Learn how a smart social media strategy can help executives embody your company, enhance customer loyalty, and build your personal brand.
Why Should Executives Be on Social Media?
Whether you work in business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), your customers want to engage with humans on social media. 56% of customers desire more empathetic and personal content from brands on social media, yet 48% of brands still post promotional content about themselves multiple times a week.
How can you – as a CEO, CFO, CMO, or any other executive – turn the tables in your favor? It’s simple: be active on social media.
You don’t necessarily need to shoot videos on Instagram or write lengthy articles on LinkedIn. You also don’t have to be active on every social media platform or have the most original thought leadership content.
Be yourself and dedicate about 5-10 minutes daily, and you’ll enhance your social media presence as an executive in no time. Here’s the right way to do it.
Building a Personal (Human) Brand
Being on social media benefits your company and has significant advantages for you as well. As mentioned earlier, your customers want more personal content from companies.
This doesn’t mean they want to know when your last doctor’s appointment was or your daily morning routine. It means they want content that focuses on humanity, is authentic, humorous, engaging, and emotional… content that conveys feelings.
Talk about a hard lesson you learned as a leader. Share a personal struggle from which people can empathize. Or express your genuine excitement about a new product or feature your company is launching and share in your customers’ enthusiasm.
Engagement means interest. In other words, you enable others to care about you and your company because they see you as a real person leading real people instead of being a faceless corporation.
Promoting Your Company
All your regular marketing still has its place, but your commitment to thought leadership content – which means sharing your vision on social media as an executive – can provide a significant boost to your company’s strategy.
61% of your customers say that thought leadership content is “much more” effective at showcasing your company’s value than traditional marketing. And 55% of decision-makers say that content from thought leaders is especially important to win them over during tough economic times (like the current one).
Share Your Expertise
You know a thing or two about some things, right? Sharing your knowledge is a powerful way to grow your personal network while showcasing the expertise behind your company or product.
It can be as simple as showing what you’re working on. If you were a former developer, share the new features your team is currently working on and what their plans are.
Do you have extensive management experience starting from the front lines up to being the head of HR? Share your top tips for employees to achieve excellent performance reviews or land their dream job.
Whatever your area of expertise, share it.
Increasing Brand Sentiment
Your brand sentiment is essentially a “temperature check” of what people are saying about you online and what they think about you – or your company.
By introducing yourself and creating human-centered content based on your experiences, you will give a significant boost to this sentiment.
But how do you know if your content is reinforcing what people think about your company? By automatically measuring your brand sentiment using tools like Hootsuite Insights, for instance.
Track mentions, identify opportunities, and encourage brand loyalty by responding to comments and engaging in conversations. You will know where you and your company stand with your audience 24/7.
Building
Relationships
Do you feel lonely at the top? Not for executives on social media.
Being active on social media can help build all kinds of relationships for you, from attracting top talent for hiring, connecting with peers in the industry, to fostering deeper relationships with your employees and team.
People learn more about you as a person and a leader when they see or read your content.
Reinforcing Your Values
When your content focuses on the above-mentioned things, such as building a human brand and fostering relationships, it will naturally reflect your values.
It’s not about shouting your values from the rooftops like “Hey! We care so much about people! Look, we offer five paid sick days a year!”
It’s about communicating quietly through everything you share. Talk about your charitable activities or share some industry-related humor. Your values may also be revealed through the stories you choose to share, like that story about how you overcame anxiety when starting a new role or making a tough management decision.
Supporting Recruitment
One of the most tangible benefits of posting on social media as an executive is how effective it is in supporting recruitment efforts. Whether you have job openings to fill now or not, your public profile as a company leader helps job seekers understand your company culture and determine if it’s a fit for them.
In addition to boosting your brand sentiment and giving people a “behind-the-scenes” look at your company culture, employee content gets twice the number of clicks compared to official company content. People find content posted by employees three times more credible than if it were posted on the company’s social media account.
That said, you can and should create a comprehensive employee advocacy program in your company that goes beyond just you and other executives posting on social media. Research shows that companies with formal employee advocacy programs are 58% more likely to attract top employees and 20% more likely to retain them.
Demonstrating Transparency
Building trust is difficult, whether on a personal or professional level. But it’s one of the most important things you can do to earn new customers and loyal clients.
Edelman has been tracking trust statistics for 23 years, and the 2023 report reflects a continued increase in distrust in society overall, in the government, and especially in social media.
Interestingly, 48% of participants say that CEOs are generally untrustworthy, but 64% say that their CEO is trustworthy – more than their neighbors!
What’s the reason for this contradiction? My theory is that communication plays a role in it.
When we feel connected to someone – even coworkers, or in a personal relationship facilitated by social media – we tend to have a more positive opinion of them. Simply put: we trust them more.
By using social media as an executive, you build trust through transparency with your team and encourage customers and colleagues to trust you as well.
How to Build a Social Media Strategy for Executives
Defining Goals
You don’t need to set up a long strategic document with quarterly performance indicators and strict themes or a specific timeline for daily actions.
But you should at least have a general outline of your strategy. What do you want to achieve by posting on social media?
Some goal ideas include:
- Expanding your network with peers in the industry
- Increasing recruitment and filling job openings
- Encouraging your employees to engage online and build their personal brands on social media as well
- Creating
Company Culture for Content Development
Of course, there are many other possible goals. Your objectives may change as you start getting involved online and discover new benefits of doing so, but you should have at least one or two goals to start.
Choosing the Right Networks
Where will you publish as an executive on social media? The obvious choice is LinkedIn – the largest professional social network in the world – and you should definitely be there. For some executives, this may be the only social platform they need.
But don’t overlook other great options. Reddit can be a fantastic place for you to conduct the famous “Ask Me Anything” sessions on the platform.
Depending on your target audience and your goals, you may also build a successful online presence on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. Really, any platform as long as you know who you are trying to reach and choose the platform(s) that those people regularly use.
As for how to reach them, that’s the next step…
Defining Your Content Strategy
Once you know the platforms you will publish on, you need to decide what you will publish about and who will publish it.
The “what” depends on the platforms you identified in the previous step. For example, if you choose TikTok or YouTube, it clearly means creating video content.
For LinkedIn, most of your content is likely to be text posts or a new way to showcase content on LinkedIn.
A comprehensive content strategy includes things like:
- SMART goals
- The type of content your audience enjoys and wants more of
- A review of your current social media performance and profiles
- Your posting frequency
- The topics you will focus on
- How to measure success
If you need help crafting your content strategy, check out our step-by-step guide to social media content strategy.
Finally, you need a plan for publishing content. Will you write/record/edit/create all of your content yourself and publish it yourself? Or will you enlist your marketing team to help produce content, schedule it, and/or respond to comments? Be clear about who does what before you start.
Planning and Scheduling Your Posts
This is easy: use Hootsuite. Done, next…
Okay, seriously, I’ve heard about it everywhere, but it’s true: a big part of success on social media is staying consistent. This means posting a similar number of times each week and responding to direct messages and comments at least every other day.
You can always change your posting frequency to be more or less, depending on your audience’s feedback. But you should remain consistent with the schedule you choose until you decide to change it strategically, for good reasons and backed by data.
The easiest way to build a regular schedule with minimal time is to use social media post scheduling tools like Hootsuite. Plan and draft your content in a visual calendar and schedule posts to go live at the best times based on your audience data.
It’s magically automated.
Responding to Comments and Direct Messages
There’s no surprise that social media requires interaction. One of the quickest ways to grow your follower count is to comment on others’ posts. But the way to build a real community is to respond to the comments and direct messages that others leave on your posts.
Even if it’s a quick “Thank you,” taking a few moments to acknowledge someone’s comment helps foster that sense of community and build real connections on social media.
Set aside a few minutes each day to do these responses, or even every other day. You’ll increase your engagement rate that the algorithms love, and you may meet some amazing new people.
Hootsuite Inbox makes this super easy by organizing all your comments and direct messages across all your social media accounts in one place where you can respond to everyone.
Listening
For Mentions
Yes, you should respond to comments and messages on your personal accounts, but you should also respond in other places where people are talking about you, such as on their personal pages or profiles.
But how do you find those mentions in the first place? Don’t worry, this is another thing that technology can handle for you.
Social listening tools can track these mentions online and alert you to discussions about topics you care about so you can engage with them. These tools will save you a lot of time and allow you to use it in the most valuable way: by actually interacting with people.
Of course, Hootsuite offers built-in social listening features and deep integration with third-party tools.
Track Your Success
You already know that in business, you need to track your results to see what’s working and what’s not, and when you may need to adjust your plans. The same applies to social media.
Set up a spreadsheet with all your key performance indicators to measure the goals you’ve set in your content strategy. Fill it out at least monthly, plus conduct a periodic social media audit every quarter.
But you don’t want to spend hours each month gathering your performance data, right? That’s understandable. Once again, Hootsuite comes to make your social media life easy with comprehensive analytics for all your platforms in one place.
6 Inspiring CEOs on Social Media
Need more inspiration to get started? Check out what your peers are posting, or take a look at these CEOs who are succeeding on social media.
Irina Novoselsky
Irina, the CEO of Hootsuite, is very active on social media and a big supporter of all Hootsuite employees, sharing their experiences online through the employee advocacy program powered by Hootsuite Amplify.
Irina talks about leadership and the power of social media (of course!), sharing personal insights on what makes Hootsuite great, both as a company and as a product. She is also known for her support of social marketers, seeking to elevate their status among other CEOs and executives.
What you can learn from her:
- Be authentic. Irina’s passion for teamwork and the power of social connections shines through in every post she shares. The lesson for you? Share your genuine business beliefs.
- Add a “footer” to your posts. At the end of each post, Irina includes a section introducing herself. It tells potential new followers what they can expect if they decide to follow her, increasing the likelihood that people who truly resonate with this content will follow her.
Christopher Young
Christopher is an executive vice president at Microsoft who speaks extensively on topics related to how artificial intelligence is impacting work today and how it will continue to change the way we work in the future.
What you can learn from him:
- Don’t be afraid to express your opinion. Nowadays, everyone has an opinion about AI, but Christopher believes AI is a positive tool for the future and supports that with his content. Whatever you think about something, present your opinion backed by case studies and data to lend credibility to your words.
Alexis Ohanian Sr.
Known as the former co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian now speaks publicly about work-life balance, making workplaces more family-friendly, and venture capital.
What you can learn from him:
- Use content wisely. Just like Alexis does, you can repurpose content, such as sharing a TikTok video on LinkedIn – but customize the caption with a personal note directed at the people who follow you on LinkedIn.
Adam Mosseri
As the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri has a close following from social media professionals. He is like our creator for creators, a super creator, if you will.
He talks about
Adam on all the recent changes on Instagram, and social media in general, and what’s new on Threads.
What you can learn from them:
- Don’t be afraid to be the face of your brand. Every time Adam Mosseri posts a new video, social media managers everywhere buy coffee out of emotional support. Well, no, but he is known as the gold source for the latest Instagram algorithm updates.
- Show yourself in the best way you know how. Adam primarily communicates through Reels. If you’re comfortable speaking in front of the camera, use video. If you prefer writing, put your value in the captions.
Aaron Levie
Aaron is the CEO of Box, the popular cloud storage company. He talks about Box, but also about startup culture, lessons learned, and leadership tips.
What you can learn from them:
- Speak candidly if you can handle the heat. Aaron often shares his opinions on everything from software development to artificial intelligence. When you share a topic that may spark controversy, some people will definitely agree and others will disagree. If you can handle not getting a universal thumbs-up, don’t hesitate to take a stand.
Oprah
Oprah needs no introduction. On social media, she shares snippets of her life, recent book club recommendations, news about her latest productions and projects, and of course, her famous recommendations “Oprah’s Favorite Things.”
What you can learn from them:
- Be yourself. Oprah has been famous forever for this point, but she has remained true to her personality and values – which is reflected in how she interacts with others and what she chooses to share.
- Use your profile to uplift others. You may not have 22 million followers like Oprah, but when you can, use your profile to showcase people you believe in. Oprah regularly highlights artists, writers, and advocates she admires.
Are you ready to elevate your career, expand your network and opportunities, and stress your success on social media? Hire Hootsuite as your executive social assistant to plan, schedule, analyze, and boost your content across all your social media profiles in an easy-to-use dashboard.
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By Michelle Martin
As a former agency strategist and content writer and a fashion icon working from home, Michelle exudes enthusiasm for bringing SaaS content to life. She is known for her fast understanding and simplifying complex technical topics into conversational pieces that drive results. She has written for Fortune 500 companies and startups, and her clients have been featured in Forbes magazine and Strategy & Entrepreneurship magazine.
Read more from Michelle Martin
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Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-strategy-for-executives/
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