While marketers can be quick to search for celebrity influencers to act as ambassadors for their business, the greatest ambassadors could already be just down the hall.
For many businesses and organizations, those in leadership positions are often the brand’s most effective ambassadors on social media.
The success stories of leadership-led social media strategies are becoming increasingly common. From celebrity leaders like Gary Vaynerchuck and Jim Calipari at globally-recognized brands, to those at SMBs and local businesses: the reality is that including leaders in your social media strategy can help your organization achieve business outcomes by lending reach, credibility, and ultimately humanizing the brand.
But leaders don’t produce results without a plan. Those in leadership positions are inherently busy. And while many fully believe in social media’s place in the marketing strategy, getting them to actively participate is a whole new hurdle.
Setting measurable goals, understanding your leaders’ points of view, and agreeing to an overall purpose is a great place to start. Help them understand what content is powerful in their channels and empower them to publish it.
Below are several examples of content themes that will help leaders drive results.
Lead Your Category
Many leaders make their mark as influential individuals not just in their company, but in their industry as a whole. They likely have an intimate understanding of your space’s inner workings, direction, and upcoming innovation. Help them share this leading vision and knowledge with their audience.
Encourage them to form credible reactions to industry news or common questions and topics while offering an opinion that supports your business.
By consistently sharing valuable thought leadership-style content, your leaders can enhance their personal status while adding credibility to your company as a whole.
Get Position-Specific
Different leaders have various areas of expertise.
CEOs, HR directors, and team managers all hold leadership positions, but likely have very different points of view and interests they find relevant to personally share. It’s likely that your CEO will be focused on the industry as a whole, while an HR director will have informed opinions about hiring strategy and workplace culture.
Work with your various leadership positions to understand where their expertise lies, and what narrative they want to share.
Help to craft these ideas to further establish the individuals as leaders at their position, but also work to tie their expertise and opinion back to your plan’s organizational goals.
Inform Stakeholders and Celebrate News
This may be the most common form of leader-led social media. Showcasing your organization’s work, a product launch, or a successful press release can be made even more valuable in your leaders’ channels.
By helping them share positive news, you’ll help to spread momentum for your organization, reach a more broad and engaged audience, and humanize your company’s celebration.
It’s also likely that they are connected with or followed by current customers, prospects, and other leaders in your surrounding industry. Sharing these wins only helps to validate your credibility and can even assist with lead generation and customer renewals.
When helping your leaders celebrate company news, try not to settle for the stock language from the press release. Help them include personal anecdotes or share a relevant story about how the announcement personally impacts them.
Share Employees Success
Employees at any organization want to feel seen and appreciated. Social media offers leaders a very public way to celebrate the success of those who are performing well on their team.
By sharing projects and shouting-out high-performing team members, leaders can build morale and establish a culture of celebrating success together. This will show the market that your organization values its employees, as well as put your team’s exceptional work on display.
Getting Started
Social media success is obtainable for your leaders and organization. By pairing their influence and thought leadership with your plan and organizational goals, you can deliver measurable marketing results for your team.
By consistently sharing quality posts, your leaders will expand their public presence while ensuring that your content is consumed by a larger, more interested audience.
With buy-in from participants, measurable goals, and a clear plan, you’ll be well on your way to helping your leaders and organization win on social media.
