Sharing pictures with friends and family is great however, a different mindset can help leverage social media for business.
This is what I’ve learned by experimenting in the twenty nine months since publishing my first blog post...
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Whatever it is we want to achieve, it’s predicated upon effectively communicating with the people we wish to affect.
Social media is simply modern, dispersed, democratic communication.
The way I was seeing many people use it (posting selfies with b-list celebs) used to make me feel like I had better uses of my time, but I realized I was turning my back on a very important set of tools. I mean, I still used e-mail even though some people used it to just forward cat memes.
Since I had a good amount of time ahead of me trying to achieve things that involved communicating with others I thought, what if ignoring social was like voluntarily playing with one hand tied behind my back?
I'll start with a story to try to show you how my mind was changed…
In The Wild
A teammate of mine and friend (who is not on social) recently made a small presentation at work. There were 15 of us around a long table as he walked everyone through some new ideas. The actual content is not important but let’s just say he knew his stuff.
He added value by teaching us new insights, he engaged with us by listening to the nuanced questions people were asking and then answering them, and he provided a forum where people could interact and gain value from conversations with each other as well.
I explained to him afterwards that what he had just done was textbook social media, but in real life. I could see it start to expand his mind.
1. My #1 False Perception
Social media was not about broadcasting a tribute of myself to the masses. It was about bringing value to the people we wished to serve.
It’s not about uncomfortably posting selfies and stuff that feels icky like self-promotion. It’s actually about trying to behave just like we do in the physical world.
The mindset shift I had was this: it’s not about posting for you or your ego, it’s about being completely customer obsessed for the audience. People consume for three reasons: information, inspiration, or entertainment. It’s about posting things they need.
It’s a world of difference even though you’re pressing the same buttons as you would as posting the stuff that feels icky.
2. Don’t Wait To Be Asked
We are all here to use our unique knowledge and skills to help other human beings. Being of service to others.
With social media you don’t have to wait to be asked.
If we wait around until someone invites us to speak we may get the opportunity a few times a year. And here’s what most people (myself included) would do…
We’d give a great talk and bring tons of value to the people in the room.
Then we'd get a photo texted to us of ourselves standing at the lectern in a suit and make a post that is the LinkedIn version of a selfie with a b-list celebrity: ‘I was honored to be asked to speak at my alma mater last weekend.’
In our attempt to be humble we'd accidentally make a post that was all about ourselves instead of all about the audience.
We will have also deprived everybody online of whatever that secret knowledge bomb was that we just dropped on the room during the talk.
Here, I made up an example to show you the difference:
It’s a little cheesy, but you get what I’m saying.
3. Proactive Value
t wait a minute, that sounds like….
Yea, it’s the same motions as the icky stuff. But it’s what we say that makes the difference. The difference is intent.
4. A Quick Note on Media
By the way, this isn’t about doing anything that’s uncomfortable.
How do you prefer communicating in real life? What’s your strength? Emails? Face-to-face? Phone? All, some, none?
We can choose our delivery mix of written, audio, visual that suits us and we don’t try to do it like anyone else. Just do it like ourselves.
5. When Your Intent Is Pure You Have Nothing To Fear
No matter what you say the audience will always be able to see through to your intent.
If your intention is to build and contribute, not to tear down, to help, and to spread a positive message than you have absolutely nothing to fear at all about posting.
When your intent is pure whatever you say is an asset to your audience and to whatever organization you are currently associated with.
6. Fearing The Judgement Of Others
This will not go away by simply reading this post but maybe I can show you my fear to help get you started.
July 2018, 3 months into my second blog was the first time I was letting the world know I published an idea. It was terrifying (I even said so in the post).
I can’t remember how long I sweated before sharing it on an anonymous Instagram handle. I have empathy my friends.
Here are 3 tips I offer to start:
· Tip 1: Make your first share (post, tweet, etc.) about something completely innocuous. Make an anonymous twitter handle, write a sentence with a tip about tying your shoes or making a sandwich, tweet it, and then check to see if you’re still alive.
· Tip 2: Nobody is waiting to hear what you have to say. I don’t know what else to tell you. They got their own problems and that is tremendously freeing to know!
· Tip 3: The only way through fear is to start posting small and keep going.[1]
7. Social Is Like A Shovel
Nobody says ‘we should be using more shovels’. It’s a tool to do something. So, what’s our something?
We can ask ourselves: What is the change you are trying to make?[2] Who exactly are you trying to serve? What are you specifically trying to help them do? Then we can reverse engineer how to use social to deliver them the value.
Don't feel obligated to be on social just because someone said ‘you should’. Ask these questions first so you can be purposeful.
8. Making For One
‘If you try to make something for everybody, you end up making for nobody.’ - Unkown
It was a big help to me when I stumbled across some advice that said make something for one specific person, like someone with an actual name. Now I try to think of posting as if I was sending someone a text.
Social media is like one-on-one, in public.
9. The Only Judge That Matters
If the media we create isn’t great it won’t work, meaning it won't be effective communication. The creative does take talent. But who’s to say what’s bad or good?
Here's another tip I read - show what you made to ten people. If they share it without being asked then you’ll know you’re on to something[3].
In the end, the market is the only judgement that matters.
Not your boss’s, not your friend’s, not the Communication Director’s with 25 years’ experience. Everyone else, including yourself merely gets an opinion.
10. Engagement
Social media is not a broadcast. That’s TV.
The fact that we can actually talk to people on the other end is the feature we always forget.
I realized that this was not supposed to be like standing on stage and receiving a round of applause. It’s like sitting in a coffee shop one-on-one with a person. Social Media won’t be very effective if we weren't showing up to converse.
It’s not about how many likes or claps we can accumulate, it’s about having moments of connection with humans and I’m still not sure how that can be measured. What’s the metric for saying hi to our colleagues in the hallway? Or having lunch with a client?
I realized that when somebody likes or comments it’s the beginning, not the end. Not to just let it feed my ego and be done.
If you’re trying to make new connections and gain traction with your market it’s your opportunity to give them a shout back to say thanks. Same as in real life.
But not just ‘like’ back. I learned that it was far more interesting to go look at their profile, see where they’re from or what they’re about and then say something complimentary to them or useful or funny, whatever it was, just making an effort to have a human connection, like we would in real life.
I use LinkedIn to meet people at Amazon or get to know them better. I think of it now as a gateway to real life, not a replacement.
I ask people who like my posts what else could I make for them that would be helpful.
I realized that Social media wasn’t just what occurred in the feed. It was the direct messages and comments where human connection was occurring.
11. The #1 Metric
Have you heard the term ‘Goodwill’? It’s an accounting value that can only be measured if a company is purchased. It’s the balance of the purchase price after the accountants have tallied up all the tangible stuff. The value of brand.
Now, think how you feel when you get an automated email from a bot? And from a real person?
I think that’s the social media version of goodwill. Humanizing yourself to others through online interaction. It creates a feeling of affinity.
But it only ‘works’ if its genuine.
12. Creating, Documenting, Practice
I do wake up early to write posts but I also just make videos on the walk to work. I edit audio and video after dinner on my laptop but I also just post tweets while in the elevator.
I mention these examples to say that even though sometimes I set aside time to create because I enjoy doing that I also just integrate it into my every day life at virtually no extra expense of time. I realized there was a way to do it that didn't require a big commitment of time.
I also realized that communicating online was simply a skill like any other that could be learned and improved with practice. Feeling like a beginner at first was totally ok.
And I try to remember how terrified I was to post when I first started so that I can embrace knowing that the fear that still comes up can be worked on. Which brings me to the last point…
13. Make
We can only get better by doing.
If you’re scared, try an anonymous blog or twitter account. Record videos of yourself on your phone and don’t share.
Experimenting is so easy and free. You can use Microsoft Word and your smart phone camera. My first podcast was talking into the voice memo on my iPhone (now we plug in a $20 lapel mic). Don’t buy anything, just make.
You will have to eventually post though to see how the market reacts. You have no idea how posts are going to be received. Nothing bad is going to happen though, I just mean seeing if it’s effective.
The more times you try, the more you can hone your skills and iterate to make your creative approach more effective.
When I think ‘experiment’ I am thinking ‘new’. Not lesser quality.
It get’s easier too. Your first post is 100% of your portfolio. Your second post is 50%. Then 33%, 25%, etc. You see where I’m going?
Pretty soon experiments aren’t scary.
Conclusion
The internet is the great equalizer. Everything is based on merit.
We don’t need approval from gatekeepers to create and only the market determines whats valuable.
Whether we want to start a business, start a movement, raise awareness, create culture in the office, run for office, help our kids’ school, or simply call more of the shots in our lives then leveraging social media is a fantastic opportunity.
The sheer number of people we have the ability to help is now so much greater than the dozens or so within our physical daily presence, and the personal value you create by helping others is something you will own.
There’s no hierarchy or org structure online. Adding value is the only measure that matters.
The key to interacting online is simply behaving the same way we do in real life and people will like to hear from you!
And by the way, if our influence online is completely predicated upon our ability to add value then perhaps on the flip side, the way we behave in real life should take some cues from what we need to be doing online.
Tag me if you post, I’ll like it ;)
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[1] For some additional thoughts about battling fear checkout: charleskunken.com/blog/how-to-stop-fearing-the-judgement-of-others
[2] This is a common refrain from Seth Godin, a guy I really admire. He’s an author, marketing genius, and fantastic thinker about this stuff. “Go make a ruckus.” - Seth
[3] This is from Seth.
Have some thoughts? Feel free to drop a comment or hit me up: charlie@charleskunken.com