Often my partner sits next to me and she scrolls through her time line on LinkedIn and reads out the posts she notices.  So today's where

1. A person from IBM who reposts his TikTok videos

2. My partner's sons company, somebody there has reposted a job ad

3. Somebody has posted about a new starter

Random acts of social

It's highly commendable that people posting on social, it shows that people in your organisation understand the power of social media, I don't want to be the party pooper, but ....

These are all random acts of social and are probably costing your business, rather than creating growth, revenue profit for your business.  Which is probably your expectation.  Why?  

This is being tactical, posting and hoping and as we all know, hope isn't a strategy. 

What do I mean?

Your LinkedIn profile is your shop window it's open 24 hours a day 366 days a year

One of the reasons you post on social is for people to "consume" the content and then look at your profile.  You therefore need a profile, that makes that reader to read on, find out more about you.  Remember you.  

It's your profile where you start the process of somebody knowing you, liking you, trusting you, buying from you.

The should be able to tell from your profile, what you are about, what you stand for.  If you look at my profile, you should be able to see that I run a business which is all about business transformation, in the sales world that is called social selling.  My profile is not a CV, that shows you are looking to leave an organisation.  If your profile is not buyer centric then people will just move on, they won't remember you.

My partner watched the IBM sales person's TikTok video but was not compelled to see who he was.  He looked just like "yet another salesperson".  Yawn, Boring. Scowl on.  What a missed opportunity for the IBM salesperson.

This is a random act of social.

Whose going to see your post? - What is the reach?

The other problem that people posting like this face is they have no network.  The average person on LinkedIn has 930 contacts and they are x colleagues and recruitment consultants.  Let's say you post something, the LinkedIn algorithm will push it out to the first 10% of your network.  Who are x colleagues and recruitment consultants.  I guess you are hoping that this network of people will like it, but what about the prospects and the customers you are trying to influence?

If you are not connected to them, then they won't see it. Simple as.

Kind of feels like a waste of time?

If you run social strategically (like we teach in our social selling and influence training and coaching) then you will have built a network in the accounts and places you want to influence.  Your prospects and customers will see it, you will influence them, they will come and look at your buyer centric profile.

For example, if you want to sell something then you will be connected to the prospects you want to sell to, if you are hiring then you are connected to the people you want to hire.

This is when you will start seeing movement in your work on social.  But as I say, it needs a strategy.

Without building a network and an audience, I wouldn't say you are wasting your time, but it's close to it.

Content is strategic not tactical

All of these random acts of social have another thing in common.

They have taken a tactical approach to content.  Spray and pray. Again this is a cost to the business and as I said above, hope isn't a strategy. 

For example, content should be used in your business for selling, recruiting, gaining new suppliers etc, strategically.

What at the key words you want to be famous for?  The Google searches you want to be found on? The types of people you want to employ?  Who do you want to find that content, etc, etc?

The other week we were targeting a particular business, we found their business issue was a need to grow their business internationally.  So we connected to the people we wanted to influence and then created content about how to grow your business internationally using social selling.  Within 3 days the client called us up and asked if we could help them?

In our social selling and influence course we teach people how to create content that is strategic, that will drive you business growth, profit and revenue.

Are your employees speaking to the same values of your business?

Without training your employees on social you are opening yourself up to brand damage and ridicule in the market. 

Recently several of the English Cricket team was spotted making sexist and racist posts on social media.  Now while they had made the comments when they were 15, they are still guilty.

What happens if your new hire CEO, new hire sales CRO are caught making similar comments?

What about the values you have on your website and have as a business?

What happens if when of your employees posts about the purchase of her new fur coat, if you as a business have an anti-fur sustainability policy?

Is your business still tactical about social?

99% of companies are still tactical about social.  They know they should be on social, but spin their wheels posting stuff and I doubt they get any return for this.  We so often hear people say "we tried social selling and it didn't work".

Here at DLA Ignite, we teach you how to be strategic on social, none of these hints and tips (and hope) sessions, we take train and coach you on a program that connects your social activity and profit and revenue.  Every business needs to understand the % of revenue they create from social and be able to work that back to every keystroke.

This isn't playing on social, this is digital dominance.