In 2013, Emily Gibian noted in her blog Social Strategy: What is it and how does it help brands? that “A strong social media strategy pushes boundaries, but it also must begin with a real understanding of the market, the target audience, and the brand’s overall business objectives”. I have personal experience of this – not that it is wholly personal. The strategy is just that, linguistically at least. What is individual is that we each should have – indeed in 2017, need – our own social media strategy. There are caveats but we’ll get there.

In 2012, John Lewis marketing director Craig Inglis said that that ‘entering into social media never replaced having a big idea [and] the heart of our success is having big ideas that can bring the proposition to life’. But, separately in the same year, John Lewis Partnership appointed Lloyds Banking Group executive Paul de Laat to the new role of customer insight director. The message was that arguably the UK retail’s best bellwether recognised the need to both view their reputation and social media presence as separate but also to identify the inextricable link.

No company in this day and age simply cannot have no social media presence. Or if they do, it’s got to be reasonable to assume they’re missing opportunities – whether concrete or potential. My sister, who owns a small dancewear shop, has no social media presence, and fully accepts that she may lose custom but is still adamant she won’t have one. I, as a one-man band, have websites, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It has taken them a long time to (appear to) show any appreciable return but I think they finally are – at least judging by clients who increasingly come to me via a Google search for my type of service.

In May 2017, the BBC broadcast “What Facebook Knows About You”
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08qgbc3). Depending on your pro-, anti- or ambivalence to, social media as a tool, the “concerning” part, I thought, was the message given by Antonio Garcia Martinez “Former Facebook Product Manager” who outlined the extent to which Facebook can target adverts based on every criterion about us, every iota of our lives; and, mind-blowingly, how quickly it processes terabytes of data – according to him, in half the time it takes you to blink. As an aside, he derides the plans of bureaucrats and politicians to try to control the behemoth – precisely because of the half a blink.

Going back to my sister and the do we / don’t we scenario, a lot of people I deal with – across all sectors and levels of seniority – have anything from what might be considered a total social media presence to none. And the interesting thing is that those who don’t have one seem, in my experience, not disinterested or unaware – rather they are frightened by its omnipotence. That said, generally (it’s all you can be), most of those with little or no presence are C-level executives and senior technical specialists – where roles are secured almost exclusively based on reputation and by word of mouth, and therefore perhaps fright doesn’t come into it. For them, it simply doesn’t matter. The crux of all that is, I guess, that, like social media strategy itself, there is no black and white, no fixed.

Meanwhile, for the rest of us not C-levels, there aren’t many business owners who have no interest or fright or scepticism or any combination – with the occasional exception, like owners of dancewear shops.

Thanks to the internet’s global reach we truly are – and increasingly – a connected world. And it’s a snowball. LinkedIn is a case in point as a business platform: the more connections you have, the more you’re noticed; the more you’re noticed, the more you’ll be approached to connect; and so it goes on. It’s no secret that social media—global, open, transparent, non-hierarchical, interactive, and real time—are changing consumer behaviour and workplace expectations. As a result, the best businesses are creating comprehensive strategies in this area to support their goals. Anecdotal evidence from any number of sources you care to Google suggests that the story is the same for leaders below the CEO level and that even those who have a social media presence aren’t using it strategically. That is a mistake.

Today’s employees, business owners and leaders must embrace social media. First, they provide a low-cost platform on which to develop the brand – personal or corporate – communicating who you are and what you can offer. Second, they allow you to engage rapidly and simultaneously with customers and the broader public. Third, they allow us to learn from instant information and unvarnished feedback – but be savvy too. If you seek a recommendation on LinkedIn, it’s going to be positive (unless you swear at them in your request!). But if you hope to have a good review for your B&B on Trip Advisor, you have no such guarantee.

And of course, that potential calamity with the latter is exacerbated when you think how quickly a click can share any review with millions. But then if you have used social media to advertise your B&B, you’ve either helped yourself or made yourself a potential problem. The inextricable link can be both hugely beneficial but also damaging. You secure more business more quickly but if you don’t manage that business well, those same social media will hang you out to dry. Active participation in social media can be a powerful tool—the difference between leading effectively and ineffectively, and between advancing and faltering in the pursuit of your goals.

So, if you intend to have a presence at all I think there are probably a few generally accepted dos and don’ts:

• Google yourself – it sounds obvious, but do it regularly and then compare your results with those you get from searching your peers. I do it all the time though interestingly what I quickly discovered is that paradoxically – precisely because Google knows everything about me – it knew it was me Googling me! So, when I wanted to check if my Google Ads payments were returning everything I wished for, searching myself always put me at the top of my list whereas when others elsewhere did it, that wasn’t the case (unfortunately).

• Protect your identity – rent an internet domain in your name and use it to open accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. Rent because, contrary to an oft-held belief, you never own a domain, simply hire it. So, my Twitter and Facebook accounts are in my business name and I have neither of those in any other account name. I also have no family or friends as connections – purely people who may have Googled my services and approached me that way.

• Create a business profile – choose a broad network such as LinkedIn or an industry-specific one. Join relevant groups and communities. Here too there are differences of opinion. Some people use LinkedIn to serially connect. I never have nor ever will – for me the recommendations work; what use is 4,691 connections? To me, none. That also feeds into understanding how each platform works. LinkedIn connections can “endorse” each other for skills regardless of whether they know the depth of that person’s understanding of the skill; whereas the recommendation must be sought and the writer of it then has their head above the parapet. I know which means more to me in pursuit of my clients.

• Post public content – like this blog post – and use it update your Facebook and LinkedIn; get involved in discussions groups; tweet; upload a presentation to YouTube.

So, we’ve decided to use social media to develop – and, more to the point almost, flag our brand. According to an article in Entrepreneur Media, Inc. (https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77408) “Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does “branding” mean? How does it affect a small business like yours? Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from your competitors’. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be”.

Social media also help you to engage with many internal and external contacts to build relationships; show commitment to a company or product; and demonstrate a capacity for being “always ready” for business opportunities.

LinkedIn’s growth for example has been exponential, from 37 million users in 2009 to 467 million in 2016 (https://www.statista.com/statistics/274050/quarterly-numbers-of-linkedin-members/). But as with other media, there is a divergence between its perceived use – “for business” – and the different types of uses that different users make – to connect and / or to garner publicity and / or to find jobs, and more. Then there is the crossover – people often use multiple platforms and overlap them – as I do. People will use LinkedIn discussion groups and the postings of Facebook friends to learn about emerging trends and issues, filtering the feedback to retain the nuggets that matter to them. That said, it probably helps to look at the two spheres of social media activity as separate—personal and professional—against the target audience—private and public.

To formulate your personal social media strategy, I think we all need to consider the following

1. Are your goals personal, professional, or both? Are there conflicts between how you want to present yourself in the two spheres? If so, you must decide which is more important. Think about the three aims of social media —branding, engagement, and learning—and what you are hoping to achieve in each. Make sure that your online profile does not contradict your activity in the “real world” and that your messages are authentic. And bear in mind that the 3 strands are not only for one platform – engagement is social and professional. It’s about having the right type of that strand on its most appropriate platform.

2. Is your desired audience private (a limited set of friends, family, and colleagues) or public (your industry or even the world)? Social media activity will necessarily increase your presence and make it easier for others to Google you. How big do you want that presence to be?

The answers to those questions can help you choose the right combination of platforms and decide how much time to devote to each. For example, if you want to strengthen relationships with colleagues, possible clients and industry contacts who may get you work, be active on a company social network and LinkedIn. If you want to share your ideas with the broader community, start a public blog and use Twitter. Your platforms should also suit your location – and in that regard I am lucky since my client base is solely online and therefore global: I can use all and widely. If your business is a localised dancewear shop, your ideas-sharing ideal will be very different.

Continuity is important, so set aside enough time for each activity you want to pursue. A blog might require an hour every fortnight for writing and an hour or so every week for reading comments and posting responses. Twitter and Facebook require less time per interaction, but the frequency must be high for you to establish a meaningful presence.

Social media are here to stay. They are changing the way we do business and how leaders are perceived, from the shop floor to senior executives and directors. And they give business owners, contractors, sole traders like me and corporate leaders a new, low-cost tool for company and personal branding, engaging in conversations with stakeholders, and learning from new sources. By looking closely at your goals as a person and a professional, your target audience, and your resources, you can choose the platform that’s right for you and head off any risks.