Not About You

For many social media posters, the message is about them: what they offer, what they suggest, what they promote, what they think you need or will find interesting. Millions of people enjoy this genre of social media. But it's not for business.

In business, each moment of time has a cost. Not just in minutes or in dollars, but also in opportunity. Savvy businesses understand the opportunity cost of social media participation. To make your posts worth a business's time, you must create value in the post. Value can only be created by writing the post for the benefit of the business reader. It's about the reader, not about you.

When I was in the corporate world, we would route literature among management. Some team members liked to write notes on the route slip indicating an article they recommended others read. The notes served little purpose since members often didn't share the same interest in an article. More importantly, it was easier to simply read the Table of Contents to determine what you wanted to read. Sometimes I thought members made notes to appear they read an article when they didn't. There was one person, however, who would give a brief synopsis of an article and why it was important to the business we were in. I always read any notes from that person because more times than not, they were of value to me.

What was in it for my colleague? The same thing todays businesses exploring social media hope to acquire, professional recognition and influence.