As a business coach in the social media realm, there are all kinds of moments ranging from apprehension and fear to inspiration and joy. Having coached business executives on how to grow their social authority for more than three years, my job is to find those moments of inspiration (in my students) and show them how to harness, direct and leverage it.
Students arrive in class on the first day either hoping for magic to happen (change doesn’t work that way), doubting the value of social media, or thinking our class is a technical how-to with regard to each network. My goal on Day One is to welcome them outside the box of their own four walls and think about the possibility of social media as nothing more than a communication tool which can be leveraged. The possibilities are endless and the approach depends on the student. What is your goal? One student is nearing retirement but hopes to win a board seat with a large company. Growing thought leadership is the way to go there. And we start down that path. If your bottom line is sales, then we’re going to take a targeted 360 degree approach and surround those people in the social channels. Tapping someone on the shoulder in the social channels is way more effective than shouting from the mountain top.
I had a student who had nothing to do with any social media participation. One of his marketing tactics was to mail paper newsletters to all his customers every other week! I asked him why he was mailing so many newsletters (a more typical newsletter mailing is once per month or quarterly). He told me that he had a lot to say! There it is! I said, “Bob, you are a blogger! You just don’t know it yet!” Fast forward one year, Bob is using the LinkedIn Publishing tool, Pulse, to write blog posts about his company, products, case studies and personal anecdotes with hundreds of views and nearly 500 followers.
Where do you want to go from here? That simple question is where it all starts. Helping people shed light on their goals and their potential is my inspiration and joy.
