An Executive's Guide to Social Media

by Allan Biggar

This year has found me relentless shuttling between London and the Emirates, Ukraine and India. There's enormous energy in these markets which excites me, challenges my assumptions on the way we look at marketing communications and teaches me something new almost every day. Without exception, much shared conversation revolves around social media and how we all engage with it.

Many of the news updates I receive when travelling do not come from the newspaper offered when stepping aboard a flight, checking into a hotel, or from the repetitive news bulletins on BBC World. I realised on my latest trip that the majority of the news I receive is through my Facebook, Twitter or BBC online email updates. In other words, social media has made everything much more immediate. Friends and colleagues are effectively becoming media outlets in their own right as they re-tweet messages or provide summaries of news updates.

On one flight, I read an interesting and convincing paper with advice on how to make social media work, especially for senior management. I've shared these findings with colleagues:

Go Where the People Are. In terms of seriousness, there's no question that Twitter and Facebook have their share of pointless babble, but both social networks have their serious sides, and both have permeated public consciousness. Also, blogs have evolved to become an important source of news and information.

When it comes down to it, the people of this world speak the language of social media, which means that senior management needs to be fluent in that language as well in order to keep their companies relevant and connected. It doesn't necessarily mean that managers must use social media, but there should be an understanding of why it matters and identify what level of engagement is appropriate for your business.

Invest in People. Most of us who are socially savvy recognize the value of relationships, but for busy CEOs, the relationship side of social media takes time, and time is money. For social media to work, you need to invest in it, because it is exactly as it is named: social. Social media is about relationships and it's about engaging and interacting, which earns the attention - and loyalty - of fellow social media users.

So, including links to Twitter, blogs and other web materials and updates in your email footer, for instance, drives home the notion that you're interested in the people side of the business.

Be a Subject-Matter Expert. Be focused! CEOs may have many views and opinions on many topics (they often have to!), but to be truly valuable - and interesting - it's best for a CEO to try to establish him/herself as a fascinating subject-matter expert.

The test for his or her social media efforts is whether people find the posts so fascinating that they re-tweet it. And re-tweeting is probably the sincerest form of flattery nowadays.

Make it Personal. Probably the most important tip is to be transparent and authentic about who you are. If a CEO uses social media to simply push an agenda, a product or a cause, he'll not realize the true benefits that these tools provide. Just as social media is about relationships, there's also humanness behind each and every Tweet and Facebook status update. The CEO that can make it personal can connect with the individual beyond the medium. It can be in the most personal, and sometimes the most routine of behaviours that can inspire other social media followers.

Don't Neglect Internal Social Media. Social media can be an excellent way of remaining connected to employees, especially in disparate locations. It allows for a much more informal mechanism to provide certain communication among staff. Clearly not suitable for all communication, but it can be a huge enabler of fostering relationships between senior management and their wider employee base.

The traditional media sector is not only changing beyond recognition, it is ultimately in its final death throes.Social media is hastening that demise. As strange and uncomfortable as it is for many of us, it's time that we all begin to understand how we can all better employ social media.

Allan Biggar is chairman of All About Brands, plc. He can be reached at allan@aabplc.com