Institute for Organization Management - A Program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

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A PROGRAM OF THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FOUNDATION
 

IOM Blog

March 31, 2017

Are You Getting the Reach and Building the Relationships You Deserve?

One of the reasons your organization uses social media is to spread the word about your events, programs, and news, right? It’s a great resource for that. Practically everyone is reachable on social media today. And it’s cheap! If you had to pay a newspaper, radio station, or cable TV channel for all the “commercials” your organization posts to social media, it would add up to a pretty penny.

Of course you don’t have that financial burden with social media; you just have to invest the time and energy to post to your organization’s platforms. This is all well and good. Your organization should absolutely be utilizing these tools, but what if your posts aren’t being seen and acted upon nearly as much as they could be? You would be, as they say, leaving money on the table.

Here’s the deal.

Most people simply aren’t online to interact with businesses and see “commercials” from organizations, even ones they care about. The harsh reality is people are online to socialize with humans, mostly their family and friends. That is what social media is all about and why it exists: human to human engagement. Anything else feels out of place, an interruption. Yes, your business posts—your “commercials”—may be tolerated, but rarely will they be read and acted upon because they just don’t fit in.

Your business posts are out of context.

They are out of context, if you will, because they are coming from an organization, not a human. So, what should you be doing if you want your events, programs, and news to be seen and acted upon? Use your personal social media profiles to share your organization’s most important posts.

Posts strictly from organizations can be dull and boring, right? Commercials. Interruptions.

But posts from human beings feel more real, personal, and interesting.

It’s even more powerful when the human is a friend.

People will just scroll right past commercial posts from organizations, but they will stop scrolling (even if briefly) when the post is from their friend. But that’s all you need; a moment to catch their attention.

Don’t want to mix your business life and personal life?

I understand the desire to keep these separate. But if you want to maximize your online effectiveness, you simply must use your personal social media profiles.

Here are two organization professionals who are using social media from personal profiles to reach their professional goals.

  • Jay Byers of the Greater Des Moines Partnership https://twitter.com/jaybyers
  • Bob Duffy of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce https://twitter.com/BobDuffyROC

You will find that their posts feel like they are coming from a human because they are. Notice the amount of engagement they receive. If these posts were strictly coming from the organization, they wouldn’t garner nearly as much engagement.

And about relationship building…

No one is online to network with a business. They are there to network with humans who happen to work for businesses. Relationships are always between people. When you are using your personal profiles to share your business commercials in a thoughtful and human way, you are opening the door to building better business relationships.

To get the most reach and build better relationships, post your “commercials” from your organization’s platforms and your personal ones. I recommend you encourage your team to do the same.

Avatar photo
Frank J. Kenny
Faculty, Institute for Organization Management
Author, Speaker, and Consultant

Frank Kenny is a former chamber member, board member, chairman of the board, and chamber President/CEO. He now consults with and trains chamber and association professionals from around the world. He is the author of 3 books for chambers, business associations, and their members. His area of special expertise is social media, digital marketing and technology. Frank is the founder of the Chamber Focus Show and the 4,500 member Chamber Pros Community. He is a faculty member of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Organization Management (IOM). He has a degree in finance and his MBA. Frank and Norma travel full time in their RV with Trixie and Cooper.

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