CEO, Speaker & Blogger: Ian Cleary Is Turning Razorsocial Into A Global Success

I always had a hunger for learning and I could never read fiction books.  This learning appetite translates well in the business world as I learn every day. I’m also a very focussed and single minded person and this has always been the case.  Once I’ve set my mind on something I work hard to achieve it.

In 2005 you went in a completely different direction businesswise – was the decision easy and why Social Media tools and training?

In 2005 I ended up working for a large corporate after a smaller startup I was involved in was acquired.  Over the previous couple of years I was dabbling in other business ventures outside of my 9 to 5 job so I thought it was a good opportunity to go out on my own.

The large corporate environment was not really suitable for me.  The difficult part of the decision was leaving a very well paid job but it was the right decision.  My wife also left her IT job at a similar time to join me in the business also.

I was asked to give a presentation on social media and I had very limited knowledge of what it was all about in 2005. The presentation led to me getting the opportunity to train a group of businesses and then this training developed into more training opportunities.

So I stumbled into social media – it wasn’t really planned!

You’ve always been interested in entrepreneurship – do you have any tips for anyone starting out?

My biggest tip is to follow what you are passionate about.  To be successful in Entrepreneurship requires a lot of perserverance and hard work.   You will get knocked back so many times that if you’re not really passionate about what you are doing it’s very difficult.  Last Saturday I was in the office at 5.30am and would have been happy to do the same on Sunday!

You’ve done really well across the pond. What do you think is the secret to breaking into the American market?

My best decision was to get on a plane and commit to going to the US on a regular basis.  Social media is great for building relationships but it will never replace actually meeting people.  My focus in the US was about building relationships and helping people.   When I met key influential people in the US my only thought was how can I help them.  This has worked extremely well.

There is a long list in your LinkedIn profile summary. What do you consider is your greatest achievement to date?

Within 6 months of launching our blog we were recognized as one of the top 10 social media blogs in a global competition run by Social Media Examiner.  We knew we were building something special when this happened.

What advice would you give to a company that doesn’t understand why they need to be on Social Media?

Social media is an amazing opportunity to build relationships with people around the world and we all know that relationships are key to the success of any business.   I am a firm believer that your network is your net worth and social media will certainly help to increase your network.

What is next on the agenda for Ian Cleary and Razorsocial?

I always wanted to be on stage but I can’t sing or dance but through our business I’m getting the opportunity to speak at the biggest social media events around the world.  I want to grow this area of the business.  I’m also in the middle of writing a book based around social media tools and technology.

We want to continue to grow RazorSocial as a brand and to be recognized as the global experts in the delivery of information related to social media tools.  We have launched our first paid guide for social media tools and will be launching online training which will go alongside the book.  We have some really interesting partnerships lined up with US Organizations that we are very excited about also.

Also we’ve just published this Infographic below.  One of the problems with social media marketing is that at the end of a day you never feel you’ve done enough.  But there are only so many hours in the day and you need to make the most of the time you have available.

In this infographic we take a look at a very busy day in the life of a social media marketer and in particular the tools they might use. The tools do not guarantee success on social media but if you pick the right tools you can certainly be more effective and efficient.

There are 29 tools in total listed. We hope you will pick out at least a couple that will help.

Infographic courtesy of: RazorSocial