Spin #1: Social media

Deadly spin #1:

You should be posting constantly to social media.

The more you post on social media, the more that employees and the rest of the world will get to know the real you. And the more they get to know the real you, the more they’ll like, respect and trust you as a leader. The more they like, respect and trust you, the more they’ll like, respect and trust our entire organization. That’s good for you and great for us.

Every time you post to social media, you’re making a deposit in our organization’s trust and forgiveness account. Building up a healthy balance means we have something to draw from if we’re ever hit with a crisis that puts our reputation at risk. Because your followers know, like, respect and trust you and us, they’ll be quick to give you and us the benefit of the doubt –trusting that we’re right or we’ll make it right if we’re in the wrong.

We’ll use your accounts for show and tell, giving your followers an all-access backstage pass that lets them read, watch and listen to what you’re saying, doing and thinking at work and away from the office in real time. You’ll share news, give your views and weigh in on the issues that matter to you, our organization and your followers. We’ll personalize your posts with a healthy mix of wit, wisdom and warmth. And we’ll humanize you with guest appearances by your family dog, spouse, kids and grandkids and lifelong childhood friends. Posts featuring this supporting cast is guaranteed to run up the likes and shares. You’ll return the favour by liking, sharing and commenting on posts from employees and very important people. You’ll stay connected with your followers, building a reputation as being a leader who’s authentic and transparent, who shares and cares, listens and takes a stand on important issues that keeps our organization on the right side of history.

And best of all, you won’t have to do a thing. We’ll do it all for you. We’ll set up your accounts. We’ll post new content daily –photos, videos, quick updates, shout-outs and links to positive media coverage. We’ll reply to comments on your behalf, start and join conversation and make sure you’re following the right people on social media.

Every leader’s on social media. You need to be there too and we’ll make sure no one does it better than you.

WHAT EMPLOYEES THINK

You post as much as my kids. And they’re teenagers who aren’t running big organizations. How exactly do you have the time to constantly post to social media? Is all that posting really the best use of your time when you’re making $250 an hour?

How about putting your phone down and actually talking with us face-to-face offline here in the real world? If I posted as much as you during the workday, my supervisor and a rep from HR would be sitting me down for a meeting.

But maybe you’re not the one who’s posting. Some of us have clued in that you’ve outsourced your social media accounts to the 20-something comms coordinator / digital native / social media whiz kid on your PR team. How do we know? There’s your love of multiple exclamation marks at the end of every sentence!!! The emojis, memes and in-jokes that only a Gen Zer can understand. And there’s that since deleted but screenshotted Friday night post where you confess to being “way too lit” at the club with your BFF who’s “fire fit”. Just how authentic are you as a leader if that’s not you posting to social media?

What’s your true motivation for being on social media? Is it to raise the profile and enhance the reputation of our organization? Or is it an ego trip? Are you really that hungry for attention, adoration and affirmation? Shouldn’t your paycheque, perks and power be enough to build up your sense of self-worth? All those pics of you standing and smiling next to very important and powerful people don’t make you look well-connected and equally important and powerful. It just makes you seem like a fanboy / fangirl and that’s never a good look in a grown-up.

How much time do you actually spend in the office? We used to look for your Lexus LS in your reserved parking spot to know if you were at work. Now, we just check your social media accounts. Today, you’re out on the west coast. Last week, you were down south. The week before that, overseas. Are you working at all these conferences, retreats and meetings? All we see are the photos you take while going for your morning runs past landmarks and tourist traps, heading out on the town for dinner and drinks and hanging out in super luxe first class airport lounges. Maybe you were in one of those lounges when you signed off on the no-muffins-atmeetings memo because we need to curb discretionary spending.

As hard as you (or your comms coordinator) tries to make you appear like an average Joe or Jane, you’re not. Your paycheque puts you in a whole different snack bracket. Your taxable benefits are more than what some of us earn in a year. The lifestyles of the rich and famous used to make us envious back in the 1980s. Now, the gap between the haves and have nots just makes us angry. So if you want to fan the flames then keep posting pics of the 2,500 square foot boathouse at your summer cottage on Lake Rosseau, the bottle of Philip Togni Cabarnet Sauvignon 2017 you pulled from your wine cellar to cap the end of another week of out-of-town travelling, your three rounds of golf at OldHead Links in Ireland and that fun-filled 14 days you spent at Disney World spoiling all your kids and grandkids after last winter’s family vacation at a rented estate in Barbados.

Being active on social media makes you an easy target –it’s like you’re walking through the woods during deer hunting season wearing plastic antlers and a brown jumpsuit. Trolls –who aren’t happy until you’re not happy –will be very happy making you, and us, look very bad. Some trolls will be disgruntled ex-employees.

Others will be disgruntled current employees. They’ll have axes to grind, scores to settle and one side of a story to tell. Some will have been fired, disciplined and demoted for good reasons that you can’t disclose unless you’d like to be sued. You can’t disarm trolls with your charm, wit, logic, rational arguments and dad jokes. They’re not going to take you up on your offer to move the conversation offline. Trolls aren’t looking for answers –they’re just playing to an audience. And we’re following along from the cheap seats. Trolls also know that powerful people like you can’t punch down on social media because that makes you a bully. And no one likes a bully.

Along with trolls, you’ll have to deal with whistleblowers on your social media accounts. These are the employees whose concerns you’ve ignored, dismissed or downplayed. If there’s smoke in a social media post, count on journalists to go looking for fire. And like whistleblowers, journalists won’t hesitate to call you out on social media if your PR team’s not returning their calls or waiting until the end of the day to email one-sentence holding statements handcrafted by the legal department.

And there’s also the potential for a new or old post to make a mess for you and us. Count on anything you say in a post being used against you at some point to whip the social media mob into a frenzy. Your 20something comms coordinator could say something that’s dumb, misreads the room or gets misconstrued. Or, like more than a few episodes of Friends, an old post won’t age well –especially the one of you posing with a very important and powerful person who’s just been exposed as a crook, predator and racist. The photo of the two of you arm-inarm with big grins and hamming it up for the camera will come back to haunt you and hurt our organization.

WHAT LEADERS CAN DO INSTEAD

Two suggestions –don’t make it personal and have subscribers instead of followers.

Don’t make it personal. Set up social media accounts for your office rather than in your own name. An account for the office of the president / executive director allows you to keep it professional and not personal –there's no need or reason to share how you spend your time away from work. The account will continue after you’ve moved on and a new leader’s at the helm. And no one will be shocked and offended to learn that you’re not the only one posting to the account. Focus the account on praise and recognition of employees, partners and suppliers, and the people you serve –your customers, clients, patients, students. Don’t make the accounts all about you. Ditch the pics of you posing with important people. Wherever possible, fill your feeds with photos and video of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in your organization. If very important and powerful people pay a visit, have pictures of them meeting and talking with employees on the frontlines.

Also, have subscribers instead of

followers. E-mail a newsletter or regular update to employees and anyone else who’d like to sign up.

Social media is rented land, with terms and conditions that can change at any time along with fast-shrinking organic reach that makes it harder and harder to connect with an audience.

When you send out an email, the land is yours. And every employee has a work email –not all of us are on Facebook, Twitter or TikTok.

As an added bonus, it’s tough to troll an email. If someone sounds off, it’s in a reply that only you see. What’s more, you’ll know who’s reading, sharing or ignoring your emails. You’ll get a clear sense of what content’s a hit and what’s missing the mark so you can adjust accordingly. Like the social media accounts for your office, use your newsletter to maintain line of sight to your strategic priorities. Recognize and celebrate employees who are delivering on those priorities and living your organization’s values. Bolster sense of pride among employees by sharing inspirational stories about the people they serve, showing how employees are changing lives and making our world a better place. If your email is just a collection of photos of you meeting and greeting, you’re doing it wrong. And “me” and “I’ are two words that should seldom, if ever, be found in your newsletter.

Ultimately, our organization will be known, liked and trusted not because you’re active, warm, witty and wise on social media but because you and our organization are so obviously proud of employees and grateful for the people we have the privilege of serving.