4 Powerful Social Media Shortcuts that will Surprise You!

Deemed the #1 Most Social Chief Information Officer on Twitter my social media strategy goal is simple…

Drive social collaboration by being distinguished as a thought leader and influencer in the Enterprise IT industry.

Unfortunately, I often see social media newbies with no apparent strategies or goals that struggle to grow their following.

As a result, I recently shared a short, but effective SlideShare presentation: “My 2013 Social Media Tips,” listing my top four strategies to successfully leverage social media to drive awareness and engagement.

I’ve used these easy to learn tips for the last three years to run our well-acclaimed SAP Runs SAP innovation program, which focuses on the transformation of social media tools for collaboration. We generated over 21 million twitter impressions in 2012 alone!

So what are my absolute top 4 social media strategies?

STRATEGY #1: Find your community … then set up a place for them to find you!

First, find the right community. Then open 1-2 social accounts to identify people with similar interests, and take some time to observe. In my case I’m using

• Twitter and Google+ to instantly connect to what’s most important to me, as well as follow my friends, experts, and favorite celebs.
• LinkedIn to manage my professional identity and engage with my professional network.
• YouTube to categorize, store and share my professional videos.
• Instagram to share snapshots from my global business ventures…
• Evernote and Buffer to track articles about my friends, colleagues or anyone else I care about.
• Klout to manage my social media reach

Second, you need to set up a place for people to find you… a center for all your social media activities.

My homepage OliverBussmann.com is based on WordPress, which easily links to most of the social accounts I listed above. It’s free and takes few minutes to set up!

For an easy read, be sure to use a compelling personal photo for your background, and list your experience and accolades in short bullets.

STRATEGY #2: Spend 15 minutes a day Sharing articles you find compelling! 

Your next step is to participate and become a part the community: Share links, engage in interesting discussions, and connect to others. Sharing and engaging are the operative terms at this stage.

Given my very busy schedule, I use a few shortcuts to engage that you will find handy:

• Using a mobile app called Feedly, I scan over 200 headlines in less than 10 minutes every day.
• I then look for posts that are relevant to my target audience – and interesting to me, and bookmark them with Evernote.
• Last, I share those quality links on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Google+ via the Buffer app.
• In 15 minutes I’m done!

STRATEGY #3: Deepen your connections …Keep your social profiles up to date!

Make sure to update your social profiles to show that you’re on the cutting edge of your field and on top of social media. In addition to LINKEDIN, I recommend to build your personal website.

Then to deepen your connection, consider starting a blog to expand your voice in the social media ecosystem as I did with the SAP runs SAP blog for instance. Important is that your blogs and tweets have to be authentic – no ghostwriting!

STRATEGY #4: Manage your social brand …as a thought leader should!

By implementing these four strategies and practicing them with excellence in your daily routine, you will become a genuine industry influencer and thought leader in no time. Reaching this stage strengthens your own credibility and benefits your entire organization.

• Write and promote your blogs, your white papers and your articles from the traditional media
• Team up with active bloggers to do interviews/article: leverage their network reach to expand your network
• Do Twitter chats, webcasts and Google+ Hangout sessions on a regular basis
• Set up your own YouTube Channel: Publish your videos
• Mobilize your team to be social active

But don’t forget to manage your social brand! Simply type your name into Google and see what comes up. Remember: MOST social media followers will Google you.

Another free service I use is BrandYourself, to make sure search engines find and rank my most relevant results at the top, improving my personal brand.

I welcome your feedback, so please connect with me here and follow me on Twitter at @obussmann to share your thoughts.