Using Social Media as a Busy Leader

Maybe you check Facebook occasionally, watch your kids navigate Tik Tok or Snapchat or manage employees who use Slack for communication. But there's a big difference between being on social media and using it as a business leader to successfully build an audience to benefit your business.

Using social media for your business takes on an extra layer of complexity because you're trying to manage the market as it shifts and changes, seemingly overnight. New tools pop up regularly, and it can be challenging to learn what technology matters and how to use it as you also juggle your highest-impact activities as a busy executive and the time you need for self reflection, self care and personal improvement. And that doesn't include the vital time that's critical to invest in your relationships -- with family, with friends, with colleagues. What can you do to fit in the time it takes to do social media the right way?

Overcoming Reliance on Others for Communication

Now, I'm going to date myself here...I actually remember the days when the standard of communication for business executives was the memo. Dictated to a trustworthy office staff member, the memo outlined key points for internal and external stakeholders in the business and helped ensure everyone was on the same page. Then came email, and at first, many executives outsourced their inboxes to these same trusted assistants.

But eventually, use of the internet brought the exchange of a lot of sensitive information and communication that had to be dealt with in real-time. There was a fundamental shift that came with new technologies like the BlackBerry, where executives became responsible for communicating their own thoughts and messaging. Of course, savvy business people would filter out what they could to their assistants, but they were still responsible for managing their relationships. Automation could work for some things, but mass messages turned to mass spam and a lack of authenticity.

Today, we've got something of the same issue -- the same type of technological shift as happened with email -- where executives need to figure out how to handle their social inboxes and messaging on social media. Many of us started with outsourcing it all, where assistants or agencies managed our online presence and made the connections for us. But this lack of a personal touch, where our accounts are handled by automated tools or assistants, leads to our prospects, customers and colleagues feeling somewhat short-changed. The relationships are surface ones, whether you're using Facebook, LinkedIn or another platform, and you don't get the main benefits of making an investment in social media at all.

Benefits of Managing Relationships Yourself

The struggle with social media now for most executives is learning to manage the relationship yourself. I have heard some say that their customers aren't online. That's just not true. These days, you hand someone a business card and the first thing they do is Google you to find out more about you and your company. Do you want the information they find to be managed by someone else?

The good news is that you don't have to spend hours creating and contemplating a full-blown content strategy. There's a difference, for example, between an author and someone who is paid to create content. Executives are more like authors, with thoughts and ideas that can be meaningful to an audience. You can still connect with an audience and have a personal online presence without creating a personal broadcast network that constantly produces a stream of content. Use your online platform to connect with colleagues, stakeholders and employees in your company. Share your vision, your management and leadership style through a narrative of yourself that just happens to be online.

Used correctly, social media also allows information to be pushed to you, such as from valued partners, customers and potential customers, through tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can pay attention to what's happening with them and benefit from real-time information from these important people, which can be used to connect, build relationships and, in turn, drive revenue for your organization. Let's say your sales team tells you that clients are discussing a very specific challenge they have -- you can provide more information that can help them. Tip the scale in your favor and stand out from your competitors by including this thread in the fabric of your organization's online communication.

You can also bypass some or all of your public relations costs through personal, one-on-one relationships with reporters and other partners. You can use your resources to have PR experts give you advice and direction, but you can do much of the reaching out on your own through your executive presence online. You'll also be confident that when members of the media are looking for you or for an executive in your industry, that you'll stand out because of the narrative you've created.

Leveraging Social Media Without Wasting Time

How do you accomplish this social media interaction without, again, using all your free time or moving away from other critical business activities? There are three main pieces to mastering social media use.

Use a CRM to Manage Your Relationships

One key piece of creating a social media presence that works for you as a busy executive is to stop thinking of communicating on individual social media platforms and instead to create a social tech stack. You do this by finding and using a CRM that helps you manage all these critical relationships.

The Hubspot CRM is one of the best for this purpose. When you're writing an email, a sidebar shows you your most recent communication with that person and what they've been saying on social media. That helps you build relationships with your team members, your partners and your customers -- and you have it all in one place. You can also feed more information into the CRM that helps your sales and marketing teams do their jobs.

Get Business Updates

Don't rely on just conducting a search when you think about it. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to have business updates pushed to you. This is a much more effective (though not free) tool than, say, Google Alerts. Get all the information about your key stakeholders and use that to set up meetings and drive revenue. Your team will also have full access to your network.

Choose Your Platforms Wisely

When you're communicating, you want to be selective about the platforms you choose to use. LinkedIn is important for most executives, but what other one or two platforms make the most sense to utilize? Use the three Ps to make a wise decision about where to invest your time:

1. Proficiency. What do you know and enjoy doing? You're less likely to engage with a platform you dislike.
2. Purpose. Where are your clients? The best platform won't benefit you if you're not reaching business-related contacts.
3. Profit. How does it mesh with your business goals? Make sure you can communicate in ways that drive your business messaging and, in turn, add to your bottom line.

Moving Forward with Social Media

If your goal with using social media is to further your business goals and drive revenue, you don't have to create content just to have more content -- that doesn't benefit anyone. Instead, create a foundation that you and your team can use for nurturing key relationships and that works as a cohesive narrative for you when others search for you or your company online. Reduce your PR costs and offer leadership to your industry through personally reaching out to those who matter in relevant media. Integrating these ideas into your everyday life as a busy executive can work to move your business forward.