A Guide to Personal Branding for Executives Who Suck at Social Media

The head of a PR strategy firm teaches you how to combine messaging for your organization with your authentic personal style

T-Mobile CEO John Legere. Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

I will never forget the first time I recognized the power of social media for professional use. It was back in 2007 and I had been robotically tweeting inspirational quotes, statistics, and calls to action back to our website. One day, I was present for a conversation with our chief operating officer during which he was complaining that other organizations got more share of media on our issue than we did. What he essentially wanted to know was: Why is leader X getting more interviews than we are?

Back at my desk, I started researching. I looked up each competing organization, who their leaders were — and followed them on Twitter. I went down rabbit holes, looking at whom each one followed and following the people and organizations that were also relevant to us.

What started out as an “opposition” research ended up being a revelation in how we used social media for communications and marketing at our organization. Those “competitors” that I followed were some of the biggest names in the philanthropy space. And what I quickly noticed was that they followed back — and began sharing our content.

Most successful CEOs on social media fluidly combine what their business goals and messages are with their own personal voice and narrative of what’s happening in their lives.

It was then that I realized the power of social media isn’t about publishing — it is about connecting and developing relationships with others.

When it comes to your personal use of social media, this is more important than ever. Anyone can publish banal links to your company’s press releases, but why is that compelling to follow? As a business leader, you have a unique opportunity to not only lead the messaging for your organization but also develop a multidimensional relationship with your audience.

Overtly developing a “personal brand” and strategic plan for your social media…