If you review a few dates on this blog, you will see that I have broken a rule I so often espouse: when blogging, set a goal for frequency of posting, and stick to it. The problem is that I also recommend relevancy with every post: thought leadership can’t be established without relevant content. If your blogs, tweets or status updates aren’t directly relevant to your target audience, then it is better to say nothing. So, I’ve been saying nothing.
That’s not to say I’m not busy - but I won’t post information about my work on behalf of clients (my rule #4 of social media engagement is to respect privacy). The bottom line is that there are few rules with social media engagement, but if you are doing it at all, you need to set some goals and stick to them - so I'm providing a few "rules" of my own. My goals were sidetracked by my Rule #10 – until a client called me on my lack of posting frequency. Point taken – a client’s confidence was shaken in my ability, and it all comes back to revenue generation.
Since one of my unspoken rules of content generation is that blogs don’t need to be essays:
Sociable Communications’ Select Rules of Content Generation:
1. If you don’t have anything relevant to say, say nothing.
2. Know the ‘Who’ - who you are talking to.
3. Know the ‘Why’ - know your goals. Are you in it to build thought leadership? Drive sales? Brag?
4. Re-purpose existing content – if it’s worth saying in one place, say it in every place.
5. Respect privacy, and always give credit where credit is due.
6. Follow your company’s Code of Business Conduct and all other Company policies. If you don’t have any policies, write them and keep records of content generation.
7. Remember that your local posts can have global significance – and know that the Internet is permanent. When in doubt, do not post.
8. You don’t hold all of the keys – share your blogging opportunities with other staff. They have valuable insights too.
9. Do not say anything that could be perceived as confrontational, arrogant, libellous, unprofessional or slanderous – unless that is your goal.
10. If content generation isn’t generating revenue somehow, they why bother doing it?
My favourite is the last one. We are all too busy to do things that don’t add value. If you are participating in social media engagement, then always add value – if other people find your information valuable, then they will feed value back to you. At least, that is my goal.
