The allergy of many people, and especially women, is that many accounts send and do not respond or seek dialogue. The famous Shouting Toeters. Advice: unfollow and do not bother. Remember yourself that valuable online conversations are the most effective.
Create a social media strategy
Very often I hear myself say: “social media is not a hobby”. For entrepreneurs, managers, decision makers, recruiters, communication professionals, HR managers and many others it is a full-fledged part of your profession. So consider it that way!
An easy way to visualize your own strategy and leadership is to fill in the social media iceberg . In short, it comes down to this:
social media iceberg, jeanet bathoorn
The base of the iceberg
What is the basis of the social media iceberg?
Goals ! Make your goal as concrete and specific as possible.
Social capacity . On the one hand: does my company have enough manpower available to invest the necessary list to data time in social media or should it perhaps hire qualified personnel? On the other hand: is the company ready for the speed, transparency and cultural change that come with this new way of communicating? Is your company skilled enough?
Stakeholder participation . Are there parties around your company that have an interest in your company running smoothly? Think of customers, suppliers and partners. And can they be motivated to communicate with the company via social media?
Target group analysis . Who do you want to communicate with as a company? Who are you going to follow and for what purpose?
Planning content . What do you want to share, when and how often?
Measuring & ROI (return on investment). Measuring social media efforts is becoming easier. There are all kinds of programs on the market, free or not, with which you can measure social media reach and such.
Business needs . Are there bottlenecks within the company? Image problems, hard-to-fill vacancies, differentiated communication? Whatever you can think of. Ask the entire company for input. What does each department want to communicate, what do they want to ask the outside world, what problem do they want to see solved? If there are clear needs in sight, content planning is a piece of cake.
Research. Research with which means or tools the goals can be achieved. You will need to know if the desired target group is present there. This falls under the heading of doing homework!
Monitoring and webcare. Constantly being alert: what are they publishing about my brand or my company? Should we respond or can we take note? Monitoring is real time. Measuring can be done afterwards. Monitoring is an essential part of all social media activities.
Policy, training of employees and support. What is and is not allowed? You describe that neatly in a social media protocol. How do all those tools work? Train your people carefully and extensively. And provide support where it is needed.
And then come the tools!
To be a leader in your own social media strategy you must:
First analyze what you want to achieve
Shake off all modesty and embarrassment
Be clear about what you can, want and are looking for
Take action, no more excuses!
Paying attention to the right accounts and people
Be alert to changes in sites
Putting others in the spotlight too
Stay attractive to follow
Women do it differently
chatterbox shouter
It is clear that men and women have a different style. In 2009 I already alerted women to all the extra possibilities and sites that exist. The breakthrough in percentages has already succeeded. We are participating! Now just keep paying attention to whether it remains effective for you.
This article was written for the Female Leadership symposium of Avans Entrepreneurship Centre, in the context of International Women's Day 2013.