Interview with Manuel Marinari, CEO & Founder of Sway Society On Essence of Social Media

Manuel Marinari is an Italian social media influencer, digital marketer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Sway Society, a social media marketing agency located in Taipei, Taiwan. Marinari grew up in Milan, Italy, where he studied social communication at IULM Communication University and honed his online skills. After graduating Marinari relocated to the Asia-Pacific region, where he built a vast network of 25 million followers across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. He also writes for several online publications in the digital space.

WHAT ‘SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING’ IS ALL ABOUT?

Social Media is now the most important marketing tool for every company in the world. Social Media is the face of your brand, the platform to use to spread your brand awareness and it even becomes the company’s customer service. There are many entirely newborn businesses on social media platforms and many others that died because they’ve refused to ride the social media wave.

CAN YOU SHARE WHY BEING ON SOCIAL MEDIA IS SO IMPORTANT FOR A BRAND NOW?

I’ll make it short and clear; as a marketer you always invest where people’s attention is.

And we’re spending an average of five hours per day on our phones. Portable devices revolution changed the game and everybody is on social media platforms right now. Compared to the past we have way more attention by users and we have data able to specifically target them.

During the last decade many popular luxury brands stated they didn’t need to increase their brand awareness on social media confident in their strong global image and reputation. The story itself talked and now all of them are active and creating daily content on Instagram and soon on TikTok. Why? They finally understood they needed to build the dream in their future clients starting from younger generations. Let’s say you are a twelve years old kid playing TikTok day and night and you watch amazing videos of Ferrari cars till you’ll become a man. The day that kid, now a man, would be able to afford a supercar he’s likely to buy a Ferrari instead of a Lamborghini if this one didn’t invest in that kid’s dreams from the beginning.

UPON YOUR EXPERIENCE, HOW DO YOU THINK COVID-19 HAS IMPACTED THE BUSINESSES?

It has impacted pretty well every digital business in the short term and it will impact even more in the long term. Average user has been forced to change their habits and now he’s more keen to buy online services and order online products. Facebook and Instagram grew their revenues and a new social media called Tik Tok became popular and now the number one thanks to the pandemic situation.

BASED ON YOUR KNOW-HOW IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING, WHAT STEPS DO YOU SUGGEST COMPANIES TAKE NOW?

Definitely keep creating content, especially video content on their social platforms and join Tik Tok before it will become saturated as Facebook and Instagram already are. TikTok still offers an amazing organic free reach and exposure, it can literally change your brand sales and website clicks from a day to another.

WHAT RECOMMENDATIONS WOULD YOU GIVE TO A COMPANY THAT DOES NOT WANT TO JOIN THE SOCIAL MEDIA ERA?

This is a funny question, I don’t see any bright future for anyone who’s still obstinate not investing in social media. You won’t have any chance to expand your business and it can work only if your target audience is very local.

WHAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TO ATTRACT A SPECIFIC NICHE OR GROUP OF TARGET PEOPLE?

My favorite way is through micro-influencer marketing campaigns. Micro influencer is everyone with an audience below 50.000 followers, usually more willing to collaborate with brands and with a very targeted and engaging fanbase. Not only I think it is the best way to specifically hit a niche but it’s also the one which provides higher ROI.

HOW MARKETING LEADERS CAN BE BETTER MENTORS AND TRUE LEADERS OF THEIR TEAMS?

I was a very bad boss. My lack of patience was my worst trait. Then I met my wife, she’s a teacher. I learnt from her how to train and relate with my team. I totally changed my approach, a true leader needs to be a coach first, keep encouraging and boosting morale, providing consistent feedback, able to adapt and finally a mentor has to be transparent and mindful, creating personal connections and able to understand your team members and the environment in which they thrive.