Social Networking: Engage Your Ideal Audience

In the rush to get more followers on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter many people forget an important principle: The principle of delight.

Bring beauty, heart and delight to your posts.
Social media expert George Kao recommends that you be your likable self. He says that a "sub-principle" of delight could be humor. "People post things that are cute and that are just beautiful on FaceBook and on Twitter. Or they just post something that's just simply touching, or give people a sense of aliveness."

Create sticky posts.
They do that is because these kinds of things are sticky. They stay with you. Sometimes its the most random, strange, funny or touching things find their way into our psyche or lodge themselves in our hearts. Some of them touch us in a "human way that had nothing to do with sort of their professional expertise," says Kao.

In the webinar titled Speed Social Networking Maximize Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter in 15 Minutes a Day a few weeks ago, Kao discussed one of the top leaders in the sustainability field who typically posted about about sustainability on FaceBook, but once in awhile, he diverged wildly....

"One time he posted a three-minute video of when his 90-year old grandmother was visiting him. He had a bunch of friends over to celebrate her birthday. He had her lead them in a synchronized dance. He videotaped this and he shared it on FaceBook.

"That has nothing to do with environmental sustainability per se, but it has everything to do with his personal brand because people commented saying, 'Wow, what a great example of how we can be as we grow older. We can be this vibrant and alive.' People just felt warmer toward him. I remember that video to this day. Delight is important."

Show you care.
The next principle to remember, according to Kao is, care. Care is even more important than delight because if you show people that you care, you're going to distinguish yourself from everybody else who is focused on discussing themselves. Kao recommends giving people a thumbs up on FaceBook. Comment on their stuff. For Twitter retweet their tweets. Comment on their LinkedIn status updates. Make meaningful conversation. Give compliments.

Be relevant.
You must be both caring and relevant to a person's business or their career. If you're not relevant it's far less likely that you're actually going to do business together. "Be relevantŠpost about your expertise and your offerings. Share resources with people that are helpful."

Share resources.
The most important principle of all is to be a 90:10 resource to sales. Keep this in mind when you're posting. Nine out of every ten postings that you make should consist of sharing resources that are helpful to other people, without trying to sell anything.

Sell selectively.
One of the ten postings, or ten percent of your total posting should focuse on what you have to offer. "It's important to talk about what you have to offer because otherwise people don't know. People forget that you have that offering. So do mention it maybe ten percent of the time," says Kao.

Practice being your best self.
Finally, authenticity and personal growth are paramount. When Kao posts on FaceBook, he pretends that everything he posts on his wall is public, because it can be. He actually makes it public. "Knowing that it's public, what I do is I always try to put my best foot forward. What happens, I've noticed, over the years is as I put my best foot forward on these public arenas, I actually become more and more like that.

That's true of you, too. The more you share what your best self is, the more you actually become it." Will Rogers said something that supports Kao. "Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip." I totally agree.