In the recent past, most magazines (online & offline), blogs, portals have been highlighting the importance of social media for companies as well as professionals, with some of them dedicated to CXOs.
But a quick survey of social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter (we'll keep FB out of the picture on the simple principle that most of us are not interested in social presence to be 'Liked' by scores of followers!) shows us that most of the CXOs of the top Indian corporates (with the few exceptions like @anandmahindra) do not have active Twitter handles or LinkedIn profiles. Interestingly, many of the companies themselves are present on these platforms. The companies whose heads have active social media profiles are largely online, web-based businesses.
So is an active profile on these social media sites over-rated and superfluous? Not at all! I personally believe that over the next 5 years most CXOs will be 'socially' active. Most of the 'one and two downs' today are already active online and these are the CXOs of tomorrow.
So if you are not there yet, how do you go about it? And how active should one be? And where?
Let me try address some of these questions here.
- As a first step, set up your LinkedIn profile. Keep it as updated and complete as possible. Link it with your official/ regularly used email id so that you can actively respond to connection requests. Connect with your peers and other relevant people in your industry and related industries.
- Set up your Twitter handle even if you don't have time to tweet regularly. This prevents someone else squatting on your Twitter handle. And here too, follow the relevant people and companies. (And a place like Twitter also allows you to keep abreast of your industry and market news.)
- You don't need to keep people updated about that dinner you had with your prospective client. But make it a point to respond to people who reach out to you. Try contribute to discussions around your areas of interest.
- Be clear about your objective on the social media platforms. Is it building your brand/ equity? Is it positioning yourself as a subject matter expert? Is it to stay abreast of key developments in your industry and areas of interest?
- Whatever be your objective, do not expect immediate results. You have to stay connected, contribute and build your credibility over time.
- Your credibility & brand on social media is also that can as easily be destroyed as it can be built up. You have to measure your words & opinions before putting them out there. You can be dead sure that anything controversial or scandalous will spread faster than wild fire!
- Never make the mistake of assuming that your personal tweets/ status updates/ comments will be strait-jacketed and will not be seen/heard by the people who you interact with online professionally. The lines are very blurred and if you do not want people to get details of your 'wild' side, then its best to steer clear from it altogether! (One way around this is to maintain completely separate online identities.)
- A word of caution here! Social media interactions can be fairly addictive and you can very easily over-indulge.
- Social media interactions cannot be outsourced. Asking your EA to update your status to 'Feeling centred while watching the sunrise at Ananda' isn't going to work! :)
- And the most important aspect to remember is that social media is not free! It takes up your most valuable resource - time. So you have to tread this landscape very judiciously!
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