Meet the Social Misfits Squad — Natalie Clarke
“Meet the Social Misfits Squad” is our ongoing interview series where we sit down with members of the Misfits family to chat about their work, passions and backgrounds.
This week, we caught up with one of the more senior members of our squad, Natalie Clarke, who’s been with us for just under one year. Natalie is Social Misfits’ Managing Director, meaning that she’s responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of our agency. Natalie has been working in the social media industry for over 10 years, so she certainly knows the difference between a tweet thread and an Instagram story!
What’s a typical day at SMM for you Natalie?
My role covers everything from running the agency day-to-day, to client strategy, building the SMM brand and new business, so there isn’t really a typical day for me at Social Misfits Media — although it will always start with a cup of tea. My days can be filled with client planning, new business meetings or calls, taking partners out for coffee (tea for me), internal meetings for all things SMM, or getting stuck into a new deck!!
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve found from working at SMM?
Coming from an e-commerce perspective where there are teams and sub-teams looking after social media, I’m pleasantly surprised at how much the organisations we work with achieve with such limited resource in terms of team size. It really is inspiring.
What’s the one piece of advice you’d give our clients?
Social media success really is all about your community, so get to know them. Find out where they are (because it’s likely they won’t be on every social platform), understand what content engages them, be clear about what it is you would like them to do, and most importantly, don’t talk at them — encourage conversation.
What purpose-led campaign in recent years has resonated with you most?
There are too many to single out an individual campaign, but the campaigns that resonate with me the most are the ones that integrate nicely into how I use social media platforms on a personal level. So those that are using Instagram stories, and content in general, in an innovative way. There have been a lot recently in the mental health and body positivity space that are using Instagram content, specifically created for the platform (so portrait video and relevant influencers) to drive conversations.
Personally, what’s your favourite social media platform and why?
It has to be Instagram. While I’m still very much a Facebook user in terms of connecting with friends and looking at very old photos, I love the creativity that Instagram allows and encourages. I’ve got a very long commute into work and it can fly by getting lost in Instagram Stories. I absolutely love watching stories that do clearly have a ‘story’ (as in a beginning, a middle and an end) and you just know they’ve been planned out each frame! There are some people (no names mentioned) whose stories I genuinely look forward to.
What’s the last TV show you’ve binged?
Well I’m currently watching ‘Pandemic’ on Netflix, but the last thing I binged was ‘Time: The Kalief Browder Story’.
What 4 pieces of pop culture would you take with you to a desert island?
This is definitely going to highlight how uncool I am, but my film would definitely be from the Avengers series (I don’t know if I can pick right now), my TV series would be One Tree Hill because there are 9 series and a lot of episodes to keep me entertained (otherwise it would be The O.C.), the album would be one of the NOW That’s What I Call Music! — maybe number 65, and can I choose a ‘How to Survive on a Desert Island’ for my book?
Please feel free to connect with Natalie on her LinkedIn profile or Twitter account. Next week we’ll be talking to our Junior Designer, Felicity Hamilton!
