181: The dangers in asking your editors to post to social media

Social media is a minefield. You might be asking for more trouble than you want.

This may seem like a topic that’s 15 years late in the coming, but companies still wrestle with these things, so here are some thoughts about social media policies.

Imagine you’re a publisher and you’ve discovered that when your editors promote their content on social media, it dramatically improves your web traffic, or downloads of your podcast. You’re considering asking (or even requiring) your editors to post their work on social media.

Is that a good idea?

I have reservations about it, and some suggestions.

Reservation #1 – you’re tying your brand to your employee’s personal lives in a way that isn’t fair to them or to you. You’re going to be faced with situations where employees have controversial views. What are you going to do? Are you going to be some Stalinist dictator and police what they do on social media? Or are you going to have your content side by side with who knows what kind of crazy opinion?

Neither option is good.

Reservation #2 – you’re ignoring personality differences. If you gather 100 employees in a room and give them a talk about how much social media can help with this or that, 10 of them will be gung ho and champing at the bit, 10 of them will want to quit, and the rest will be somewhere else on the continuum in between.

This may be a matter of introversion and extroversion, and you’re not going to change that with motivational talks, training, incentives, threats or anything else. People pretty much are the way they are. You’re going to cause your introverts to look for another job.

Reservation #3 – some people will be better at it than others. You can train to some level of basic competency, but often there’s a hidden whatsit that makes one person excel and another just get by. It might create resentments, and it’s not your best strategy.

Here are my recommendations – if you’re going to do this at all.

Suggestion #1 – Ask your employees to post content exclusively on LinkedIn, and also ask them to keep everything they post on LinkedIn professional. No personal opinions. That’s the way most people envision LinkedIn anyway, so that’s not a big ask. And it solves reservation #1.

Suggestion #2 – Have a company account on as many social media platforms as you like, appoint someone to manage those accounts, and if you have people who are eager to post content on social media – beyond LinkedIn – let them suggest a few things, try them out, and if they’re good, give them access to that company account. That addresses reservations 2 and 3.

Suggestion #3 – Be sensitive to different levels of talent, comfort, and general opinions on social media. Don’t try to force everyone into a particular box.

Let me tell a personal anecdote that might shed light on this.

Have you ever been to a conference or an event where some excited person gets up front and tries to rile up the crowd. “Are you excited out there?” and all that kind of stuff.

Some people enjoy that. I can’t stand it. If you try to motivate me that way, it’ll backfire.

Not everybody wants to be on the cheerleading squad. But those other people – the grumps in the corner, like me – also have things to contribute.

If you have a few really talented, gung ho, extroverted social media stars, don’t try to clone them. It’s not going to work. Instead, find ways for other people to provide help and support, to make your stars even more effective.

Deploy different talents and personalities appropriately. Don’t try to force everyone into the same Myers Briggs category. (In fact, don’t use Myers Briggs at all.)

These personality differences mean that you have to give people different options. Don’t tell everyone “please post this on your LinkedIn account,” because the person writing that text is going to be the ra ra “get fired up” cheerleader, and the introverted editor is going to read it and think, “I’d rather die.”

So, to sum up. Have a company social media account on lots of social media platforms. Ask your employees to post on LinkedIn only. And accommodate different personalities and levels of talent.