The c suites-guide_to_getting_started_with_social_media_v2

WRITTEN BY JESSICA MEHER (@JESSICAMEHER)

Lindsey Gusenburg is a Marketing Manager on the EnterpriseTeam at HubSpot. She brings over 10 years of marketing,branding, and agency experience to her role. Before HubSpot,Lindsey specialized in the B2B financial services industry, andspent seven years on the agency side of the marketing worldin New York City, where she worked on projects for clientssuch as American Express, Charles Schwab, and Bloomberg.

AUTHORS.

CO-AUTHORED & DESIGNED BY SHANNON JOHNSON

Shannon Johnson is a Content Strategist at HubSpot, whereshe works with her awesome team to create marketingresources you might actually want to download, read, andshare. Shannon has written, designed, and published dozensof ebooks, guides, SlideShare presentations, blog posts, andother resources on various topics related to inboundmarketing, social media, and content creation.

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@LINDSEYGUS

@SHANNOPOP

CO-AUTHORED BY LINDSEY GUSENBURG

WHY DO EXECUTIVES NEGLECT SOCIAL MEDIA?

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA + WORDS OF WISDOM FROM HUBSPOT CEO, BRIAN HALLIGAN.

GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.

GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER.

LESSONS TO LEARN FROM TOP SOCIAL EXECS.

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WHY EXECUTIVES CAN’T IGNORE SOCIAL MEDIA ANYMORE.

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CONTENTS.

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WRAP UP & ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.38

1 WHY EXECUTIVES CAN’T IGNORE SOCIAL MEDIA ANYMORE.

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WHY EXECUTIVES CAN’T IGNORE SOCIAL MEDIA ANYMORE.

Did you know there are as few as 5.6% of Fortune 500CEOs on Twitter? Additionally, a whopping 68% ofFortune 500 CEOs don’t have any social presencewhatsoever according to a study conducted by CEO.comand DOMO.

These stats exist despite evidence pointing to countlessbusiness benefits of being a social executive. A recentstudy released by BRANDfog suggests that socialexecutives are better leaders who can strengthen brands,build trust in products and services, demonstrate brandvalues, and communicate accountability – all by simplybeing on a social network.

Why does this matter? The days where chief executivescan hide behind the boardroom doors are gone. There’sa growing expectation from consumers and employeesthat the leaders of companies should embody the brandsthey represent – and demonstrate that commitment bybeing visible and accessible on social media. This guidewill teach you how to meet that demand.

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2 WHY DO EXECUTIVES NEGLECT SOCIAL MEDIA?

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There are a few reasons why CEOs and other c-level execs have been, on the whole,slow to adopt social media:

REASON #1: THERE’S NO TIME.

By nature of the job description, members of the c-suite are busy people. They don’t havethe time (nor should they be making the time) to sit in front of a Twitter feed all day long.This is why many CEOs and other executives who join social networks show very littleprofile activity – or end up abandoning it altogether after a short while.

The chart on the next page illustrates how even on LinkedIn, the most popular of socialnetworks for professionals, most CEOs are not actively growing their networks with fewerthan 100 connections.

Out of all the people within a company that should be most present where millions ofcustomers, prospects, suppliers, shareholders, and employees interact, you would thinkthe head honcho would be one of them. ‘Tis not the case, as you’ll see when you flip thepage.

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WHY DO EXECUTIVES NEGLECT SOCIAL MEDIA?

REASON #2: THERE’S ROOM FOR (MAJOR) ERROR.

The traditional media outlets that executives are accustomed to – such as blogs, webpages, interviews, press releases, and brand videos – are carefully crafted and scriptedby seasoned PR teams. There’s little room for a messaging errors or pushback in theseone-way communication vehicles.

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Source: 2013 CEO.com Social CEO Report (Fortune 500 CEOs on LinkedIn)

WHY DO EXECUTIVES NEGLECT SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media, however, is a completely different story. We’ve all seen big brands makemajor social mistakes that are difficult to gloss over by even the best PR folks. This roomfor significant error, coupled with the unprecedented access and lack of control a networklike Twitter provides, makes social a scary place for many execs.

REASON #3: SOCIAL MEDIA IS “NOT FOR EXECUTIVES.”

More so than “no time” and “it’s too risky,” a 2012 study by the PR firm Weber Shandwicksuggests that the top three reasons CEOs don’t participate in social media are centeredaround the perception that they don’t really think they need to be there. CEOs eitherbelieve that social media is only for certain industries (media, technology, etc.), there’s noreal value in being on social, or that there’s no real demand for it.

The fact that 68% of Fortune 500 CEOs are still missing from social media indicates howvery accurate this is. CEOs and other executives simply don’t seem to believe socialmedia is part of their job description.

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WHY DO EXECUTIVES NEGLECT SOCIAL MEDIA?

THE RISK YOU TAKE BY BEING ANTI-SOCIAL.

More so than “no time” and “it’s too risky,” a 2012 study by the PR firm Weber Shandwicksuggests that the top three reasons CEOs don’t participate in social media are centeredaround the perception that they don’t really think they need to be there. CEOs eitherbelieve that social media is only for certain industries (media, technology, etc.), there’s noreal value in being on social, or that there’s no real demand for it.

The fact that 68% of Fortune 500 CEOs are still missing from social media indicates howvery accurate this is. CEOs and other executives simply don’t seem to believe socialmedia is part of their job description.

For example, even though GM CEO Mary Barra doesn’t tweet a lot, she has used Twitteras an important tool for crisis management. Her participation in the conversation aroundthe ignition switch recall demonstrates a level of caring, transparency, and honesty thatare markedly missing, say, from US Airways CEO, Doug Parker, who doesn’t participate onTwitter at all.

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WHY DO EXECUTIVES NEGLECT SOCIAL MEDIA?

WHY DO EXECUTIVES NEGLECT SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media also provides an important tool for listening. Top social executives use socialmedia not only as another platform for communication, but also as an unfiltered newssource. Being able to see and hear the conversation happening in real time is invaluable.

Additionally, even though social media may still feel optional for executives today, it won’tbe optional in a few years. As more millennials enter the workforce and consumer market,the expectation of transparency will only go up – leaving execs to play significant catch-up.

Social media isn't just about tweeting or Facebooking. It's not about hopping on thebandwagon. It's not about hanging with the cool kids. It's about transparency and trust.When a company’s leadership team chooses not to be social, that transparency and trustsuffers. It doesn't matter what industry you're in or what audience you sell to.

Now that we’ve covered why the c-suite needs to get social, let’s talk about how with alittle help from HubSpot’s co-founder and CEO, Brian Halligan.

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3 HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.

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There are three fundamental things every executive should start doing immediately, whichwe’ll talk about briefly before we get to brass tacks ...

1) GET THE RIGHT TOOLS.

Since members of the c-suite don’t have a lot of time to be managing multiple socialaccounts, having the right tools is an important aspect of being successful on social media.Whether it’s the ability to post and monitor social accounts from a mobile device – orprovide access to a team to manage an account on a CEO's behalf – having the righttoolset is key to keeping the account active and engaging.

2) LEARN FROM TOP SOCIAL EXECUTIVES.

There are a number of executives out there already rocking the social media world. Onecan learn a tremendous amount about being social by learning from folks that are doing itright. Identifying a handful of social superstars to follow and observing how it’s done canbe a great way to get started. We’ll talk more about what you can learn from some of thetop social execs later on.

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HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.

3) GET HELP.

Some executives are naturally very social and love toengage in social media. Most c-level execs, however,are still not entirely comfortable sharing much onlineand need help keeping their profiles updated whenthey’re pulled in a gazillion different directions.

It’s important to have the support needed to keepyour social media engine running since it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it platform. That would be like dialing anumber and then walking away from your phone.

So, while mobile apps can keep you involved on-the-go, it might also be worth investing in a dedicatedsocial media practitioner to keep your social streamsrunning smoothly. Be careful not to let someone elsetake the wheel entirely, though. People can tell whenit’s not really you behind your tweets, posts, or statusupdates, and that usually does more harm than good.

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HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.

WHERE TO BE ACTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA ACCORDING TO HUBSPOT CEO, BRIAN HALLIGAN.

There’s more than a handful of prominent social networksnowadays: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest,YouTube, Instagram … the list goes on. With so many networks, it’shard for even people with tons of time on their hands to figure outwhere they should focus their effort.

Don’t worry, though – you don’t need to have a presence on everysocial network right away. We’re going to focus on what you cando to ramp up your company website, LinkedIn, and Twitter – thechannels that HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan says matter most for c-level execs.

As you get the hang of cultivating relationships and sharing contenton those channels, you can expand to Facebook, Instagram,YouTube, Pinterest, and beyond.

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HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.

Before we dive into LinkedIn and Twitter just yet,let’s talk about one important digital property youshould have on your company’s website: a biopage. You should have your own that’s completewith:

• Your professional background;• A high quality headshot; and• Links to your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.

To see what we mean, check out the bio pages ofHubSpot executives Brian Halligan and DharmeshShah here and here.

Why does having a bio on your company websitematter? Because prospects will Google you atsome point during the buying process (ouranalytics tell us so), and you want to put your bestprofessional foot forward by having your bio oryour LinkedIn profile rank at the top of searchengine results.

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HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.

“If you don’t rank first for your name, you need to work on that.”

- Brian Halligan, HubSpot Co-Founder and CEO

4 GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.

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LinkedIn can be extremely powerful – especially when you're aware of all the socialnetwork’s hidden features that don't get nearly enough exposure as they deserve. Hereare our top tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn.

OPTIMIZE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE.

Treat Your Profile Like Your Resume.Fill out your entire profile – especially your professional Headline, Summary, Experience,Education, and Industry sections. Luckily LinkedIn helps you with this by providing a gaugethat informs you how complete your profile is based on what you’ve already filled out.

Customize Your Profile URL.Make your profile look more professional (and easier to share) by claiming your LinkedInvanity URL. Instead of a URL with a million confusing numbers at the end, it will look niceand clean like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dharmesh. Customize your URL by goinghere and clicking “Customize your public profile URL.”

Search Engine Optimize Your Profile.Add brand- and industry-related keywords to various sections of your profile, such as yourheadline or in your summary. Optimizing your profile will help you get found by peoplesearching LinkedIn or regular search engines like Google.

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GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.

Show Examples of Your Work.Did you know LinkedIn allows you to add a variety of media such as videos, images,documents, links, and presentations to the Summary, Education, and Experience sectionsof your LinkedIn profile? This enables you to showcase books you’ve authored as well asmany different projects or initiatives you’ve spearheaded. Learn more about adding,removing, and rearranging work samples here.

Add, Remove, or Rearrange Entire Sections of Your Profile.LinkedIn also enables users to reorder the sections of your profile in any way you prefer.When in edit mode, simply hover your mouse over the double-sided arrow next to the Editlink for each section. Your mouse will turn into a four-arrowed icon, at which point you canclick, then drag and drop to another position on your profile.

You can also customize your profile with sections that apply only to you. Find a full list ofsections to add to and remove from your profile here.

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GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.

Get Endorsed.There are two ways you can get endorsed on LinkedIn – recommendations orendorsements. Recommendations are written by existing or past colleagues, and theyappear on your profile (if you allow them to), just like reviews show up on product pageson Amazon, or on restaurant pages on Yelp. Not having any recommendations is a bit of ared flag to others who scope out your profile, so if you don’t have any or very few, ask afew folks to give them to you and offer to write one in return.

Endorsements, on the other hand, enable users to quickly and easily give kudos to theirconnections for skills they’ve listed in the Skill & Expertise section of their profile – orrecommend one they haven’t yet listed.

You can't guarantee your connections will endorse you for your skills, but because it's soeasy for your LinkedIn contacts to do (all they have to do is click on the + sign next to aparticular skill on your profile), you'll find that many of them will do it anyway. Just makesure your profile is complete and you've listed the skills you want your contacts toendorse you for. It will definitely give your profile a bit of a credibility boost. You can alsoremove endorsements if you find people are endorsing you for skills that aren't veryapplicable.

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GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.

Here’s what HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan’s endorsements look like. It sure helps conveyhe knows a thing or two about software, marketing, and sales, doesn’t it?

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GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.

USE LINKEDIN FOR PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING.

Build as Many Connections as You Can.

Join LinkedIn Groups and Follow Brands.Did you know that if you're a member of the same group as another user, you can bypassthe need to be a first-degree connection in order to message them? In addition, groupmembers are also able to view the profiles of other members of the same group withoutbeing connected. Join more groups to enable more messaging and profile viewershipcapabilities.

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GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.

“Be promiscuous on LinkedIn. I connect with almost all of the people who ask to connect with me unless it looks like they are going to start bludgeoning me with LinkedIn messages. LinkedIn is evolving, so your expanded reach in this network will give you

more power down the road beyond what meets the eye.” - Brian Halligan, HubSpot Co-Founder and CEO

You should also follow brands on LinkedIn by going searching for a company and clicking“Follow” on their company page. A great place to start is with your competitors: Keep upto speed with what they’re publishing so you can help your marketing team stay ahead.

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GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.

Tune In to Industry News on LinkedIn Today.LinkedIn Today is an awesome section of LinkedInthat provides you with the most popular articlesshared on the social network. Follow specificInfluencer contributors, publishers, or topic-relatedchannels to stay on top of news and stories in yourindustry. You can also sign up for daily or weeklyemail summary notifications, or get instantnotifications when Influencers you're following postsomething new.

When you’re ready for it, you should also considerpublishing articles on LinkedIn to showcase yourindustry expertise. HubSpot co-founder and CTODharmesh Shah regularly publishes articles about allthings business to LinkedIn Today. It’s great visibilityfor him and for HubSpot. Anyone who has learned athing or two from Dharmesh’s posts will likely transferthat trust and affinity toward HubSpot as a company,and that makes the sales process a heckuva lotsmoother.

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GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.

Here’s a peek at Dharmesh’s influencer profile where all his published articles can be found. Compare this with any other exec you know who publishes nothing. Who are you more likely to trust?

That said, we’ve given you plenty to do on LinkedIn for now, haven’t we? Let’s move on to helping you master Twitter fundamentals.

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GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.

5 GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER.

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Create and Optimize Your Profile.At minimum, you want to at least be set up on Twitter. More and more frequently, peopleare going to Twitter to see if company executives are there. Prospective customers wantto see that there’s at least one personality behind an otherwise faceless organization. Ifthere is no profile to be found, it sends a message that he or she isn’t open forconversation, much less for business.

A completed profile with a few tweets is better than no profile at all. Case in point: GM’sCEO, Mary Barra. She’s not very active, but she’s present and responds when tweeted at.Her profile is well branded, it demonstrates brand values and openness, and she has usedit as a crisis management vehicle.

If you haven’t already, customize your Twitter profile to (a) make it look spiffy, (b) informpotential followers who you are, and (c) provide a reason why you’re worth a follow.

HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan does this well. His Twitter profile is complete with a close upphoto, a custom background/cover photo, a short bio, his location, and a URL pointing toHubSpot.com. Take a look on the next page.

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GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER.

GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER: LEARN FROM BRIAN HALLIGAN’S PROFILE.

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Professional avatar.

Descriptive bio & URL.

Industry-related tweets.

Really cool cover image.

Tweet Regularly and Tweet Often.Once you have your profile up to snuff, it’s time to work on growing your audience.Growing your following is about being visible any time your followers and future followersare logged in and viewing their feed. So how can you be present non-stop without havingto be logged into Twitter and tweeting non-stop?

The answer is three-fold:1. Tweet content you create;2. Tweet content created by others; and3. Tweet that content more than once.

To share content around the clock, you need a tool that can do four things:1. Automate publishing from a blog feed;2. Easily share content you find anywhere;3. Schedule Tweets; and4. Upload custom images.

You can do all four of these things with HubSpot Social Inbox, but if you don’t useHubSpot, there are a few other tools you can use to tweet 24/7, including Hootsuite andBuffer.

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GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER.

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Additionally, HubSpot, Hootsuite,and Buffer have Chromeextensions that allow you toschedule and share links tocontent you find anywhere onthe web without having to leavethe page to log in and sharefrom your preferred platform.

GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER.

Regardless of whether you choose to use HubSpotor some other social sharing tool, the point is tosave time and become more efficient by:

• Automating tweets for content you create (onyour blog);

• Curating and sharing quality content as youdiscover it; and

• Increasing the reach of that content byscheduling multiple tweets.

When it comes to Twitter, it matters less where thecontent you tweet came from and more that it’splentiful, entertaining, educational, or otherwisevaluable to your existing and future followers.

To find out where to go to find all kinds of greatcontent to share on Twitter and other networks,check out our blog post, What Should I Tweet? 8Places to Find Fantastic Content.

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GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER.

Build Your Following.Your second greatest lever for growing yourfollowers other than tweeting around the clock is tofollow people and add them to Twitter lists. Sincepeople get notified via their email and activity feedswhen you do these things, they’re more likely tonotice you and follow back.

You should still only follow people you actually careabout. And definitely don’t follow more than a couplehundred users per day, otherwise Twitter mightmistake you for a spam bot and suspend youraccount.

You can find people to follow by:• Importing or inviting your email contacts;• Using Twitter’s “Who to Follow” tool found in the

“Discover” section of Twitter.com;• Looking at who your followers are following; and• Browsing a Twitter directory, such as

Twellow.com or WeFollow.com.32

GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER.

DO:

1. Show your personality.2. Quote others.3. Tweet what you read with

commentary.4. Retweet with commentary.5. Leave room for others to

comment.6. Respond to @messages.7. Use hashtags to enter a

conversation.8. Follow all your customers.9. Follow your leads/prospects.10. Follow anyone mentioning

your brand.

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GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER: DO’S AND DON’TS FROM HUBSPOT CEO, BRIAN HALLIGAN.

DON’T:

1. Keep your profile private.2. Sell too hard or too often.3. Be boring.4. Have long, personal

conversations unless it’s via direct message (DM).

5. Ignore direct messages (unless it’s spam).

6. Drink & tweet.7. Overthink it. Just get started.

6 LESSONS TO LEARN FROM TOP SOCIAL EXECS.

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Despite the overall lack of c-suite social media participation across industries, there are ahandful of executives who have used social media channels to increase brand awareness,strengthen relationships with existing or future customers, or improve the public’sperception of the organizations they represent. There’s a lot you can learn by observingtheir social media behavior, and that’s what we’re going to explore next.

1) KILL MULTIPLE BIRDS WITH ONE STONE.

Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group.Richard Branson is very active on social media, and not just on Twitter and LinkedIn. He’san avid blogger who uses his blog posts to help populate his other social feeds. See, youdon’t have to come up with 100% original content for every channel you choose to be apart of. If you create any industry-related content at all (which is a good idea), you canshare it to multiple channels multiple times, just as long as you’re careful not to over-promote your own stuff.

And, just like the executive team at HubSpot, Branson has his own bio page onVirgin.com, where you can learn more about who he is, read his latest blog posts, andeasily access his other social channels. Other than his Wikipedia page (harder to control),it’s the first page that ranks for his name in Google.

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LESSONS TO LEARN FROM TOP SOCIAL EXECS.

Despite the overall lack of c-suite social media participation across industries, there are ahandful of executives who have used social media channels to increase brand awareness,strengthen relationships with existing or future customers, or improve the public’sperception of the organizations they represent. There’s a lot you can learn by observingtheir social media behavior, and that’s what we’re going to explore next.

2) SHARE A BALANCE OF CORPORATE, CURATED, AND ORIGINAL CONTENT TOPICS.

Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group.Even though Arianna Huffington’s LinkedIn profile isn’t as robust or as publicallyaccessible as it could be (at the time of writing, she doesn't have a vanity URL or any otherwork experience listed prior to The Huffington Post), she expands her presence beyondher profile by publishing regularly to LinkedIn Today.

She does a good job of balancing topics she’s passionate about, such as the importanceof sleep, with news specifically related to the business side of The Huffington Post. Thevariety of content prevents her connections from getting tired or bored from over-promotion.

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LESSONS TO LEARN FROM TOP SOCIAL EXECS.

3) DON’T BE STUFFY.

Elon Musk, Founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX.Elon Musk may be worth $11.7 billion dollars, but he suredoesn’t craft his tweets as if every word is made of gold.He uses casual physics vocabulary, sure, but you’dexpect that from the spacecraft-, solar panel-, and electriccar-making entrepreneur.

Industry language that your fans and followers also speakis very different from blasting your feeds with businessbabble in an effort to maintain a buttoned-up image. It’sokay and advisable for even executives to avoid roboticcorporate speak.

Take a tip from Elon Musk. He comes across as relatableand human because he doesn’t just tweet about work,and he’s not afraid to use a fragment sentence here andthere. He tweets about his kids, books he recommends,and movies he likes, and you should, too.

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LESSONS TO LEARN FROM TOP SOCIAL EXECS.

7 WRAP UP & ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.

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Deciding not to invest more in social may not show harmful side effects immediately. But itwill certainly help your competitors, especially if their leadership teams are ready torespond at any unforeseeable moment a PR crisis strikes.

The BRANDfog survey we mentioned previously in this guide uncovered some of theprimary benefits to why CEOs and other c-suite executives should get social:

• Better communication;• Improved brand image;• More transparency;• Improved company morale; and• Better leadership.

Additionally, CEOs who participate on social media are able to build better connectionsand a stronger network. These connections can turn into customers, partners, oremployees down the line. Simply put, getting social is good for business.

Now that you know how to get up and running on Twitter and LinkedIn, why prolong themany perks of being actively social?

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WRAP UP & ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.

• What Should I Tweet? 8 Places to Find Fantastic Content [SlideShare]

• How to get 1000+ Followers on Twitter

• 5 Ways CEOs Can Be Interesting on Twitter [SlideShare]

• Your Anti-Social CEO Is Hurting Your Brand [New Data]

• 11 Incredibly Useful LinkedIn Features You Might Not be Using

• The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Mastering LinkedIn

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