Episode Summary
The combination of social media and communities has become an integral part of our professional lives over the last few years. And professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter are at the forefront of this evolution.
But there’s an increasing demand for transparency and honesty on social media, so if you want to make it online, you need to keep it real with your audiences.
In this episode of the Rep Your Brand podcast, our host Nick Bennett welcomes Zoë Hartsfield, the Community Architect at Spekit. They talk about the importance of staying true to yourself on social media, how to improve your content writing skills, and the difference between a community and an audience.
Guest Profile
- Name: Zoë Hartsfield
- What she does: She's the Community Architect at Spekit.
- Company: Spekit
- Noteworthy: "Not that I want to commoditize vulnerability, but I think there is an appetite for more honesty, vulnerability, and transparency on social media platforms. We spent two years remote — or a lot of us have — and we're a little bit isolated. There is just a desire for community and connection."
Key Insights
- Choose to be confident so that people can connect with you on a deeper level. Authenticity and self-confidence are vital to success on social media. Even though everyone experiences doubts and insecurities from time to time, you should build your self-confidence because it will allow you to thrive on social media. When you're confident, your content resonates with your audience. Zoë explains, "When you choose to be confident, I think it turns up your microphone a little bit. People hear you a little bit clearer. It's like a volume agent, I would say. And it helps with your tone. It helps with the way that you come across."
- Creating content is like building muscle. Another factor that contributes to your success on social media is consistency. If you want to build a solid social media presence, you need to create content consistently. But creating content is like building muscle; you need to exercise regularly to see results. Zoë explains, "In the early days, I was writing down ideas, as they came to me, in a Google Doc, because some days I would have five ideas and some days I would have zero, and I wanted to have a bank to pull from. But I think, like anything, creating content is like building muscle, and you can develop it. And now, I have gotten to the point where I wake up at 6:00 a.m., I open up my phone, I write a post, and I just come up with it on the spot."
- Community vs. audience: What's the difference? Your community and audience are both groups of people who follow you on social media. But these groups are not alike. So what is the difference between a community and an audience? Here's what Zoë says, "I think there's a section of my LinkedIn connections that are my community, and a section that is the audience. There are people you regularly interact with who are chiming in on your content; you're participating on theirs. They're not just lurking in the shadows."
Episode Highlights
Find the right balance between personal and professional topics on social media
“I don’t necessarily think there need to be boundaries or LinkedIn content police like, ‘You can’t talk about that.’ I do think you have to be willing to take the responses when you are vulnerable. Now, I hope nobody is a douche in the comments. I really hope that. But if I were to post every single day about my mental health and somebody were to be like, ‘Hey, when are you gonna start talking about sales enablement or personal brand again?’ There is an element of — it is still a business platform. I think there needs to be some kind of balance, but it’s up to you to determine what that balance is.”
Just be yourself on social media
“You can definitely tell when people do it. I also know people who do it, and I believe that’s not their intention. They just kind of think they’re supposed to write like that. And so, if anybody’s listening to this and you feel that pressure, know that I don’t want to hear from the persona of a thought leader inside of your head; I just want to hear from you, the person.”
Find your areas of opportunity to grow
“I need help in all areas. And so, if I can identify areas of opportunity to grow — I don’t want to call them areas of weakness because it just has such a negative connotation — then, I want to ask for help with those and develop those skills. So those would be the things that I have done and continue to do to develop and grow my career.”
