There's more to SOCIAL MEDIA than likes and shares

Do you ever catch yourself going on AUTOPILOT as you scroll through your SOCIAL MEDIA feeds? (I can’t be the only one!)

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No more AUTOPILOT!

Don’t worry – that’s what these platforms were designed to do. And with so many different platforms and content creators, there’s a lot to take in.

Of course, many social media influencers (and wanna-be’s) EXPLOIT social media. But for the rest of us, I suggest we use social media strategically – beyond counting followers and likes and endless scrolling.

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It is a great way for professionals to CONNECT with others and LEARN new things.

It’s also a fantastic tool – one that is under-utilized by many business professionals – for communicating and reinforcing your PERSONAL BRAND.

As you know, I’m a big fan of strategically managing your Personal Brand. There are three reasons why I believe social media is the perfect tool to help you do this:

It’s free
It’s accessible
It has massive reach

To help you figure out exactly HOW to use social media to your advantage, I’ve turned to my friend, social media expert Andrew Jenkins.

Andrew Jenkins

Andrew runs Volterra, a professional services firm specializing in social media and social selling strategies.

He also teaches a course on Social Media Strategies for the Enterprise at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, and is the author of Social Media Marketing for Business.

As you can see, Andrew is exactly who you want to hear from about this type of strategy.

Are you ready to get started?
It’s time to turn off autopilot!

In this week’s episode of Talk About Talk, you’ll hear my conversation with Andrew, and learn about the three key areas to focus on for a purposeful and strategic social media presence:

1. WHERE you’re engaging
2. HOW you’re engaging
3. WHAT you’re saying

Social Media and Your PERSONAL BRAND

One of the things I noticed while reading Andrew’s book is that even though his book is about social media marketing for BUSINESS, a lot of it is directly applicable to us as INDIVIDUALS.

Whether you’re a sole proprietor, a small business owner, or work for a large corporation, you can benefit from a PERSONAL social media strategy.

A social media strategy isn’t only about businesses and organizations promoting themselves.

It’s about conveying THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, building TRUST, and making personal CONNECTIONS.

Increasingly, organizations are relying on their employees not only to amplify their messaging, but also to build relationships. And as Andrew says, that all ties right back to Personal Brand.

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Building Your Social Media STRATEGY

Social media is a HUGE part of our daily lives, but developing a STRATEGY can still be overwhelming.

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Andrew has some great tips to help you get started:

1️⃣ SECURE your name on every platform

This is the first thing you should do! It will help protect yourself, your business, and your Personal Brand.
Creating an account doesn’t mean you need to be active on every platform.

2️⃣ SELECT the best platforms for you

Explore what each platform is has to offer.
Choose one or two to focus on, based on your interests and needs. Do you want to keep track of breaking news? You’ll probably want to be on Twitter. Are you interested in networking? You may enjoy being active on LinkedIn.

3️⃣ ENGAGE purposefully and thoughtfully

Follow relevant hashtags to learn and make connections.
Find your community (like Moms of TikTok, or BookTok for avid readers).
Curate your feeds. If you don’t like what you see, start following new people.
Move beyond just hitting the “Like” button and start commenting and joining in conversations!

That’s it for this week! A huge THANK YOU to Andrew Jenkins for joining me on the podcast this week. I highly recommend his book to anyone who wants to learn more about social media marketing.

Do you have a favourite social media platform? Mine is LinkedIn. I’d love to connect with you!