In the time it takes you to read this sentence, some 50,000 Tweets will have been sent. How many of those messages might mention your company name with an industry hashtag — good or bad?
LinkedIn Powerhouse Strategist Olivier Taupin and I were contributing authors to a book for CEOs who face a growing firestorm of profit-killers by avoiding change in the market place. Build to grow is aimed at taking down these challenges.
The chapter that Olivier and I wrote, The Social CEO – Online strategies designed, tested, and destined for success, is for those leaders who want to “get the story right” by adopting best social media practices tailored for their organization, reviewing competitor strategies, and using social media as a rallying point for employees. Getting people to know and trust you doesn’t happen over-night in personal dealings. The same is true for growing your business in the online world.
We start with the research. Studies from MBA Central[ increasingly report that executives (76 per cent) today would rather work for a Social CEO than for a leader who insists on remaining a Luddite (people who fear technology). MBA Central also revealed that three out of four customers say a company is more trustworthy if its high-level management participates in the digital sphere.
What about risk management?
This is where it gets sticky. Only 10 per cent of leadership indicated confidence in their general counsel’s ability to handle social media risk. FCI Consulting reported the results in their 2015 study titled Our Law in the Boardroom. The low trust reflects an apprehension with how easy it is for employees and competitors to comment in public — without controls in place — about your company.
Yet, the metric also points to the importance of returning to fundamentals with respect to your employees. Do they understand what’s expected of them in this newer medium? Do they know the risks? And, will they tell you when something has gone wrong?
We talk about two key stages in this Age of Authenticity:
Stage 1: Mindset
Confusion reigns when social media is not aligned with the corporate vision, mission, and strategic objectives. If all the departments are constantly tripping over each other, the promise of your brand becomes an empty pledge. Worse, a brand can derail if not coordinated in social media. This means that representation comes from sales, marketing, operations, customer support, IT, and HR.
In our chapter, we give you a blueprint to set up a collaborative group drawn from key departments because social media is everybody’s business. You also get a start-up checklist.
Stage 2: Know your people
The list of networks — each with its own personality, rules of engagement, and secrets to discover — now count over 800. More are added weekly. LinkedIn and Twitter are the two networks we favour for C-Suite business but don’t discount Facebook as a tool for business which still is favoured in the business to consumer market.
Our fellow authors shared insights on these integral topics:
- The five steps to elevate and engage your target audience in even the most cutthroat, noisy, and competitive business verticals
- How to design brand messaging that captivates the hearts and minds of laser-targeted groups of customers and prospects
- A simple webinar strategy for multiplying the lifetime value of every customer or client
- The wickedly-effective “virtual summit formula” that puts “magnetic brand messaging” in front of thousands of exactly the right people, at precisely the right time.
Business leaders today need ways to shred employee turnover, improve ROI for social media, and increase the lifetime value of their customers. This book could help you lead the way.
Communications strategist Sharon MacLean owned and published a print business magazine for 21 years. She now works to assist clients in digital marketing.
The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.
