7 Handy Tips for Managing Multiple Social Profiles
When providing social media education to a group or department, the length of the session usually does not allow for a detailed overview of each network. (Oh how I wish it did!) Every social site functions so differently and allows you to reach a different target audience. But there are some common threads and methods for managing more than one profile. So here are seven handy tips to manage multiple social networks and your personal brand that I often share with my students:
1. Create a content plan.
The big brands do it, and you should do. Do you plan to write blog weekly? Twice a week? How often will you post to Facebook? Will you schedule your Tweets in advance or plan times each day to be live? Most importantly, what content are you sharing? What message do you want to communicate? Get organized and create a plan that will help you strategize your delivery and save you time on a regular basis.
2. Understand your settings, functions and features.
If you have never taken the time to go through the settings on each platform and understand how they work, now is the time to do so. If you adjust setting X, how does it change your profile? Do you read the pop-up windows when the network adds a new feature? Do you understand how each and every function can enhance your profile? It’s time to learn what these platforms do with your information and how you can take advantage of their features to make your personal brand shine.
3. Schedule time each month to review settings, functions and features.
In the digital age, big things happen in the blink of an eye. And some networks add new features without even telling you (Facebook). Take 10 minutes each month to make sure your settings are the way you left them and check if there are any new features you can use to build your profile. LinkedIn just added a bunch of fun settings. Go through each one and see if there is some value for you. Facebook seems to get a kick out of randomly resetting your settings to default just to keep you on your toes. So stay a step ahead and on top of your settings. Otherwise, you might be sharing content with people you don’t intend to share with.
4. Make your bio work for you.
You’ve probably heard this before, but it is essential, especially for job hunters. Use the same photo for all your profile pictures so that people know it’s you. Craft one short and strong bio that you can use in whole or in part across all your networks. Make sure it reflects who you are and why you want to connect. If you aren’t getting some of the results you think you should, or you are all of a sudden attracting a stange crowd on Twitter, change it up. Your bio and your photo are the first impression. How do you want to be perceived?
5. Be strategic about posting photos.
You might really be enjoying that tropical vacation. However, your professional connections do not need to see you at the beach in your bikini, proudly holding up that adult beverage. There is nothing wrong in posting fun and social photos, but how does that photo represent your brand? If viewed out of context, what impression with that photo make? Think a little bit about the photos you post. How will they help you in the long run? Do they enhance your image? What impact that photo make? If there’s the slightest chance that that one photo could embarrass you later, don’t post it.
6. Use lists to manage your connections.
I’ve written about the Facebook and Twitter lists functions before. Leverage this feature to your advantage. On Facebook, using lists can help you with custom privacy settings. And if you have a lot of friends, it will help you check in with some folks who may not be appearing in your Timeline as often as you would like. On Twitter, you can subscribe to other people’s lists and create up to 20 of your own. You can use the list function to separate Tweeps by topic or industry. You can create a leads or contact list. And what’s really helpful is that you don’t have to follow someone to put them on one of your lists. I have a news list and while the list is long, I follow less than a handful of accounts. But it serves as a great resource and good content to share with my followers.
7. Take care with who you friend and follow.
It might seem really cool to have 5,000 friends or followers, but if 80% of those are spammers, bots and porn stars, what good does that really do? If you friend someone on Facebook, Link with a connection on LinkedIn or follow someone on Twitter, you are associated with that person. So it might seem cool that RoxyXXX is following you, and in the spirit of #TeamFollowBack you might give an automatic follow to all who follow you, but when your potential employer finds you on Twitter and sees who follows you, it’s pretty certain that they won’t think you’re all that cool if your friends and followers are less than respectable accounts and people. Be strict with who you friend and link with and make sure to manage your followers. It’s better to have connections with substance than large numbers of fluff. (Note: Pinterest has yet to enable the feature of managing followers, so be careful. They have not responded to requests as to when they will allow people to block followers.)
Ultimately, take a pause before you post anything anywhere and determine whether that comment will benefit you and your brand. Determine if your content will make a positive impact on your viewers or if you leave yourself open to interpretation. Good question to ask yourself – What’s the point? If you can’t find one, don’t post it.
The Social Olympics: Is your Club medal-worthy?
As the Olympic Games in London unfolded, the world’s top athletes took to social media to share their experiences. We saw some wonderful stories develop and fun moments from inside the Olympic Village. We also witnessed one Greek and one Swiss athlete leave the games for inappropriate tweets. British diver, Tom Daley, US Women’s Soccer Goalie, Hope Solo, and even America’s sweetheart, Aly Raisman, landed in the news because of their online activity. These elite athletes taught us that not even Olympians are sure how to use social media beneficially.
The games served as a good reminder that the lack of new media training does not apply only to athletes. It’s an issue for many businesses, too. Private Clubs struggle with the issue even more.
Most every club has an executive team that is comprised of the GM, Membership/Marketing, F&B, Catering/Private Events, Member Relations, and the Executive Chef. All of these departments are essential to a successful team and performance. And each team member has a unique voice which can serve the Club well in communicating with members and prospective members online. But, just like in synchronized swimming, if one team member’s moves and timing is off, points are deducted and the gold medal will remain out of reach.
Social networks are simply communication tools that should be integrated into marketing and communication strategies. It’s essential that your Club integrate social media into your communication plan and decide what role department managers and staff will have. Establishing guidelines for the team to use as a resource is smart planning.
Determine the content each department will contribute. Make a content plan. This is critical so that everyone understands what and when they should post their news. Private clubs, social by nature, don’t need to have separate accounts for each department – personally signing Facebook posts or initialing tweets is acceptable, and actually makes your content look like a team effort. Make social media part of your weekly meetings where you discuss what your communication objectives are and how each member will participate. This will enhance your content plan so that everyone understands the strategy.
In Private Clubs, the responsibility for social media falls on the team. This is not an individual sport like archery or track & field. The Chef sharing food pictures and recipes is just as significant as the Catering Director thanking Mr. & Mrs. Smith for hosting their wedding at the Club. The members appreciate the team as a whole, as well as the individuals who fuel the dynamics. And that’s why the authentic voice needs to shine through. If the receptionist has been assigned as the lead on posting everything to social networks, then every post will sound like it comes from the receptionist. Private Clubs are in such a unique and wonderful position to share the ongoing story of the club and the value of membership. Each department has a special story to tell which enriches the Club’s brand message.
From top to bottom, all staff members should understand your brand identity and message, and take part in helping to achieve gold in the Social Olympics.
Everyone, despite their position or level of experience, can learn to communicate well and to serve as better brand ambassadors. Loyalty starts within your club. One rogue employee, like Hope Solo, can torpedo your brand.
It’s time to train your staff, your managers, and leaders to be good communicators and to serve your club and members well.
It’s Just My Opinion
“It’s not about what made me unhappy,” Solo said. “It’s not about one game. I have my beliefs that the best commentators and the best analysts should be analyzing come Olympics, come World Cups, and it’s only my opinion. You can take it or leave it, to be honest, so it’s my opinion, and I think analysts and commentators should bring energy and excitement and passion for the game, and a lot of knowledge, and I think it’s important to help build the game, and I don’t think Brandi has that.
“It’s just my opinion, and nothing else really matters, to be honest. What matters is tomorrow’s game against North Korea, playing at Old Trafford. The team’s excited. It’s my birthday. I don’t really care to answer any other questions about Brandi.” via ESPN
Those of the words of an Olympic athlete. Hope Solo, the US women’s soccer goalie, made no apologies for her Twitter rant about the skills and ability of NBC correspondent, Brandi Chastain. This Mashable article has all of the tweets that Solo spewed, which were also tagged for Facebook posts.
Solo’s comments about Chastain were inappropriate enough that coach Pia Sundhage called Solo in for a meeting to discuss. What’s unfortunate, though, is that it appears Hope Solo was not reprimanded in any way.
What lesson does that teach Hope Solo?
Solo’s posts and commentary may be “only her opinion” but how will she learn that her opinions, expressed in a very public forum where the whole world is watching, does not favorably represent the U.S. women’s soccer team nor Team USA? How will she understand that her opinions do not reflect the opinions of the team or the USA? Will she understand that tweeting nasty comments teaches young girls who look up to her that that kind of behavior is acceptable? Will she realize that she comes across as a spoiled brat who doesn’t care what anyone else thinks? What lessons in leadership are missed here, as well?
I wonder what drove coach Sundhage to conclude that she would not discipline the birthday girl. She could have at least insisted that Solo apologize to Chastain. Solo could have been fined. Solo could have been benched for 15 minutes, a half or even an entire game. It would have been interesting to see if Solo is that big of a factor on the team. And it certainly would have driven home the point that smack talk is not an acceptable communication style for US Olympic athletes. Freedom of speech can be used as an argument here, but certain people are held to higher standards. We have greater expectations of the athletes that are privileged to represent our country in the Olympics.
During my softball days, my dad, who was also my coach, ran a very tight infield/outfield drill. As he and the other coach would smack softballs at us, one rule stood: If you drop the ball, everyone runs a lap. It was one drill which has stuck with me forever. My actions affect others.
Hope Solo could stand to learn the drill that her words are not just her opinion. In this scenario, they affect and reflect her team, her coaches, the US athletes and you.
Google Handwrite
Here’a a nifty little trick, highlighted today in Time Techland – Google Handwrite. It allows you to use your Android or Apple device to scribble your search term instead of the keyboard. The article goes through a complete tutorial for you. It’s a quick set up.
I enabled this feature on both my phone and iPad. It’s a little tough to write on the phone, but the extra room on the iPad is kind of fun. The coolest part about this feature is that your handwriting is not limited to the search bar; you can write anywhere on the screen.
The author of the article, Doug Aamoth, debates the usefulness of it, which remains a valid point for me. I’m not sure that I would opt to always handwrite my search term over typing the letters, but the feature allows you to do either. The auto search feature is still active when you handwrite, so you can simply tap the term when it pulls the correct words you’re looking up.
It’s always fun to find new little features that may make life a little easier, or in this case, just a little more fun.
Here is a photo from the post.
Please CLICK HERE to learn how to set it up on your device.
Have you changed your Facebook e-mail yet?
Today’s post is super short. I realized going through several of my friends’ profiles recently that perhaps many people didn’t notice or learn of a recent Facebook change. One thing Facebook is infamous for is changing or adding features without telling users. That’s the case with Facebook e-mail. They recently added a default address which is [email protected]. So if your e-mail was [email protected] you are now [email protected].
It’s time to go to your settings and confirm what YOU want to be displayed in your profile. Go to your Profile and under your photo, hit the About button. This will pull up all your information. Scroll down to the Contact Info and click Edit. You’ll see your assigned facebook e-mail address. And as Facebook likes to do, this is now your default contact e-mail address. You can keep it this way or click the dots to hide the facebook address and make your original e-mail what displays on your profile.
Anytime Facebook changes or adds features, it’s a good time to review your privacy and account settings. In fact, you should calendar a 10 minute session once per month just to make sure Facebook hasn’t reset to your setting to default and “everyone,” which is something they really seem to enjoy doing.
TK’s Twitter Troubles
I’m about to make a confession. I love USA Channel’s Necessary Roughness. Do you know the show? The lead character, Dr. Dani Santino is a psychotherapist whose main client is the fictional football team, the New York Hawks. She was brought on board after their star wide receiver was unable to catch any passes. She was referred to the team because, fresh off her divorce, she had a one-nighter with the team’s trainer. Juicy.
I was a little behind in this second season and finally caught up on last week’s show. (It airs every Wednesday night at 10pm for those interested!) The episode guide for last week’s “Mr. Irrelevant” promises, “Dr. Dani works her magic on a world-renown illusionist whose next trick could prove his last. In addition, Dani tells the kids about her relationship with Matt as he learns to navigate front office politics. Plus, TK gets into a Twitter flame war with an all-too-familiar foe.” Forget about everything except the last sentence. Twitter (and Twitter used by athletes) was actually written into the episode!
I hadn’t read the episode guide before watching and so I was thrilled when Twitter became a part of the conversation, and then a main thread of the story. Here’s the scoop, again from the episode guide, this time the full summary: TK is irritated by his lack of “cred” on Twitter so he hires a celebrity Tweet Master to help him fight back against his detractors, including “The Minefield.”
This episode was absolutely delicious. The writers of the show threw in a bunch of Twitter slang, as TK talked about how he needed to be trending, was panicked that his arch rival was trending, not him and constantly worried what everyone was saying about him. There is a scene where after he hired his ghost tweeter, his friends are reading what people are saying about him. Since he’s not the one actually tweeting, TK says at some point, “What did he say? What did I say?” I may have even picked up a new term, as the character TK was talking about Twaters. Twitter + haters = Twaters. Don’t you just love it? All the panic and worry are all just to stay relevant. When his ghost tweeter starts posting photos of TK in all of the other team’s uniforms, the GM steps in and warns not to continue down that path. In the end, it turns out that he and his rival had both hired the same ghost tweeter and make amends. Imagine that!
As delightful, and a bit silly, as this particular episode was, we can actually gain some insight into what might go on in the head of a pro athlete. I’m sure there is great pressure to stay relevant, a huge desire to be trending and that it is all too easy to get caught up in smack talk. These athletes have a lot of pressure to perform during the game, and now in the digital age, to perform well in the social stratosphere. We’ve seen all too many pro athletes pop up in the news because of something dumb they posted on Twitter. When was the last time one of them made the news for a positive and influential tweet?
What also seemed outside the norm, was the interest the GM took in what was appearing on TK’s Twitter feed. I’m sure there are plenty of teams who take a mild interest in what their players are posting, but how many GMs step in and reprimand their players for some of the stupid things they say on Twitter and elsewhere? What would be totally awesome is if even the pro teams would come to understand that a social media education and how to use these networks effectively, sets a foundation for a successful PR game. Working with all the players, coaches and staff in pre-season builds the foundation for a strategic communication program, where everyone is singing the same tune. The team can spend the season building each other and the fans up, instead of getting stuck in Twaterville.
Opportunists Should Love The LinkedIn-Twitter Breakup
Perhaps you’ve noticed something missing from your LinkedIn news feed? That would be tweets. Twitter announced recently that they are changing their policies as to how tweets appear in third party applications, and therefore cut the link to LinkedIn. If you want to post to both LinkedIn and Twitter simultaneously, you can begin your post in LinkedIn and check the little box next to the bird. That will send the post to Twitter, too. If you want tweet-like posts to appear in LinkedIn, you can use a social media manager like Hootsuite and post status updates or content to Twitter and LinkedIn and the same time – Facebook too, if you desire!
It’s clear though that few people have taken an interest in posting news to LinkedIn. What I’ve noticed since the breakup is that most people have not made an effort to make up for the lack of tweets. Take a look, right now, at your LinkedIn Home Page. Do you notice anything? Is anyone posting news? Or do you see mostly the regular updates like “Betty Smith is now connected to Bob Johnson,” or “Sam Jones changed her profile.” Yeeowza! Those updates are boring!
Now that tweets will not appear in the LinkedIn news feed, opportunists should develop new strategies for how we use and post to LinkedIn. What bits of news and information do you want to share with your connections? Will you be seen as helpful? Can you position yourself as an expert on a particular topic? Will your connections be able to say, “Wow, that Johnny sure posts some valuable news and insights.” The point being, that’s exactly what people should say about you. If you want people to notice you on LinkedIn, you have to initiate the conversation. You have to keep appearing in the news feed with helpful, useful content and information that benefits your connections. Check in with your LinkedIn account, decide what posts will resonate with your audience and start making our news feeds a lot more interesting than, “Jane Doe joined the group, People Named Jane.”
Side note: Sprout Social recently shared an article on adding video to your profile. One more way to set you apart from everyone else!
Get Bright Life E-News
Get free education and updates from Bright Life Media. E-news contains exclusive content for subscribers only. Say YES to a Bright Life now!
