, it’s really the only way I know to build resilience which becomes a mission critical skill the further up the chain you go! And lastly, learn to actively listen rather than just waiting for your turn to speak. There’s a difference.
#OneTeam is one of our guiding principles, and Maggie is a shining example as she creates safe, inclusive spaces to empower her team to do their best work. If this sounds like a workplace you would thrive in, take a look at our open roles on Maggie’s team!
