Why Business Leaders Should Use Social Media | 7 Compelling Q & A’s
Based on the survey statistics from 2019, half the world’s population is on social media. This number simply highlights the importance of social media and proves that it is undoubtedly one of the best ways to connect with your audience. In most cases, that proves to be quite tricky. In 2017, I founded my company iSchoolConnect, which uses AI-tech to help international students find and apply to universities abroad. While I always tried to actively participate in my company’s social media marketing initiatives, I realized that I could use the same channels to create a greater impact.
- What’s your “top hack” for succeeding on social media as a business leader?
I began by posting informative videos on my personal youtube channel, without worrying too much about visibility and SEO. The first thing I realized after becoming active on social media, was that remaining consistent and putting out engaging content can do wonders for your profile. The response I’d received was truly unprecedented and these are the major tips, tricks, and hacks I abide by:
- Story-telling works the best. Merge facts with your life
- Put out genuine, helpful, and original content
- Portray yourself as the ultimate thought leader in your field
- Regularly engage with your audience via messages and comments
- Provide relevant answers to questions and personalize your replies as much as possible
- Make sure you share platform-specific content. For example, posts like quotes, memes, multimedia, etc. work well on platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, while product-related or professional content works better on LinkedIn and other B2B platforms.
2. What are some of the pitfalls of using social media as a leader that you’ve experienced?
Being an active presence on social media is no one-off. Despite its undeniable advantages, social media is a time-consuming venture. It demands time, attention, creativity, and energy. If you can devote all of these things, they reflect in your posts and videos and draws in your audience. However, if you fail to do so, your efforts fall short and you will see an immediate drop in impressions, clicks, and other analytical parameters.
Social media management is also difficult to outsource. If you wish to publish content that resonates, there is a high level of personal involvement required in SM management.
3. Has social media been an effective way to engage and connect with your employees? If so, how?
I primarily use LinkedIn as a B2B and employee engagement platform. However, I do know that many B2B companies also utilize Facebook for employee branding and management purposes. One of our more successful initiatives for employee engagement on LinkedIn is a segment called ‘People of iSchoolConnect’. In these posts, we write about the accomplishments and interests of our employees.
4. How about for connecting with customers and driving sales? Any examples?
Social media has been very instrumental in helping my organization, as a whole, gain immense traction and connect with our customers on a more casual level. Seeing that response is what prompted me to increase my own presence on social media to experiment and understand what drives it. Currently, my YouTube Channel contributes to about 5% of the total customer traffic while Facebook and Instagram receive close to 60–70 inquiries per day.
5. How do you deal with criticism or negative feedback on your social posts?
I truly believe that any criticism should be taken in a constructive manner and that is something I definitely abide by. There have been comments on many of my posts or videos which are less than favorable but, the trick is not to take them personally and understand that everyone has a right to their opinion. If the comments are offensive I make sure to document them before they can be altered. However, if it is criticism or negative opinions, I make sure to perceive them as I would any other feedback.
6. Can you share one of your posts that was especially successful (in terms of views, engagements, results)? Why was it effective?
When I applied for an MBA in the USA, my final choice was narrowed between Bentley University and Yale University. While Yale is an exceptional school, I chose Bentley University for its renowned MBA program and an offer of a full scholarship for my MBA.
When I decided to start making Youtube videos, I realized that a lot of people wanted information about applying for scholarships. So, I decided to make a video and share my own experiences about applying to scholarships abroad. That one video about how I got a 100% scholarship from US universities, gained immense attention and as it currently stands, that video has over 230K views, 7.2k likes, and over 1000 comments. One of the biggest reasons why I think that video worked so well is that I chose a topic that had a lot of hubbub around it and very little genuine information.
7. Overall, what’s the “ROI” for you of spending time using your social channels as a leader? Is it really worth it?
I firmly believe social media is worth every ounce of effort you put in. But there is a caveat. All my experiences are with organic growth with minimal advertisement expenses.
Therefore, in my case, giving a definite number for the ROI would be inaccurate when the advantages of my social media presence are manifold. Actively functioning on social media allows me to stay in touch with the target community, it helps generate sales and facilitates a medium for me to become a thought leader. Apart from this, my social media presence also proves to be a unique opportunity for marketing activities like monitoring the industry trends and competitive analysis, provides constant feedback, helps with branding and the overall growth of iSchoolConnect. For all these reasons and more, I consider the use of social media channels, a total win-win.
