Four Tenets of Social Media – Creed, Seed, Deed and Indeed

Recently a CEO was seen with a new update on LinkedIn. He had updated his skills; some technical areas mentioned for members to be aware. Not that it is a grave error. From an external stakeholders perspective, it raises a simple yet niggling concern. Why is the leader of the organization updating his profile with new skill set? Shouldn't he be focusing on factors that would drive growth for the organization?  Leaders are traditionally conditioned to walk and talk about internal as well as external factors that would influence growth - of the people and the organization. From that perspective, is it good to be positioning self above the organization?

Roy, a friend of mine who is a digital native elucidated one of the best ways to be effective in social media. He likened this now ubiquitous platform to an offline CXO conference. He also armed me with a framework to be used in the new media; created with knowledge gleaned from observing CXO interactions during conferences.

Creed - this stands for 'who you are?' In a conference, you tend to have a brief description of yourself. Generally, it's short and sweet. You shake hands with one or two other leaders and tell them who you are, ie, which company, designation, areas of business (of the company). 

Seed - while you go around, you meet someone who is inquisitive about your business. There again, a well prepared leader will have a standard response. 'What you do' as a business by emphasizing on competitive differentiators, spelt out in 2 minutes will work well. What you do (your company) in max three lines should interest your peers in an event or on social media.

Deed - In a recent event, one of the leaders was heard saying - 'yes, I too went to the same college. I was a 'ctxt' scholar batch student.' There are times when you have to stand tall or differentiate yourself. That's when it is important to throw some accomplishments worth mentioning. It is important to ensure that what you are referring to is indeed a differentiator. Not to mention, authentic.

Indeed - In these days of continuous monitoring, what others say about you matters more than what you say or write about yourself. That's why calling out industry reports about leadership or peer reviews and recommendations matter. "We have been in India for only about two years, yet, you will recall top analysts ranking us as the fastest growing in the field,” relayed the leader of a young organization. 

There should be a purpose behind what we communicate. The tenets above will guide in creating messages effectively depending on the purpose and target audience.