Tips For Being A Successfully Social CEO

While medical CEOs and other top company executives may be under more scrutiny than others and have to be careful about what they say, comment on and support, they should in fact still work to actively engage shareholders, employees, and the public on social media platforms in order to cultivate a more authentic presence for their company. Engaging your community on both personal and company pages is key to brand building and it’s also a necessary component of creating a reputable and trustworthy social presence.

Studies show that online communities do indeed play a role in how people make health decisions and self-diagnose. With that being the case, it’s more important than ever to be a voice of professionalism and science to cut through all the noise and misinformation. 

Posting and running ads, though, is just the beginning. Having an active voice is critical. Responding to comments, chiming in on relevant conversations, re-sharing content, and connecting with groups, influencers, and like-minded people is key. Building a recognizable and trusted voice in the social landscape builds brand recognition, reputation, engagement, authority, and loyalty.

Build Your Persona & Personal Community

“A social CEO is one who has, metaphorically, moved from the corner office to the lobby. They see customers, employees, and competitors come and go; hear their gripes, their needs, their aspirations.” Damian Corbet

• The core responsibility of the CEO of any company is to clearly communicate, represent, and facilitate the company vision. Own the messaging and enhance the brand's exposure, reach, and credibility.
• Be active on your own personal social pages and make sure all of your information is correct and up to date.
• Follow competitors, trending topics, and relevant pages/groups for your brand to make sure you are on top of current conversations and keeping up with our competitors.
• Connect and build relationships with like-minded professionals, companies, and influencers and chime in on their content.
• Learn from other leaders. Seeing what others are doing and saying and how users are responding will give you insights on what to post and what to talk about.
• Networking, reaching new people, and connecting with talented individuals should be part of your posting strategy. This is a great way to recruit top talent from a pool of people who are already in your social circle.
• Social media is also a great broadcasting tool that provides CEOs the opportunity to engage with users, but it’s also a great way to get on the radar of journalists by interacting with them on social.
• Follow trending / relevant industry hashtags.
• Create a Twitter list to keep your finger on the pulse of key players or influencers in their industry.
• Reshare company posts on your personal.
• Reshare relevant industry posts and add your own comments to start a conversation.
• Be yourself. Show your personality. Be authentic and transparent.

Long-Form Content

One of the key components to building your voice as an industry leader is to have an active narrative on trending topics and industry news. Long-form content (excess of 2,000 words) provides an opportunity to not just join the conversations that are already taking place but to start a conversation that enhances your credibility and showcases your knowledge and expertise. Long-form content can also be a differentiator when it comes to brand building and a core factor for users deciding between brands or who to trust. Long-form content may be written and posted on LinkedIn articles, a company or personal blog, and other blogging platforms like Medium.

Long-form content can:

• Spotlight your expertise
• Encourage engagement
• Give you the ability to link out
• Be submitted for earned media placements
• Build the reputation of your company
• Add searchability and SEO ranking
• Be a trust differentiator
• Get you on the radar of journalists

 LinkedIn Articles

A LinkedIn article is a piece of long-form content, similar to a blog post, that you can create through LinkedIn’s integrated publishing platform. Once you’ve written the article, you can share the link on all your social channels.

It’s an opportunity to share:

• Thought leadership
• Professional experiences and anecdotes
• Industry insights and expertise
• Advice for other professionals
• Opinions on developments in your field
• Content marketing messages in support of your brand

Posting Best Practices

As a CEO or company exec, when posting to your company's platform or on your personal pages, you should always follow brand standards and be aware of legal limitations.

• Post with purpose, use hashtags and CTAs.
• Establish yourself as a thought leader. Share valuable content which can include industry insights, leadership tips, and advice, commentary on news and trends, Q&As, etc.
• Show your passion. As a figurehead of the brand, your opinion matters, and your enthusiasm and belief in your brand, products, and services will inspire others.
• Share your own values and personal connection to your brand. Talk about why it’s important to you or what other things are important to you and why. Users look to social for entertainment, yes, but also for meaningful connections.
• Create a buzz. Be the face of company updates. Share product and industry news to show you and your company are on top of its game and/or excited about what’s in the pipeline.
• Pay attention to what your audience is interested in and what they react to. Research their needs, wants, questions, and behaviors so you are in tune with those you are trying to reach.
• Create posts that are genuine and conversational, B2H or business to human; followers crave connection and authenticity.
• Focus on storytelling, not preaching or selling.
• Posts should add value and inspire an action or be a thought starter.
• Be aware of who you are talking to, on which platform, as this will play a part in your tone of the type of “language” you use.
• Promote others before yourself.
• Ask employees to share and engage in your/company posts.
• Show gratitude to your audience and employees. Thank those who have supported you and your journey and your current company.
• Follow brand guidelines for best practices when posting on company pages.

 Engaging With Posts & Comments

• Accessibility to a brand, brand representative, or top-level executive is a huge factor when it comes to trust and authenticity.
• Stay on top of comments and messages and respond to them in a timely manner. This is crucial to building brand confidence and showing users you genuinely care.
• Pre-prepared responses can be a huge time-saver. By thinking about what questions may arise and planning for these responses with CTAs ahead of time, you can shorten your response time and alleviate the stress of trying to decide how to respond every time.
• Starting a conversation when commenting or re-sharing posts
  • Add value, not noise
  • Learn, connect, and engage
  • Be positive in your responses/comments, not confrontational
  • Connect with your audience by humanizing your voice 
  • Engage with dialogue, not a monologue

How XDS can help

• Recommend professionals, influencers, pages/groups, etc. to follow and engage with on social platforms
• Provide best practices guidelines for long-form content writing/microblogging
• Provide insights on how to rank and make your content more searchable on Google
• Provide recommendations on publications/journalists you can submit content to
• Prepare lists of trending topics, posts and articles we suggest you chime in on (with links) and suggested response
• Provide a list of relevant topics with a content outline for long-form content or write shell content that you can
  refine/edit
• Create a strategy for weekly posting with content ideas and suggested messaging
  
  
  

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