A year ago I decided to become an active content creator and social media contributor.
I wanted to show our teams at Xerox how a social program could help change perceptions of our brand. Many still think of Xerox as a copier company, but the majority of our revenue now comes from business process outsourcing.
I’ll be honest; playing guinea pig required time that is scarce these days. Maintaining a lively, close-to-real-time presence on any media outlet is not for the faint of heart. How many followers and tweets make a Twitter feed look respectable? How many views make a blog post high-impact? Is my Klout score high enough? And ROI? Let’s not even go there.
Another issue: Our executive team is proud of the Xerox brand presence in the social space, but we have a team-oriented, humble culture. I didn’t want to be seen as a chest-thumping “celebrity” executive who uses social media as a megaphone and whose personal brand can outshine their professional one.
I set out to connect with communications professionals and marketing thought leaders, the most relevant audience for me as a marketing executive. Before taking the plunge, I carefully considered what value I could bring to the social conversation in a very crowded field. I thought about how Xerox helps customers so they can focus on their real businesses — and my purpose as its CMO. My answer was clear: giving a real, clear-eyed take on the business of marketing and communications. Marketers have a reputation for being full of hype; I wanted to share information about and examples of smart, yet simple, marketing and communications.
Where to start? Not Facebook, that was a given. While I’m on Facebook, it’s reserved for life outside of work when my heart and mind kick full-time into mom mode. It’s a social place where, for me, the lines don’t blur between work and family.
Twitter felt like a more natural place to kick start dialogue — my target audience was fluent in 140 characters. I didn’t have a huge Twitter following then and I still don’t. Quantity is never the point. Quality engagement always is. I tweet a few times a day — much of it is sharing what I’m reading, watching, and inspired by in marketing, branding, communications, leadership, and the occasional a-ha moment I have as a runner and/or as a parent. These are topics I live and breathe every day.
My social participation has generated more speaking invitations, which led to one of my favorite moments of the year. Following a speech I delivered at an event in Philadelphia, a woman approached me and said, “I never thought I’d see the old brand Xerox represented by a woman in an orange dress who tweets and talks like she’s my next door neighbor. I thought Xerox was stodgy; now I can tell you’re not.” I wasn’t sure at first but I decided to take it as a compliment. We can’t all have “geniuses” representing our brand like Apple does, but never underestimate how brands can be personified by the simplest virtual and face-to-face social communication.
What I enjoy most about being active in social is the way it has helped me build connections with others in the marketing industry and with my colleagues. I’ve been surprised by the number of people, fellow employees included, who introduce themselves at large events to say they read and share my tweets and blog posts. It’s nice to know someone hears you when you’re talking in a forest.
There’s a rich debate in marketing circles about how important it is for executives to be on social. To me, it’s personal. And, it only works if it’s authentic. That means it won’t work for any professional who sees it as a burden instead of an opportunity.
Here’s what I’ve learned about joining the conversation:
Don’t boil the ocean. I started by writing blog posts and establishing myself on Twitter. This was more than enough at the time. If you are intimidated by all of the public-facing social options, instead of tackling Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter at once, begin with a single platform. It’s better to be active on a single channel than to have a sporadic presence across several.
Be conversational. Initiate or amplify conversations with clients, prospects, media players and employees. Banter with followers or comment on your blog posts. Remember: the only legitimate social media voice is the same one you would use in a room full of peers. You’re not leading a seminar. You’re having a conversation around the virtual water cooler, or even better, at a collegial cocktail party.
Be prepared to move quickly. Remember Communications 101: Listen. One day, comments I made during a speaking engagement appeared in Click-Z, a marketing publication. The headline was misleading — and some of the comments that followed the story were off base. I jumped to the head of the comment thread to put my quotes in context. Don’t forget that conversations continue after a speech is delivered or a tweet is posted.
Don’t sell. If you want to sell, buy an ad or an advertorial or, perhaps, sponsor tweets. Otherwise, contribute insights and stimulate conversation by expressing a point of view.
Enlist a team. It’s just a reality that busy executives will sometimes be out of commission in closed-door meetings or airplanes without Wi-Fi. Chatter on digital media outlets is 24/7. So be open to asking trusted advisors to watch your blog and social media feeds while you’re “dark” and alert you when it’s important that you respond.
Like anything new, practice brings progress. Keeping up with the pace of social requires being an active practitioner. For me, it’s now a natural part of my day and has changed how I get, share, and talk about information. And, if I’m successful in getting just a handful of people to see a new face to the new Xerox, then it’s worth every tweetin’ moment.
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