by Caroline Leach | May 27, 2018 | Learning, Social Media
My research about how people are using social media to boost their careers asked about do’s and don’ts.
Here are 10 do’s and 5 don’ts. While some of the don’ts are the flip side of the do’s, the don’ts add more perspective and context.
One of the best survey comments was this: “A twist on the Golden Rule, if you will: I try not to share something that I wouldn’t want to read from someone else.”
That sums it up in a nutshell. Read on for how to put that take on the Golden Rule into practice. And thanks to the people who generously shared their thoughts that inform this list.
DO
Share good stuff. Share content that will help people in your networks be better in their work and their life. Good content can come from anywhere – your experiences, your reading, your network, your employee advocacy program, and so much more. Good content is good content, regardless of where it’s from, as I shared in Part 4 of this series.
Be positive. Keep it upbeat and friendly. Somewhat surprisingly, positive stories get shared more often than negative ones.
Be authentic. Be yourself. Share your experience. After all, no one is exactly like you. That is your strength and your opportunity.
Be reciprocal. Engage with content you like that’s aligned with your areas of focus. Ask questions. Post comments. Share relevant content with your networks.
Be social. Have conversations with people, just as you would in real life. Engage in dialogue, rather than making statements.
Be kind. Everyone is struggling with some kind of burden, whether you can see it on the outside our not. Act with kindness and compassion.
Post content that reflects well on you and your employer. What do you want your carefully curated network to see? What do you want your current or future boss and colleagues to see? What do you want your customers to see?
Consider these questions every time you share content. Ensure it will reflect well on you as well as your employer. You are a brand ambassador of your organization. Take that responsibility seriously. (Note: opinions shared in this blog are my own.)
Keep your social profiles updated. Spend a few minutes each month refreshing your profiles, especially LinkedIn. Did you complete an important project? Win an award? Get quoted in an article? Give a speech? Add it to your profile and include media and links.
Try new things. Keep experimenting. Observe how others are innovating. Try posting at different times than you normally do. Experiment with new forms of content, especially video. See what a new app can do for you.
Provide context for your reason for connecting with people. This will help people quickly understand why you want to connect. It’s why you should always personalize your LinkedIn invitations. You’ll stand out among the sea of unpersonalized invites. And you’ll forge a stronger relationship right from the beginning.
DON’T
Post too frequently. What is too frequently? Anything that makes the reader wonder how the poster has time to do their job. In general, one post a day in each of your social platforms is fine. Are there exceptions? Sure, a few examples are if it’s a big news day in your world or if you’re live tweeting an event.
Be too personal. What’s too personal? Pictures from a medical procedure. Posts about personal conversations with your significant other. Saying you don’t plan to be with your employer at your next service anniversary. Yes, I’ve seen people post all of these things.
Post political statements. There is no upside here, and there’s plenty of downside. Wharton professor Adam Grant recently shared that “when solving a problem with money on the line, people ignored the advice of experts with different political views, even though the task had nothing to do with politics.” Sharing your political views limits your audience and your influence. It’s best to keep political discussions among your family and friends.
Post anything that reflects poorly on you or your employer. This includes not sharing any confidential or proprietary information of your employer. Be sure to read all links you share, essentially looking before you link. Don’t share if there’s anything in the least bit disparaging about your employer or your industry.
Immediately spam new connections. Don’t. Do. This. Ever. Establish a relationship first over time, before you even think about pitching new business or asking for a meeting in someone’s busy schedule. Instead, take the time to understand what’s important to your new contact, and how you may be able to help.
Thanks to Tim Ferriss and Maria Popova, I no longer feel compelled to respond to every message. “Sometimes, the best ‘no’ is no reply,” Tim subtitled a section in his book, Tools of Titans. It’s about the “tactics, routines and habits of billionaires, icons, and world-class performers.”
In interviewing BrainPickings.org founder Maria Popova, Tim shared these words of wisdom: “Why put in the effort to explain why it isn’t a fit, if they haven’t done the homework to determine if it is a fit?” she asks.
“Maria could spend all day replying to bad pitches with polite declines,” Tim notes. “I think of her policy often. Did the person take 10 minute to do their homework? Are they minding the details? If not, don’t encourage more incompetence by rewarding it.”
Indeed. Hear, hear!
What would you add to this list?
by Caroline Leach | May 14, 2018 | Social Media
Do you want to share great content in your social media to boost you career, but don’t know how to get started?
See if your employer offers an employee advocacy program.
Forty percent of respondents to my social media research in March 2018 said their employer offered one.
Part 4 in this series of posts on the research covers employee advocacy programs.
One of the big PR trends for this year is the growth in employee advocacy.
Through them, companies empower their employees to be brand ambassadors. Employees can share official news and information about the company and its brand through their personal social media channels.
In my survey, here’s the percentage of respondents who shared employee advocacy program content once a month or more:
- LinkedIn: 38%
- Twitter: 29%
- Facebook: 25%
- Instagram: 6%
- YouTube: 6%
It wasn’t surprising to me that LinkedIn and Twitter took the top 2 spots. It was surprising to see Instagram as low as it was.
For comparison’s sake, how does this stack up to the results in the in the 2017 State of Employee Advocacy study by JEM Consulting? This is an annual study that comes out each August, according to the company’s CEO Jen McClure.
In this study, companies said their employee advocates used these channels for advocacy in personal social media in these percentages:
- Facebook: 76%
- Instagram: 62% (up from 15% the year prior)
- Twitter: 56%
- LinkedIn: 44% (down from 100% the year prior)
- YouTube: 43% (up from 8% the year prior)
Some of the year-over-year changes in popularity point to the fast-changing nature of social media.
And even though my survey respondents aren’t using Instagram a lot via employee advocacy programs, the percentages from the State of Employee Advocacy confirm my belief that Instagram is on the rise for career building.
Finally, I asked how content from an employee advocacy program performs from an engagement perspective, relative to the respondents’ other content.
For all social media, most respondents said the content performs the same. So from an engagement perspective, using content from an employee advocacy program neither drives nor diminishes engagement.
Good content is good content, regardless of where it’s from. It has to be true to your authentic voice, and the types of topics you share in social media.
This came through in a respondent’s comment about why they didn’t use employee advocacy programs: “The content they produce is not ‘shareworthy.’ It’s spun too much from a PR perspective.”
I’m ever impressed that this is not the case for the employee advocacy program at my employer. (Note: opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)
My colleagues Nolan Carleton and Claire Mitzner do an outstanding job curating content for a variety of employee interests. From tech and innovation to career and social hacks to business and consumer news, there’s something for everyone.
What this means is that tapping into an employee advocacy program, if it’s a good one, will make your social media life simpler. You’ll have a whole menu of content options that you can easily customize for your voice and share with your networks.
The conclusion that good content is good content regardless of its origins aligns with Part 3 of this series. It focused on what types of content gets the most engagement, as defined by likes, comments and shares. It also looked at strategies to increase engagement.
Part 2 of this series looked at reasons why people are active in social media to boost their careers.
Part 1 of this series kicked it off with the survey goals, methodology, respondents, and professional and personal social media use.
What’s up next in Part 5? It will cover do’s and don’ts in using social media to boost your career.
What are your do’s and don’ts?
by Caroline Leach | Apr 22, 2018 | Learning, Social Media
What did you share in social media in the last week? How did your network respond? What did your analytics look like?
In part 3 of this series of posts on social media research I did in March 2018, I’ll share the data relevant to those questions.
Part 1 in this series covered the survey goals, methodology, respondents, and professional and personal social media use.
Part 2 looked at the reasons why people are active in social media to boost their careers.
Part 3 in this series covers:
- What types of LinkedIn content get the most engagement
- What topics on LinkedIn get the most engagement, and
- Strategies to increase engagement with your social media content, regardless of the platform.
How is engagement defined? It’s likes, comments and shares of your content.
LinkedIn content types that get the most engagement
By far, Sharing an article was the type of LinkedIn content that gets the most engagement, with 68% of respondents choosing it.
In second place, half of that at 34% said Sharing a photo.
Tied for third place was Sharing an idea and Resharing content of others at 22%.
In last place was Sharing a video at 19%. This surprised me the most, given how popular video content has become. However, the addition of video has only come to LinkedIn in the last year, so it’s still relatively early days. I expect to see this percentage grow over time, as more people experiment with video content.
Some of the comments added great ideas to the mix:
“On the job photos, specifically of participation at a company event, with a company leader, or an interesting ‘behind the scenes’ moment.”
“Articles on industry thought leadership topics get read/liked/shared by my peers.”
“Content that congratulates or promotes and tags others in exemplary work.”
LinkedIn topics that get the most engagement
The topics in LinkedIn content that attract the most engagement are:
- Industry trends (48%)
- Leadership (34%)
- News about your employer (30%)
This confirms two of the top three reasons people are active in social media to boost their careers – accessing news about your industry and profession (81%) and learning continually about your industry and profession (77%).
Strategies to increase engagement with your content
Lastly, what are effective ways to increase engagement with your social media content, regardless of the platform?
Two strategies rose to the top:
- Tag people in the post, if they’re in an accompanying photo or video (75%)
- Mention relevant people in the post (65%)
Some of the comments offered up more ideas:
“Hashtags generate interest, especially from young professionals.”
“When people are authentic with their voice and message and thank (tag) the people who helped contribute to the project or idea get a lot of organic engagement.”
“Provide my point of view when sharing an article – not a headline, but instead an insightful suggest that might entice someone to read it. Ask a question.”
Two strategies that were only selected by 20% of respondents are actions that I have found valuable in increasing engagement.
First is to tag people in the post, even if they’re not in the accompanying photo or video. Why? This alerts them to content that may be of interest to them or their network.
The caveat here is not to overuse this strategy to the point that it becomes annoying to others. A way to decide? When someone you’ve tagged multiple times does not engage with your content.
A group of people who do a great job tagging people in posts are colleagues at my employer. (Note: opinions expressed in this blog are my own). Sarita Rao, John Starkweather, Sarah Groves, John Stancliffe, Eisaiah Engel, and Knox Keith are a few good examples. By tagging relevant people in their LinkedIn and Twitter content, they make sure that their content is seen by a wider audience.
Second is to sent separate, tailored messages to relevant people, alerting them of the post. This strategy I learned from others who sent me brief direct messages in LinkedIn to tell me about an article and why I might be interested in it. They did not specifically ask me to like, comment on, or share their content. But if I found value in the article, I engaged with it.
Many people commented that they don’t post frequently as a career-building strategy. One respondent said, “I have not built the confidence yet to post my own ideas in LinkedIn. I’m trying to figure out my voice before posting my ideas and also what I want to represent with my personal brand.”
An easy way to get started with content updates is by tapping into an employee advocacy program, if your employer offers one. These programs serve up ready-make, on-brand content that you can share as is in your social networks, or add your point of view.
The next post in this series will share how survey respondents are taking advantage of employee advocacy. How are you using it?
by Caroline Leach | Apr 15, 2018 | Learning, Social Media
Why are people active on social media professionally?
This post answers that question, based on a survey I fielded in March 2018.
The main goal? To learn how fellow professionals are using social media to build their careers.
In this series of posts on the survey results, part 1 addressed the survey goals, methodology, respondents, and professional and personal social media use.
Now let’s turn to why people are active in social media to boost their careers.
Respondents could choose as many answers as applied, including an “other” option asking them to specify.
The top 3 reasons?
- Build a network (86%)
- Access news about your industry and profession (81%)
- Learn continually about your industry and profession (77%)
Lower down the list that I expected were:
- Find a new job (47%)
- Establish yourself as a thought leader (46%)
- Raise your visibility among key decision makers at your employer (40%)
- Position yourself for a promotion (11%)
- Change careers (10%)
It surprised me that Establish yourself as a thought leader wasn’t higher than its spot as the #5 reason. Because social media offers such a significant opportunity to share content and establish thought leadership, I hope and expect to see this number grow in the future.
In fact, it could even be considered the flip side of Learn continually about your industry and profession. In comments, many respondents wrote that they sought out and followed thought leaders for continual learning.
Here’s what a few said:
“I follow key leaders within my company on LinkedIn and Twitter, as well as best-selling authors and speakers and influential business men and women to know what’s happening in our industry, but also learn career advice that will help anyone regardless of industry.”
“I read articles daily on LinkedIn to find out more about my industry and learn about other industries I’m interested in.”
“I follow several thought leaders on social media … and they help me expand my horizons and my thinking, hopefully to the benefit of my entire team!”
With so many people looking to social media to continually learn new information that’s relevant to their career and industry, that creates an opportunity for YOU.
How so? If you’re not already sharing your experience and expertise in social media, consider what you could share that would add value to others who are looking to learn.
Are there questions that colleagues often ask you that tap into your expertise? This could be a place to start in thinking about the types of content you could share.
And you can begin with small steps. LinkedIn is a great place. From your home feed, share an article, photo, video or idea. Or experiment with posting an article once a quarter during the calendar year. See how your network responds and adjust your approach. More content ideas are in my post about engaging topics for LinkedIn.
You can try to same thing with Twitter. Share an idea, an article or a video. Keep it simple by sharing your LinkedIn content in Twitter as well, tailoring it for the micro-blogging, shorter format on Twitter.
Be sure that any information you share is appropriate to be posted in public, in alignment with your organization’s social media guidelines. (Note: opinions express in this blog are my own.)
Other great learning strategies that respondents mentioned:
- Join LinkedIn groups of interest and be an active participant
- View Twitter trending topics
- Tap into YouTube for how-to videos
- Follow influencers, brands and trade publications
- Check out competitor company social media activity
- Search hashtags, even attending events virtually by following hashtags
It was exciting to see the focus on continual learning in the survey results.
Why?
My post on telling your career story in Instagram, cited a 2017 report by the Institute for the Future. It estimates that 85% of the jobs people will do in 2030 haven’t even been invented yet.
That’s only 12 years away. Even if this estimate turns out to be much lower than 85%, there’s still a lot of learning we all need to do!
Speaking of learning, “a blog is a learning process,” says career blogger Penelope Trunk in her online course called Reach Your Goals by Blogging. “A blog is a document of how you’re becoming an expert.”
She also says, “you MUST learn something in each post. Write and write and write until something surprises you. The ending is your “a-ha” moment.”
My learning moments? My surprises?
First is discovering that the process of writing these posts about my survey is serving as an additional layer of analysis, beyond reading and thinking about the results. Writing about the results makes me think about them in new and different ways, perhaps because it’s more active.
This led to my second learning moment – connecting continual learning with thought leadership. In simply reading through the responses, I did not reach that conclusion. Yet it became clear that one was the flip side of the other, once I could see the words on screen in this post.
If you need a compelling reason to start establishing yourself as a thought leader, here it is …
People are seeking thought leaders, we all need to learn continually, and you have insights to share.
When you share them, you learn yourself, contribute to your network and start to establish yourself as an expert.
What will you share in the week ahead?
by Caroline Leach | Apr 10, 2018 | Learning, Social Media
How are people using social media to build their careers?
There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence by simply observing the platforms – mainly LinkedIn and Twitter, followed by Facebook and Instagram.
But we live in a data-driven world, and numbers are important. So I ran a survey on the subject in March 2018.
As I tell my mentees in the USC Annenberg mentoring program, some of what I learned in grad school is surprisingly timeless in our fast-changing world.
“Uses of Communications Research” was one of those evergreen courses. My professor, Dr. Sheila Murphy, is with Annenberg today, exploring how message factors, individual level factors, and cultural level factors impact decision making.
One thing that has changed a lot is the functionality of Survey Monkey. It felt gamified in a fun way as I continued editing the survey until the platform gave it a perfect score. It also gave an estimated completion rate and time.
In my next several posts, I’ll share the survey results. This one covers survey goals, methodology, respondents, professional and personal use of social media, and a list of upcoming topics. (Note: opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)
SURVEY GOALS
The main goal of the survey was to learn how fellow professionals are using social media to build their careers. Specifically, it addressed:
- What social media people use professionally and personally
- Why they are active on social media professionally
- How their social media activity has helped their career, others’ careers and their employer.
METHODOLOGY
The survey had 42 questions in 5 sections:
- Your professional and personal social media use
- Your approach to privacy
- How you use social media to build your career
- Your (open-ended) comments
- About you
RESPONDENTS
Here’s how people were invited to respond:
- Posts in this blog
- A LinkedIn article and follow-up posts for 3,200+ connections and followers
- A LinkedIn article on the USC Alumni Association page with 46,000 members
- Tweets, including a pinned one in March, for 2,100+ followers
- A Facebook post
- Emails to everyone in my personal email contact list
- Emails to the Forum-Group for senior-level communicators
- Emails to the USC Annenberg Alumni Advisory Board
- Emails to USC Annenberg Alumni Ambassadors
My original goal was to reach 500+ responses. It was humbling to put in so much work and hear from approximately 100 people. But for those respondents, I am extremely grateful. You know who you are, and thank you for being part of this initial experiment!
This is research I may do annually to view trends over time. And I may do a few shorter pulse surveys each quarter on a topic of interest. I’d love to hear from you if there are specific questions you want data on.
Nearly one quarter of the respondents provided their contact info for follow-up interviews. I’ll do those throughout the year and write posts about people who are using social media in innovative ways.
Data points on the respondents
76% are employed full time, 19% own a business, 11% run a side gig. Respondents could choose more than one answer
41% work in media and communications, 12% in marketing, and 8% in business and finance. The survey used occupation groups from the U.S. Department of Labor
24% are managers, 21% are directors, 17% are individual contributors, 16% are business owners, 8% are vice presidents, and 3% are C-Suite
56% have a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of education, and 33% have a master’s degree
45% are Gen X, 29% are Gen Y/Millennials, 18% are Boomers, and 3% are Gen Z/Centennials
59% are women, and 40% are men
In response to “how would you describe yourself?” 67% are white, 10% are Hispanic or Latino, 2% each are African American or Asian, 11% preferred not to answer, and 8% chose “other” and wrote a comment. My favorite ones? “Really? I’m a human,” and “You know this is becoming a trickier question to answer, right?” Yes, absolutely.
PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL SOCIAL MEDIA USE
For professional use, not surprisingly, LinkedIn was the #1 platform with 98% using it to build their careers. Twitter was a distant second at 47%. Facebook followed at 34% and Instagram was at 19%. YouTube was 12% and Snapchat was 2%.
Others mentioned in comments were Nextdoor, WordPress, Goodreads, Amazon Author Page, StumbleUpon and about.me.
For personal use, not surprisingly, Facebook was #1 at 88% on the network, followed by 75% on Instagram. Of note, the survey was fielded while the user data controversy news was beginning to be reported about Facebook, which also owns Instagram. As the story plays out, results might be different a few months or a year from now.
By comparison, Facebook is used by 68% of U.S. adults, according to Pew Research Center in February 2018. It also reported that 73% use YouTube, 35% use Instagram, 27% use Snapchat, and 25% use LinkedIn.
Many people blend the personal and professional in a single social media account on a platform – 38% for Twitter, 35% for Facebook and 22% for Instagram.
As far as maintaining separate accounts for professional and personal use on the same platform, 59% DON’T do that. For those who DO maintain separate accounts, 28% do for Facebook, 19% do for Twitter, and 17% do for Instagram.
While some respondents DO blend the professional and personal in social media, this data confirmed that LinkedIn and Twitter lead for professional use and Facebook and Instagram lead for personal use. Respondents also have higher social media usage rates than the general population.
UPCOMING TOPICS
Sharing the data from the survey will fill several upcoming posts. Those posts will then form the basis for a comprehensive report.
Here are the upcoming topics:
- Why people are active in social media and how it’s helped their careers
- How often people visit various sites and how often they post
- What content gets the most engagement and how people increase engagement
- The role and impact of employee advocacy programs
- How people approach privacy
Plus some synthesis of several open-ended questions:
- Do’s and don’ts in social media
- Lifelong learning strategies in social media
- Productivity with social media: boon or bane?
- Using video in social media
- Serendipitous moments in social media
- Bad things that have happened and how people handled them
- The next big thing in social media for career building
- Who’s doing it well? Interview series with some of the survey respondents
What else do you want to know about how people are boosting their careers through social media?
by Caroline Leach | Apr 5, 2018 | Social Media
Do you think your career story doesn’t lend itself to Instagram?
Do you believe your days full of meetings and screens aren’t visually compelling?
After all, Instagram is about high-quality photos and the overall vibe, say Brian Peters and Hailley Griffis in one of my favorite podcasts, The Science of Social Media.
The aesthetic bar is high. One strategy Brian and Hailley recommend is doing research to find top accounts and see what’s working for others.
Here’s a great way to fast track the research on people who are using Instagram well to tell their career stories: check out the Instagram for the Sparkset App.
Here you can see all kinds of work in a visual way. Lawyers, doctors, communicators, marketers, editors, social media analysts, cinematographers, scientists and many more are featured in the site’s posts.
Beyond that, you can check out the 1,700+ accounts that Sparkset App is following for more great examples.
Together, they show that your workspace, your presentations, your travels, and your interactions with people, data and things – plus so much more – are all ways to tell your professional story in a visual way.
Be sure, of course, to only post what can be shared in public. Always follow your employer’s social media guidelines, both the letter and the spirit. (Opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)
How did I find Sparkset?
In doing research about how people are using social media to build their careers, I invited people in my network to complete a survey and share it with their networks.
As a serendipitous outcome, Tom Henkenius, a storytelling expert, introduced me to a fellow USC alum in his network. Her name is Tiffany Frake, a senior account director serving the auto industry.
Tiffany’s three young sons were the inspiration for her to launch an app called Sparkset. Fascinated by how people choose their career paths – or mostly don’t consciously choose them – she wanted to help her children and others make better decisions.
Enter Sparkset.
As Tiffany explains, “It’s a visual platform for current and future generations to truly explore careers and job shadow professionals in a virtual way.”
Here you can:
- Job shadow contacts and professionals from around the world
- Explore and follow professionals in different industries
- Visually capture your professional responsibilities and accomplishments
- Discover new careers and companies.
Tiffany has a big vision. “The hope is that the platform can enable people to make conscious career choices,” she says, “and not just follow the path of least resistance.”
This is especially important as people make decisions about their first jobs, their next career steps, and their career transitions as their interests and the world change at an ever-increasing pace.
A 2017 report by the Institute for the Future estimates that 85% of the jobs people will do in 2030 haven’t even been invented yet. More than ever, we’re all lifelong learners. And we can share what we’re learning as one way of cultivating our personal brand.
When Tiffany embarked on this journey, she did research about current gaps in social media for developing a career and making valuable connections.
She asked two questions. The first: can people tell their professional stories through images? The second: who is doing this well?
She has captured her ongoing learnings in both her app and her Instagram. In each you can see all kinds of day-to-day work in a visual way.
Who else is sharing their career story well on Instagram? A few of my favorites …
TeNita Ballard, a diversity and inclusion champion
Chris Adlam, a top-producing realtor
Jessica Sterling, an LA event and portrait photographer
Young Guru, a hip-hop sound engineer and renaissance thinker
Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Jaime Lee, president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors
This brings up several more questions for me …
- How are people coming up with compelling content?
- How are they curating content from others?
- How are they using video?
- How are they thinking about the personal and professional blend?
These and many more will be the subjects of future posts.
In the meantime, whose professional stories are you following on Instagram?
by Caroline Leach | Mar 21, 2018 | Learning, Social Media
When it comes to social media innovation, I’m inspired by many colleagues at my employer.
One of those groups is Marketing Communications in Business Marketing. The team’s VP, Sarita Rao (pictured above), gets her far-flung team together on a regular basis for “open mic” meetings.
Last fall I got to work with John Starkweather, Sarah Groves, John Stancliffe, Knox Keith and others as influencers during The Summit, a ground-breaking inaugural event for the company’s business customers. Every day, I learn more about how to kill it in social media from this group.
So it was an honor when Sarah Groves invited me to do an open mic session at Sarita’s team meeting this month in Dallas at the company’s headquarters.
Here’s what Sarah asked and how the dialogue took shape.
How did you get started using social?
A few years ago, my colleagues and I launched a social business platform, to enable people to collaborate and work in new ways.
Just a few of the key contributors were Michael Ambrozewicz, Thyda Nhek Vanhook, Frank Palase, Brian Ulm, Miriam Smith, John Cloyd and Alan Lewis.
We did a pilot program before launch. Not surprisingly, there was the to-be-expected resistance to chance.
I launched a blog, for two reasons. One was to role model behaviors that fellow leaders and employees could follow. Another was to learn how to do it so I could advise our CEO and others on how to reach a broad audience through blogging.
Over time I discovered I enjoyed the process of learning through blogging, sharing that journey, and connecting with people throughout the company.
Three years later, I started my external blog at carolineleach.com. A few years after that, I began repurposing my blog content as weekly LinkedIn articles, in order to reach a broader audience.
One thing that’s important about blogging and any social media activity is to know and follow your company’s social media policies.
Generally, that will mean not sharing any information that is confidential or private, and making it clear that the opinions you express are your own and not the company’s. (Note: opinions expressed in this blog are my own).
When in doubt about the wisdom of sharing specific content, err on the conservative side and leave it out.
How do you fit social into your life? How much time do you spend on it?
It’s ideal to have a social media plan, and make social part of every day. Gary Vaynerchuk advocates simply documenting what you’re doing, rather than attempting to create all kinds of content.
Depending what goals you want to accomplish in social media, you can spent as little or as much time as your calendar and your lifestyle can accommodate.
My week in social looks like this:
Weekend blog post on carolineleach.com (this is easy to do when you have teens at home who sleep in, as I do, which gives me quiet mornings to write)
Wednesday LinkedIn article, repurposed from my blog and set up on Tuesday evening to post the following day
Daily scroll through LinkedIn home feed, liking, commenting on and sharing relevant content by people in my network and for people in my network
One tweet a day, plus looking at trending news in the morning and afternoon
A daily look at my employer’s Social Circle employee advocacy app to check for content I might want to share in my social networks
A few posts during the week on LinkedIn, as well as on Instagram, which is generally more personal in nature. Now I’m intrigued by and researching how people are using Instagram in their professional lives.
Some of this activity can be combined with other activities. For example …
If I’m waiting in line at the company cafeteria, I’ll scroll through my LinkedIn feed and maybe I’ll retweet something I see in Twitter
When I attend an event, I share pictures of speakers along with their best soundbites, or I share pictures or videos of other attendees
When I’m catching up with reading over the weekend, I share relevant articles in Twitter and LinkedIn.
What’s your recommendation for getting started?
Begin with your LinkedIn profile. Complete every field, until LinkedIn identifies your profile as “All-Star.” You’ll see “All-Star” noted in the upper right of the dashboard section of your profile, which only you can see.
You don’t have to complete your profile all at once. You can set aside time each week to work on one section at a time. Start from the top and work down, addressing these areas:
Your LinkedIn profile is ever evolving, as you and your career grow and change. Target adding something new to your profile every month, whether it’s a link to a company news release that relates to a project you worked on or an article sharing your expertise and thought leadership.
How do you see social playing a role for all employees driving engagement and advocacy for the company going forward?
Everyone can be a brand ambassador in social media. In addition to building your own career and championing the achievements of your colleagues, you can share the great news about your employer.
In the process, you can also get to know people in your company and beyond that it might otherwise be hard to meet.
If you have an employee advocacy program at your company, that’s an easy way to get started with on-target content. You can always customize it a bit with your personal take on the news and information, tailoring it for your networks.
Don’t forget to include the relevant hashtags for you and/or your employer, to maximize the reach of your content.
How do you know what you want to be known for?
You can ask yourself a few questions, to identify one or two subject areas you want to be known for in social media and in real life.
- What topics are important for success in your current role?
- What topics will be important for success in your likely future role?
- What topics are you naturally drawn to and interested in?
Here’s an example from my own career journey. This blog began in 2015 as an exploration of the future of corporate communications as a corporate vice president of that function.
When my employer was acquired later that year, I had the opportunity to move into marketing analytics. My blog then pivoted to learning more about that field. What then became paramount for me was learning how to learn quickly, which I explored in this blog.
As I searched for the topic I most wanted to explore, I was inspired by hearing Reese Witherspoon talk at a Fullscreen Media event in 2016.
She was asked about how she’s been super successful in social media. And she talked about social media content creation for people as being a big white space that’s not fully being filled right now.
That prompted a lightbulb moment for me. My blog then evolved into exploring how people are using social media to build their careers. And here we are today.
What blogs do you read?
This question made me realize I’ve migrated from reading blogs over to listening to podcasts. So I reacquainted myself with the folder of favorite blogs on my iPhone …
My favorite podcasts are an eclectic mix …
The Daily from The New York Times and Michael Barbaro every weekday morning to dip into a timely topic in the news.
The Science of Social Media, every Monday from Brian Peters and Hailley Griffis from Buffer. It’s “a weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation and inspiration.”
Disrupt Yourself by Whitney Johnson.
Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantum.
The Tim Ferris Show
If you have other podcasts to recommend, please leave me a comment. I’m always looking for new ideas to explore through podcasts.
And on that note, how are you killing it in social media?
by Caroline Leach | Mar 11, 2018 | Learning, Social Media
The best part of a day of service? It usually turns into a day of learning and inspiration.
Students from Southern California high schools got an introduction to the power of personal branding at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism this weekend.
It was part of a broader USC Alumni Day of SCervice. Members of the Trojan family around the world came together to make a difference in their local communities.
At Annenberg, students and alums came together for mini professional development and mentoring sessions with students. The focus was on helping them build their personal brands.
What inspired me the most as an alum was the number of students who have already started their own businesses. They shared savvy social media tips for how they market their businesses.
An Instagram influencer with a large following shared what she learned from working with various brands and how to maintain her authenticity with her followers.
A provider of babysitting services talked about marketing her business on Facebook, because that’s where her mother’s friends, her potential clients, are on social media.
A maker of children’s toys talked about his plans to scale his business more broadly, and how he’s reached people through social media.
Annenberg’s Leticia Lozoya and Jaime Carias designed the delightful day, bringing together 40 alums and 40 students from partner high schools throughout the Los Angeles area.
Al Naipo on Personal & Professional Branding
Veteran news reporter Al Naipo kicked off the morning’s speakers. After many years with FOX 11 news, he launched his own business and he led communications for County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. He’s now the Chief Administrative Officer at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission.
Al focused on sharing how to maintain professionalism with your personal brand when you’re in the spotlight – whether it’s politics, business, education or any arena of life.
He started by sharing a newsroom phenomenon – a large display listing reporters’ social media followings, and how everyone ranks compared with their colleagues as well as competitor newsrooms. A social media presence is critical for journalists to be effective today. By extension, the same could be said for all professionals.
Al told several compelling stories, including how career opportunities had come to him based on the power of his LinkedIn profile. Here are a few of Al’s nuggets of wisdom:
- Your social media presence could be a make-or-break reason to get a job
- Everything you do has to do with branding and how you’re seen by others
- People view your work life and your personal life as all one thing
- Stick with your brand, because people associate it with you
- Social media is a powerful way to connect directly with almost anyone
Ashley Tesoriero on the Power of Your Personal Story
A national marketing specialist at IMT, Ashley Tesoriero told the group the secrets to sharing your personal story, even if you see yourself as a more private person. She emphasized the importance of tying your personal and professional life together make one.
According to Ashley, your personal brand is, “your online and in-person resume you present to the world.”
She encouraged everyone to figure out what their story is, and what medium(s) best capture it. For her, it’s Instagram, LinkedIn and her WordPress website.
How do you get to your story? It starts with reflection on your mission, vision and values. Ashley led the students through an exercise to begin thinking about these big-picture questions of what they want their lives to be about.
The group outlined their personal experiences – complete with challenges, opportunities and who they are in their communities – in order to establish their personal brands.
Emma Forbes on the Power of a Personal Brand
Students got to practice their “one-minute me” pitches during the lively closing session with Emma Forbes. She’s a radio and television presenter from the United Kingdom, and the parent of a current Annenberg student.
Emma told compelling stories of her own career journey to help students shape and package their personal stories to launch their personal brands and be a positive influence in a social media world.
When pitching a “one-minute me,” Emma said not to read a list of qualifications. Instead, she advised, “talk about where you come from, where you’re going, and what you’d like to do.”
She called these the defining moments that happen in a face-to-face setting a pivotal moments in everyone’s careers. “You need to be the face of your brand,” she said. “No one can sell it better than you. Be you and speak your view.”
What do you do when nerves get the best of you?
- Start with deep breathing
- Make eye contact
- Pause instead of saying “um”
- Clasp your hands front of you
“You need nerves,” according to Emma.
Then the emotional, electrifying moment arrived.
She asked what would have happened, “if I wasn’t nervous about meeting you today?”
If someone so accomplished, so authentic and so poised felt nervous about speaking to students and alums, then there is hope for all of us.
Bring on the nerves!
by Caroline Leach | Feb 27, 2018 | Social Media
How are you using social media to build your career?
- What social media are you on for professional and personal use?
- Why are you active in social media professionally?
- How has your social media activity helped your career, others’ careers and your employer?
I’d love your responses on these questions and more in a 15-minute survey. Responses are anonymous and will only be shared in aggregate.
Together, they’ll give a current snapshot of how professionals are using social media in their careers.
And they’ll inform future content on this blog, to help you continue boosting your career through social media.
Click on this link or copy and paste it into you browser:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/socialmedia4careerbuilding
Feel free to share it with friends and colleagues.
Thank you!
by Caroline Leach | Feb 25, 2018 | Social Media
How often do you make a desirable discovery by accident?
If you’re me, not as often as I’d like.
It’s like finding $20 in your pocket. It doesn’t happen frequently, but it’s always a happy discovery to meet up with serendipity.
Three times in the last 6 months I’ve posted a conversation in the The Official USC Alumni Association Group, and it’s shown up the next day as the lead item in the monthly digest email for the group.
There are more than 46,000 members in the group. And some portion of them probably opt in to get the group’s email digest. So my posts are landing front and center in the inboxes of many fellow alums.
It wasn’t something I planned. It’s part of my volunteer role on the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors. I’m proud to represent the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where I got my master’s degree.
Each of us on the Communications & Marketing Committee led by Tom Henkenius and Mary Ann Brennan regularly post content in the group and engage in conversations with fellow alums in the group. Madeline Lindsay from the Alumni Association also keeps us on track.
It just so happened, a few of my posts were on Sunday nights as I was wrapping up my weekend to-do lists.
And on Monday morning when I saw my post featured in an email, I paused for a moment.
Wait.
What?
Why was my post being featured?
Then I realized I must have been the last person to post before the monthly digest email went out.
The learning?
If you want your posts in a group to get pushed to a larger audience, identify the timing of the monthly or weekly digest emails, and do your post shortly before then.
Now, I don’t want to take the limelight from my fellow alums. I don’t want to be the featured post every time. But once in a while is kind of fun.
The other learning?
It’s imperative to customize your headline in your LinkedIn profile. Don’t use the default of your current title. Personalize it to tell your story. Why? Because it displays when you comment on content … and appear in search results … and when your group post is featured in the digest email.
The recommendations?
Join groups that are relevant your interests. Be an active participant. Post content that the group can benefit from. Engage with the posts of others, by liking and commenting on the content.
Social media is all about reciprocity.
And maybe every once in while, you’ll have the featured post. That’s what serendipity taught me.
What have you learned in social media about serendipity?
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