Navigating social media can be an intimidating challenge for many people, but particularly for company executives who may not be naturally inclined to communicate using social channels or have the time to learn how to use them.
My own experience with social media has evolved – initially by watching my teenage children use it to communicate, share photos, and catch up on the big news event of the day – and by watching others. For me, I find it easier to separately my personal and work life by using Facebook solely for family and friends, and Twitter and blogging for business topics.
Twitter is a fantastic way to reach a very broad audience. There are now four generations of people in the workforce and Twitter is a channel they all use!
And I really enjoy blogging because it allows me to express my opinions and points of view on IT topics that are top of mind with CIOs and IT leaders. I do many, many customer executive briefings and get input directly from customers and learn what’s most of interest and important to them. I use that information as an opportunity to express my and Cisco’s point of view on a variety of IT topics – collaboration, mobility, cloud and social.
So for those of you who need some encouragement, here are my top 10 tips for executive social media:
- Be relevant – be timely. It’s most important to get your point across while the topic is hot – if you tinker endlessly with your message, you’ll have missed the moment.
- Be provocative – use analytics and data points to back up your theories. Don’t be afraid to express your point of view.
- Use social media as a channel to message your organization and teams’ work and as a form of recognition. Colleagues will enjoy following you so use this channel as a way to express your appreciation!
- Show thought leadership (provide value)
- Use as an ongoing opportunity to connect with others – your peers, influencers and colleagues inside and outside your company
Let’s Chat! #CiscoSMT Social Media Training Series:
Executive View on Social Media Experiences - Listen to feedback and responses – have you resonated with your audience? This is a way to instantly get feedback. And don’t worry about responding to each and every comment; not everyone expects you to reply and when you do they are pleasantly surprised!
- Don’t spam. Enough said.
- Personalize your social media – offer insights to how you think. Be authentic and human. If you’re asked to re-tweet a company message, be sure it reflects your own thinking.
- Don’t be afraid to be an expert!
- Have fun. Go for it – it’s a new medium and we are all still learning; don’t be shy!
How are your executives using social media? And do you have other tips you would recommend in addition to the 10 listed above? For more executive insights regarding social media, check out the Let’s Chat! #ciscosmt Social Media Training Series executive panel we participated in on April 3rd.
Happy Collaborating…the social way!
Nice tips, now i can using Social Media like a Executive
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nice tips, i see your mind…
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thats true and Social Media is the fastest informal way of sharing, which have a greater effect.
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amazing tips,, thanks for information,,, have a nice day
Great tips. We useally not regular at the social media so that we can not get good feedback from it. So we should sigh in at the Social Media sites at timely maners.
Amazing tips Sheila. It is really informative post. I also use social networks for different purposes including branding of my website. Gonna follow your tips, they are good. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
especially your points 1, 6 , 7, 8 and 10 are great. Replyiing to feedback and comment is a must in networking.
Great tips, particularly for newbies. Honestly, Social networking has become the buzzword if you are to push your new blog..
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Very useful tips. These can really help one for promoting their brands. I am going to use them. Thanks for sharing.
Very well written and informative article. Its amazing how social media plays a part in business these days. I igored it initially for my Online Jewlery business. I did some consultation and found great value and benefit.
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Great Information. Thanks for sharing your experience.
By the way, I’m utilising power of social media fully. First of all, I made a strong social media presence by a facebook page and when page reached on 20,000+ fans, I launched my site http://mechneer.com . I started getting very high traffic even from my debut post on site.
Author had truly said all the points. If you want to grow your online presence, it is not possible without strong social media presence. After all, your social media followers are your permanent audiance/readers.
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Good tips,see below…
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Social media can be a great source of leads for a company if an effective strategy is in place. If your company doesn’t have a set strategy, it will be hard to get the results that you want!
Amazing tips , thank you very much to share it with us
Nice!!
i particularly like the first tip. relevance is important and with relevance, there should be swiftness as well. but should be with caution
Thank you for the info&tips
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