The Social CEO Is The Successful CEO

I meet Business Owners and CEOs on a daily basis and the one thing they ask me is, “What can you do for my business?” Well, my question to them is, “What can YOU do for YOUR business?” Dear Business Owners and CEOs, are you doing everything for your business?

Usually, the answer to the question is, “Yes, and now we’re coming to you for our company’s Social Media!” That’s great! More business for me - but I don’t completely agree with their answer. No, they’re not doing everything for their business. Your business is yours. You are the face of your business. You want to promote your business on Social Media, create brand awareness, build trust, hire great talent, generate leads but hey! Any successful Business Owner or CEO knows that any client or business buys you first and then your products or services. So then shouldn’t the logical way of looking at the situation be promoting yourself on Social Media just as much, if not more? What about your brand that will help you build trust and then in-turn, generate leads for your business?

Let me share some statistics with you: According to CEO.com, 61% CEOs don’t have any presence on Social Media. Now let me share some statistics about the CEOs of the Fortune 500 Companies. While not all of you might be a part of the Fortune 500 (yet!), I’m sure you wouldn’t mind accelerating your growth. According to a study by Glassdoor, 9 out of 10 of the CEOs of the Fortune Most Admired Companies are socially engaged. This includes the likes of Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Google’s Sundar Pichai. About 80% of the Employees say that they would rather work for a CEO who is socially engaged. The average approval rating for the CEOs of Fortune Most Admired Company is 90%. The average approval rating for the CEOs of the Fortune 50 who are socially engaged is 82%, whereas the average approval rating for the Fortune 50 CEOs who are not socially engaged is 74%.

Needless to say, the Social CEO is more successful.

Social Media represents a cultural shift, not just a technological one, and its already made the leap into the workplace. In the end, it’s very difficult for a CEO to guide this transformation without ‘getting’ social media on some level - ideally a personal one. - Ryan Holmes, Hootsuite CEO

But then why do some of these Business Owners and CEOs fail, while these others succeed? Its because this 61% fail to make the connection between their personal brand and their business brand. This could be you, too. Truth is, you need to be on Social Media because that is where your consumers and clients are, your collaborators and your influencers are. Read again: That’s where your consumers and clients are. Did someone say lead generation? But before we drop down to the bottom of the social sales funnel, we need to understand that this trust-building exercise begins when you build the trust, create a relationship with the community and you humanize your company’s brand. Yes, all that power is in your hands. And you know what Uncle Ben said to Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility!” Your company’s success is YOUR responsibility!

Now I can understand how there are so many doubts in your mind about Social Media being a waste of time for you (but not for your business, right?), about how its not safe for the Business Owners or CEOs to be on Social Media especially since Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional hearing to discuss #FacebookPrivacy but then I don’t think any of you stopped using your credit cards/debit cards or doing business because of the epic financial fraud of Nirav Modi. Okay, maybe I’ll tone it down a bit. Maybe your reason for not being active on Social Media is more personal - it puts you out of your comfort zone. I can understand that you feel that Social Media is, well, for the younger generation. Fret not. I got you. Just think back at the time when telephones were a new mode of communication, what would you say to someone, now, who told Business Owners and CEOs at that time, “Don’t use a telephone - what if someone hears you saying something you shouldn’t be?” Or during the time of the email, if someone told you, “Avoid email, it could get you into trouble!” It's absurd! You wouldn’t stop using the telephone or email, would you? All of us embraced those changes. Social Media is the change you must embrace now. One more thought: If telephones and emails have only facilitated and accelerated the growth of businesses over centuries, why would the latest form of communication, Social Media, not have the same, if not better, for you and your business?

Get on the Social Media bandwagon. You’re already late. But as they say, “Better late than never!”

I bet you now want to ask me, “So Gurnoor, how can I help my company?” It’s very simple, my friend. Just get active on Social Media! Here are the three key steps in building your personal brand to accelerate the growth of your company:

Build your Online Presence

The first step is always to build your online presence. Create your profile on all the relevant Social Media platforms. Now what is relevant for you, may not be relevant for another so ask yourself these two questions:

1. Where is my target audience located?
2. Where can I best portray my personality?

The second point is something I want to draw your attention to: here I want you to focus on your skills. Are you a good writer? Maybe you should try LinkedIn - LinkedIn’s Publishing allows you to become a Thought Leader by writing long-form articles. Are you a better speaker? You should start a YouTube Channel. Camera shy? Try Anchor for podcasts! Audio is going to be taking over publishing very soon, my friend.

Invest in Content Creation

By investing, I don’t just mean investing money to create great quality content. Invest your time. You don’t have to have a great budget. Try vlogging, regularly update posts sharing some tips and tricks, and more. Do you feel you don’t have the time to invest in creating content? Fret not. I got you covered there too! My last article Quick & Easy Content Ideas For Busy Thought Leaders has the answer to that as well - so now you have no excuse for not putting out content! However, let me assure you - There is NO SUBSTITUTE for good QUALITY Content. None. Nil.

Engage!

Dear Business Owner or CEO, do you know what the most amazing part of Social Media is? Its a medium of communication. A two-way conversation. Yet, at the same time, you can listen to what thousands, even millions of people are saying about your brand. You can LISTEN. With that power of listening, you can understand their problems, which will help you better your product or service. You can also empathize with them - making you and your company’s brand trustworthy. Build brand loyalty by engaging with fans and followers. Communicate with them, thank them for their comments or if they have made an important point, acknowledge it. Go ahead and share others’ posts once in a while too - after all, we can only grow by uplifting each other! All these small gestures display genuine interest, value addition, and gratification - and that’s what engagement on Social Media is truly about.

Social Media is a long-term relationship. If you have commitment issues and don’t work on this relationship consistently, you won’t win. You wont be the next Mark Cuban who is a Shark on Instagram, or Bill Gates who shows his philanthropic side with his LinkedIn posts on global health or Arianna Huffington who uses her journalistic abilities on Twitter to empower so many women entrepreneurs, or Gary Vaynerchuk who puts his #nofilter personality out on Snapchat, sharing tips and tricks daily, and documenting his journey to success. You can’t be them, and neither can you be among them, if you don’t commit to Social Media. But as a Business Owner or CEO - you know that any success that comes instantly is temporary. Now I want you to go and see this blog post's cover - at the top, and envision yourself like I have. Do you like the feel of it?

You can connect with Gurnoor Kaur Behl on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & LinkedIn about Social Media & Content Management.