by Caroline Leach | Jan 2, 2017 | Social Media
It’s a new year. A fresh start. How will you revitalize your social media strategy?
You can start by thinking about how social media will change in the coming year.
No one knows for sure what will happen, but here are some interesting trends from personal branding expert William Arruda.
And at a macro level, Bryan Kramer has a roundup of 2017 predictions in social media and content marketing. This includes one of the best in personal branding, Dorie Clark.
As a communications and marketing professional in the corporate world, I think the following changes will have the biggest impact in the year ahead.
(This is where I remind readers that opinions are my own).
Life is lived on stage. Every day when you leave your house, you’re in the public eye. You could be photographed, recorded, tagged, tweeted and snapped, all without your express permission or even your knowledge.
The upside to all this? It’s one more incentive to live a high-integrity life. To do the right thing. To make the world a better place.
In the words from the film Ocean’s Eleven, “there’s always someone watching.” Make sure you’re presenting yourself as who you authentically are and how you want to be seen.
It’s not even clear how long our own homes will be a sanctuary from the public sphere. On Thanksgiving day in my leafy town, I spotted a drone in a nearby yard. It made me rethink my window coverings.
It also made me think about feedback. I used to work with a chief marketing officer who was a fantastic speaker. He owned the stage. And he always wanted to improve. After a big speech, he’d ask me for the video so he could critique his performance.
That’s a wise move for every professional. Take some time each month to evaluate how you’re coming across in video, in pictures and in words.
When I’m giving a big speech, I record my practice sessions on my phone. That has two benefits.
The first is a way to improve my actual delivery by assessing how I look and sound.
The second is a way to memorize the speech in advance, so I can deliver it in a more natural way.
How? By listening to the recording while I’m driving and when I’m about to go to sleep (a proven method for studying and remembering information).
Images trump words. As a word lover, it pains me to write that images are more powerful than words. But it’s true. Even my iPhone keypad is suggesting emojis in place of certain words.
Every social post needs an image. Research shows that articles with images get 94% more views.
Wherever I go, I take pictures on my iPhone. I may not use them right away, but I’m building a library of images for the future.
On New Year’s Day, for example, I wanted to share a personal picture.
The year before, my family attended the Tournament of Roses Parade (with reservations about the early hour and the relatively cold weather, by Southern California standards).
The perception of frostbite aside, my camera roll was filled with pictures of beautiful, colorful floats. A photo of South Dakota’s float of Mount Rushmore caught my eye. Four great presidents. In a month when our country will inaugurate a new leader. There was my timely and timeless image.
In addition to using my own photos, I subscribe to a few image sites, iStock and Canva. They’re well worth the investment, because they make content more eye-catching and professional.
Video trumps stills. For as much as photos are better than words, they’re starting to seem almost as dated as mere words. It’s the moving image that captures the eye. From Facebook Live to Periscope to over-the-top video, the moving image reigns supreme.
This will be an area of experimentation for me in 2017. I’ll start with a few short videos in my Instagram feed. I’ll try Facebook Live. And maybe I’ll turn some of my blog posts into videos. That idea that jumped out at me in Gary Vaynerchuk‘s Udemy course on building a personal brand.
Snap isn’t just for teens. Now that Snapchat is just simply Snap, it’s unavoidable in the news and the cultural zeitgeist. It’s how my teenage daughter and I enjoy spending time together, checking out her snap streaks and laughing over the funny moments she and her friends capture of every day life.
I’m still figuring out the basics, like how to take a decent picture that won’t be obscured in all the wrong places by the filter du jour. It feels like having all thumbs, like I did when I first joined Twitter and I hadn’t fully figured out why I was there yet. More to come on this topic as this learning project takes shape.
Professionals need a plan. With so many ways to share your professional expertise, ideas and achievements, a plan is essential.
It starts with setting goals. What do you want to accomplish? What social media networks should you be on? What are good ways to curate and create content?
From there, you need a calendar. I’ve been searching for a ready-made one, unsuccessfully so far. Right now I’m using an Excel spreadsheet. As this evolves into something better, I’ll share updates in future posts.
Right now, it’s organized by date, broken into weeks and months. For content ideas, I look at upcoming:
- Blog posts on social savvy for professionals
- Work news and events
- Conferences and training sessions
- Speaking engagements
- Hashtag holidays
- Personal milestones
For each piece of content, the calendar includes:
- Posting date and time
- Content headline
- Content summary
- Content type (e.g., blog post, photo or video with caption, etc.)
- Category (professional, personal or a mix)
- Creative (photo or video)
- Channel (which social network or networks)
- Hashtags (especially for Instagram and Twitter)
- Status (whether in development, posted or in the comments stage).
What changes are you making in your social media strategy this year?
by Caroline Leach | Dec 29, 2016 | Social Media
It’s that time of year. It’s when we all take stock of how we did and make plans for the future.
How do you know if you won social media? Here are 5 questions to ask yourself.
- What platforms are you on and why?
Be clear on which platforms you’ll be on, why you’re there and how much time you’ll allocate to each.
Here are my reasons for being in these social networks:
LinkedIn is all about work. It’s for connecting with other professionals, learning from others and sharing knowledge. And after attending an event, I send personalized LinkedIn invitations to stay in touch with people I’ve met.
Twitter is mostly about work. It’s for news and real-time information. It’s how I share what I’m reading and thinking about. It’s endlessly entertaining during big events. Think Super Bowl, Academy Awards and favorite TV shows.
Instagram is mostly about friends and family. It’s a way to experiment with images and learn more about visual communications. This is especially important as the world becomes ever more visual.
Facebook is all about friends and family. It’s about how you connect with the special people in your life for personal Facebook accounts. Just remember that some of your work colleagues may be in on it too. Keep it professional.
Snapchat is all about fun. It’s for learning to express yourself in new ways. My daughter keeps me endlessly entertained with her story and her snaps. It’s a way of lightening up about the world and having fun.
Blogging is about learning and discovery. It’s about writing until the “a-ha” moment, says career blogger Penelope Trunk. She’s right.
On that road to discovery and some professional twists and turns, my blog has evolved from corporate communications to lifelong learning to social media.
- How did you perform against your goals?
You did set goals, didn’t you? If not, this is a great time to think about your goals for the coming year.
One data point to help with the process is the analytics on each of your social media platforms to see which posts created the most engagement.
My goals were to blog twice a week, continue building a presence on Twitter and LinkedIn, and develop visual skills in Instagram.
How did I do?
With blogging, I posted more frequently this year than last year, although the average was just under 1.5 per week. That’s progress, though, and there’s more to be made in the new year.
With Twitter, I’m still attracting followers, but not as quickly as I’d like. I learned some things noted below that I’ll apply in the new year.
In Instagram, I posted more photos this year than last year. And more people commented this year. So that’s one way to show improvement in my photography and editing skills. And I’m ever thankful to a former colleague Joe Szopa for giving me a photography tutorial.
From blogging, I learned that the area I most want to explore is social media.
From Twitter, I learned that tweeting during company and professional events with the right hashtags and @mentions increases engagement and followers.
(Here’s where I remind readers that opinions expressed in this blog and other social media are my own.)
From Facebook, I learned that the personal and nostalgic wins the day.
From Instagram, I learned to use as many relevant hashtags as possible. Each post can have up to 30, so I keep lists on hand by topic that I can easily cut and paste. I also learned how to regram posts.
From Snapchat, I learned that I have a lot more experimenting to do!
Here I’m inspired by Wharton’s Adam Grant and his philosophy of helping others.
Social media is a great place to share good content. In the process, you can help others get their content to reach a broader audience.
As an example, a colleague Carlos Botero has been posting great insight about people and HR in LinkedIn.
- What would you do differently in the year ahead?
Here’s my short list:
- Keep up with changes, since social media is constantly changing, writes Guy Kawasaki in The Art of Social Media.
- Create a more efficient social media calendar for professional and personal posts.
- Blog more frequently about social savvy for professionals and better share it.
It’s also important to think about what will change in social media for professionals in 2017 and how to factor that into social media goals. These will be the topics of upcoming posts.
How did you win social media this year?
by Caroline Leach | Dec 26, 2016 | Change, Corporate Communications, Learning
What does the future hold for PR and communications? Check out the Relevance Report.
New from the USC Center for Public Relations this month, it’s full of innovative ideas on what’s ahead.
Global. Mobile. Video. Data. Emotion. These are just a few of the trend areas accelerating in the year ahead.
The biggest learning for me? It’s the parallel and seemingly paradoxical rise of data and emotion as drivers of influence. Data drives better decision making, while emotion is a prime influencer of people’s opinions and behaviors.
Find out more in my latest blog post on the USC Annenberg Alumni website.
It’s about what you’ll learn in this insightful report, with nuggets of wisdom from Annenberg’s Bob Feldman and Heather Rim as well as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Friedman.
The post is part of being a proud Annenberg Alumni Ambassador this school year. It’s a thrill to share the best of this distinguished school for communication and journalism.
The Relevance Report gives timely insight into trends that will impact society, business and communications. It features thought pieces from communications leaders who identify the issues, ideas and innovations that will be relevant to the communications industry in 2017.
by Caroline Leach | Dec 11, 2016 | Careers, Social Media, Work/Life
It’s the holiday season. That means year-end networking events.
They always seem like a good idea when the invitation arrives, don’t they?
Yet when the appointed hour comes, I often regret my affirmative RSVP.
Except I didn’t this month when I dragged myself away from a compelling work project at 6:30 one evening and made myself go to the event I said I would attend.
It was a professional networking event of my son’s high school, for alums and parents to get to know each other and share ideas.
To honor my commitment, I intended to stay for 30 minutes. But happily and unexpectedly, that extended into a fun-filled 90 minutes.
Why? As I reflected on it, there are a few ways to make the most of a networking event.
In particular, think about the social savvy aspect, or social media element, of the people you meet and the conversations you have.
- Have a goal or two. Why are you attending? What do you want to accomplish? For me, I wanted to meet local professionals related to my son’s school to feel more connected to the school and the local community. I wanted to meet interesting people and hear what they were doing.
In part, I was inspired by marketing strategist Dorie Clark‘s advice in Harvard Business Review about networking with people outside your industry. She makes a compelling case for deliberately exposing yourself to diverse points of view.
And just like social media is about sharing and giving, the same is true for a networking event. Approach it from the perspective of how you can help others.
How do you do that? Here are a few ideas.
- Scan the attendee list. Look up a few people in social media to see who you might want to meet. What have they posted about recently? How can that be a conversation starter?
- Scan the latest news. Know what’s happening in the world that day. See what’s trending on Twitter. You’ll be better able to engage in conversations and ask people for their thoughts.
- Wear something that makes a statement. Pick something that you feel great in. A bright color, an interesting tie or a fabulous pin can help you connect with people. And you’ll stand out in photos that are posted in social media.
- Stand in the doorway for a moment when you arrive. This helps anchor you and lets you scan the room to see who you might want to meet.
- Put your name tag on your right side. This was something I learned in grad school at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. When you shake hands, your name tag becomes more prominent and easier to read.
- Grab a beverage. Stick to one drink and sip it slowly. Hold it in your left hand, so your right hand is ready for shaking hands.
- Have a question or two ready. This will depend on the group. For mine, I asked about how people were connected to the school.
- Introduce people to each other. Make a point of connecting people you know to each other. Say something great about each person that provides a conversation starter.
- Look for small groups. It’s easier to start conversations with one or two people. You can start with a comment on the food or the venue or something interesting they’re wearing.
- Post about the event. Take an interesting photo, add a caption about something new you learned and share the spirit of the event.
- Share content about the event. If the event has a hashtag, search it and share relevant and appropriate content.
How do you make the most of a networking event?
by Caroline Leach | Dec 10, 2016 | Social Media, Work/Life
How do you keep your professional and personal social media activity separate?
The answer? You don’t.
Why? Because you can’t.
It’s all one big blend. It’s the way we live our lives today. What’s personal is professional, and vice versa.
It’s similar to the way that external and internal communications in corporations used to be separate spheres. There was a sharp dividing line between them. But now, what’s internal is also external. The lines have been blurring for quite some time.
In my own life, I used to draw a dividing line. I tried to limit Facebook to friends and family. If colleagues sent me a friend request, I steered them to LinkedIn.
But some people defied categorization. How about the person I worked with who was also involved with our community’s education foundation? Were they a professional or personal contact? In reality, they were both.
And some content I want to share with professional and personal contacts. As an avid reader, I get asked by people in both spheres about what I’m reading. Rather than spam people with article links in emails or texts, I share content in Twitter. People can opt in if they want by following me.
A good framework for personal and professional social media strategies appeared in Harvard Business Review.
Ariane Ollier-Malaterre and Nancy Rothbard researched how professionals use social media, noting that many “felt compelled to accept friend requests from professional contacts.” From their work, they identified four potential social media strategies.
- Open. You post whatever comes to mind. No filters. Not surprisingly, this is a high-risk strategy and is not advised.
- Audience. You keep your networks separate, as I used to do with friends and family in Facebook and colleagues in LinkedIn. This works for a while. But it increasingly becomes impossible to maintain as networks become more fluid.
- Custom. You post content to two different audience lists and/or on different accounts on the same platform. Unless you have a lot of time on your hands or retain an agency to manage your social media, this isn’t a sustainable strategy.
- Content. You post content that is appropriate for all audiences, similar to a G- or PG-rated film. In our increasingly blended world, this is an ideal strategy. You’re consistent and efficient in how you connect across the personal and professional.
The authors recommend the custom or content strategies. While the custom strategy sounds good in theory, it’s too cumbersome for real life, with the time constraints we all face. Try it if you dare, but my bet is that you’ll end up with the much more practical content strategy.
You can make your life easier and more satisfying by blending your social media approach with the content strategy. This requires acting consistently with integrity, class and style in whatever you do. And isn’t that part of living a good life?
What if you want to vent or share something snarky in social media? You have two options, if your professional and personal reputation is important to you.
The first is something we probably all heard from our parents – if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. The second is to keep it to real life, in a face-to-face setting.
It’s important to be thoughtful not only about the content you post, but also the content you share and the content you like. The aggregate of this activity reflects on you just as much as original content you create and post.
This is all part of what it means to act with social savvy in our ever-evolving world.
What strategies work for you in addressing the personal and professional aspects of social media?
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