#042 Executive Social

Full human behind the brand.

In this episode, Allison Gates and Keyiera Wright discuss the concept of “Executive Social”. They explain that executive social is a branding solution for personal brands, particularly for executives and business owners who want to elevate their brand beyond what they typically post on platforms like LinkedIn.

The service helps these individuals reach their target audience, make meaningful connections and establish themselves as thought leaders.

Biggest Takeaways From This Episode

Unlike typical social content for brands, executive social focuses on showcasing the full human behind the brand, including their backstory, career journey and advice for others.

The podcast episode also delves into the process of developing a personal brand for executive social clients, including:

• Establishing their voice.

• Creating a personal brand document.

• Curating content that aligns with their goals.

• Importance of consistency and making deeper connections with the audience.

CONCLUSION

This episode concludes with Keyiera sharing some insights and aha moments from clients who have experienced increased engagement and interactions by adding their personal spin to shared content.

Want your question to be answered on the generation social media podcast? Tell us what it is here!

Transcript

This text below is a straight up audio transcript of the episode. In our humble opinion, we think the audio podcast sounds much better in its original form. We have not edited the transcription below so there are indeed some grammar errors (some quite funny, in-fact).

INTRO (00:02):

You don't have to be a millennial to be socially savvy. We believe anyone can join generation social media, and your journey starts now. This is the Generation Social Media podcast by Chatterkick.

Allison (00:17):

Welcome to another episode of Generation Social Media podcast. I'm Allison Gates, I'm the creative manager at Chattrkick, and I've asked Keyiera Wright to join me in talking a little bit more about executive social, what it is and some of the cool things that we're able to do and what our clients are thinking about that. So, um, Keyiera, just kind of to start things off talking about executive social, how would you describe executive social social to someone who is interested in potentially exploring that service?

Keyiera (01:00):

Okay. Well, how I would describe executive social is it's a branding solution, but for your personal brand. And I know that lines can kind of get crossed when it comes to that because LinkedIn, usually people don't use LinkedIn for their personal page. Usually they're going to Instagram or Facebook or something like that. But it's really a good tool for executives and business owners, um, or like our CEOm Beth, to kind of elevate their brand outside of what they would usually be posting on LinkedIn for their company. So really it's just a service that will help them reach out to their target audience and make some more human connections and make some meaningful connections that can just kinda allow them to branch out and establish them themselves as like a thought leader. That's how I would explain it.

Allison (01:52):

Yeah, and I think one thing too, a, that's a a bit different than executive or than, um, typical social content for, for brands is executive social really focuses on your personal brand. So, a lot of times we've seen some of those, leadership level people within companies. They just become kind of a mouthpiece for the, their brand. They're sharing the content, which is great. But there's also so many different levels to that person, like we wanna know about, like how do they get to that point in their career? What advice do they have for people who want to do something similar, want to learn from them. There's a so many different ways that you can kind of build your personal brand and showcase, you know, you as a full human beyond just talking one note about what your company does, um, and how they do it.

Allison (02:51):

I think it's, you know, if you think about it a lot like a dinner party, you know, you're not sitting next to someone and talking to them about one thing. You're like, what are you interested in? What movies are you watching? You know, what <laugh>, how did you, you know, your, your backstory's really interesting. How did you get to where you are now? So, um, incorporating all of those things and the company's, or, you know, that person's associated company is all part of kind of how we develop the, uh, personal brand for each of our, um, executive social, um, clients. And so kind of leads into how we do our process for that, which is a little bit different because, um, you know, the curated content concept versus a created content, um, approach is a little bit different. So, um, what we do for executive social is we like to have a call with the client, we get to know them, we get to know their goals on social media.

Allison (04:01):

Um, you know, a lot of that, uh, establishing a personal brand, it comes down to consistency. And, you know, executive level people are extremely busy. They have, they're concentrating on a lot of things, and oftentimes their social media presence is one of those things that gets pushed off to the side, uh, easily. And so, uh, providing that consistency within their voice, um, is one thing that we're able to help them with and to understand their voice is, is, uh, why we have that initial call with them. So we will meet with the client, ask them a ton of questions, uh, see what existing content that they have out there so we can kind of comb through all of that and see, uh, what their, their, um, current digital footprint looks like. Um, and then we create kind of their own personal brand doc and we'll, we'll share that with them and confirm, you know, this is, this is your, um, you know, preferred topics that you wanna talk about, your goals that you wanna reach, um, and you know, the tone that we, that we wanna hit within content.

Allison (05:13):

And, um, so it's, it's kind of a different approach versus, you know, having created content where there's that approval process for the visual creative where the, uh, curated content we can just, you know, we know that that's already been approved content that we can, we can pull from and still capture, um, some of that thought leadership information and share that on behalf of the client, um, as well as interact with their, um, with their connections and make those relationships a bit deeper. And so, um, there's, it's, it's so much more than just posting content on LinkedIn. Um, it's making those actual connections. And, um, you know, Kara, I know you've been able to talk to clients about some of those, some of those results that we're seeing and some of the connections that, that we've made even, you know, in that immediate kind of increase you can see. Um, can you talk a little bit about that and any of those, like aha moments, um, that you've seen from clients so far?

Keyiera (06:23):

Yeah, I think one of them is I was sharing, and it seems like it's such an easy fix, but just instead of just reposting, like posting a quick little blurb about what you think about what you're reposting mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, immediately you can see more views, more likes, more interactions in the comments. And it's because you put your own little spin on it. Like people really are craving that right now mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it's just a tiny little tweak and people don't think of it. They're like just hitting the repost button, but that really can make such a difference. And I think, um, that was one of the most surprising immediate ones that people could see. They're like, oh, wow, people like this. And it's like, they don't just like that content. They like what you have to say about

Allison (07:06):

The content. Right, exactly. Well, and it's so funny because it's such a, um, it's kind of like, uh, a snowball effect, right? So like, you, you put something out there, people start to interact, you put more out there, and they interact more, more people start to view your profile. Now all of a sudden, you know, your search results are, um, impacted based on some of the content that you're sharing. So it really is, um, something that can make, uh, a pretty significant impact on, um, on your kind of digital footprint. And, and again, those, those relationships and positioning yourself as that thought leader in this space. Um, one of the super cool thing that we're doing that is, uh, uh, one step further, I think than some of those high level metrics of, you know, how many more views are you getting on content or what is your engagement rate?

Allison (08:01):

Is that granular data? So we actually go in and we'll track some of those metrics, um, well, excuse me. We'll, we'll actually go in and we'll track the engagements on each post, um, and the people who are engaging, um, their, you know, relationship to the client, and we'll categorize those, and that will kind of help to lead our proactive engagement. So, um, we consider a proactive engagement something that we're, you know, if we're commenting on, on another user's post or reacting to content by another user, and we really wanna make sure that all of those interactions are as valuable as possible. So if we see, you know, if, if, uh, Kira is really commenting on all of the awesome content that I'm putting out on LinkedIn, then I want to make sure that I'm interacting. And again, it's like a, a real relationship building kind of moment.

Allison (09:00):

And then, um, any of those, you know, high value interactions, we can pass to that client and say, you know, Kira's really been <laugh> interacting with your content. Do you, you know, is there, um, do you have any offline interactions with them? Are you, you know, do you have a lunch setup? Is this someone that you've met at a conference or, you know, whatever. So we can kind of make that, um, online offline connection. And a lot of our clients have seen a ton of value out of that. Um, and there's some interesting, um, metrics as well, because sometimes, you know, it's a, a competitor that maybe they're not interacting on your content, um, but you can see that they are, are viewing that content. And, um, it's, it's something that has been pretty insightful that, uh, kind of granular data that we're able to share. So then all of a sudden now, you know, these, uh, people, these users that are interacting, they're not just numbers. It's like a face to the name or, you know, a, a brand that is, uh, maybe you wanted to attract or maybe you are finding it interesting that they're attracted to your content. And that's some of the data that we're able to, to share with clients. It's been super intriguing on there and, um, and yeah, exciting to share.

Allison (10:30):

So for executive social, Keyiera, if someone was on the fence, I know, um, you know, we've, there's always the, uh, kind of barrier of how are you going to, um, sound like me? How is this going to be real if it's, you know, you're an extension of me. So, um, how would you kind of answer that question or work through that kind of process with a client who's questioning?

Keyiera (11:00):

Um, well first I feel like my favorite part is the interviews that we do with our clients. Um, I'm just like this in general. My friends can probably just tell you, I am always like, what's your Myers-Briggs personality type? <laugh>? Like, I have to know that. Like, I don't know why I nerd out about that, but I have to <laugh> and I'm like, have you taken any, like, I have to know this. I have to know, like if you were an animal, what kind of animal you are, like mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I think that's one of the, the really creative points that we have that a lot of other agencies or other services wouldn't have. We've really dig deeper than like, okay, well what do you wanna talk about? We can just get a copywriter and just write copy for this. We really dig into who they are below surface level. Um, so we really let their personality shine mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and we also get a feel for just things they enjoy in their personal life. I don't think it's something that they're used to talking about at work, because even in the interviews, people can be somewhat hesitant to get into the groove because it, it feels like, well, it's, it's work I'm supposed to talk about. I love work. Work is fun, <laugh>, that's so great.

Allison (12:08):

Yes.

Keyiera (12:09):

I love what I do. Right? And it's like, yeah, but like, do you read books? Do you like TV shows? Like, we can make all of this connect because it literally does connect in your life. You are this person and you are doing this thing, and we just wanna communicate that to your audience. So the interview is probably the big highlight that I would talk about if someone was on the fence and wasn't sure. Um, you know, we, we don't try to sound like you, we literally could just take your, we're we're curating content, we're not making it so we're taking interviews, podcasts, blogs, like things that you wrote or said already, and we're just recycling it and making it brand new for your audience.

Allison (12:51):

Yeah. So side note, if you were an animal, what animal would you be?

Keyiera (12:56):

Oh, me. I would be a dolphin. And you know what, I hesitate to say that because someone said the other day that there was like a TikTok about how dolphins are scarier than sharks because they're so smart, or something like that. Oh. And I'm like, Hmm, that's scary.

Allison (13:12):

Scary. You're just scary. Smart Keyiera! <laugh>. I

Keyiera (13:13):

Know, but I'm like, but they like to talk to each other, <laugh> and they like to hang out, and that's my vibe.

Allison (13:19):

<laugh>. Yeah. That's funny.

Allison (13:22):

Um, yeah, I mean, I think one other thing, you know, on the, uh, one thing that's worth kind of pointing out is even though we're creating content and managing this profile on behalf of, you know, these executives, it's still their profile. I mean, they can most definitely log in, interact, um, uh, comment on things, post their own content for sure. It's, you know, you're, um, you know, in working with us or having executive social, like you're not giving up that we are just here to help supplement, maintain that consistency, um, with when needed and also any content that we are publishing on your behalf is something that, you know, unless, unless you say so, we will, we will give you, uh, editing rights to that. Like you can, um, take a look before it's published, and so you can make sure like, yep, this sounds good.

Allison (14:22):

This is something I wanna talk about. Um, because sometimes there's some of that, um, you know, inner workings with business that you're like, well, I don't wanna, I don't wanna focus on that right now. But those are all things that we can, um, you know, keep on the back burner for future content and, um, and then, you know, keep moving forward. Another great thing that I really like to do is, uh, jump on a video call and just, just talk, just talk about the industry, talk about what's happening. Um, it's a great way to get content and get ideas, um, directly from, uh, you know, some of our clients. And it's a much more relaxed environment than like, okay, I'm gonna sit down and interview you. You know, it's just kind of a, a conversation and in, in those moments when we're able to use, um, maybe we're not using the video, but we would use quotes from that or even just have that kind of guide content direction, um, for, you know, a certain campaign if, you know, period of time within, um, content.

Allison (15:31):

So there's a ton of ways that we can kind of get curated content where it's not a huge lift for clients too. I think that's one thing we've, we've talked about this too, of like, we're here to have it be, um, to take something off your plate, right? We don't want this, you know, we don't want this to be like an extra thing for you to do. Like, oh, now here's more people I have to manage, or more, um, you know, another thing to worry about. Like that's, we're kind of like sweeping it up away from you if you want, right? I mean, you can really be as involved as you want, as you want to be for that. So, um,

Keyiera (16:15):

Yeah, we wanna save them time and effort. That's the goal. <laugh>,

Allison (16:19):

Right. Um, is there anything that, like, you know, as we're kind of going through and, um, working with some of these clients, is there anything that's surprised you so far?

Keyiera (16:34):

Um, something that surprised me so far. I <laugh> I think it surprised me how quickly they can see results from the way that they post or the cadence because on other platforms like Instagram that everybody's always so upset about, like, it's like no matter what I do, I'm not seeing results. Oh, sure. Um, especially with brands like, um, we kind of have to test things out and I mean, it can, it can take time. Um, I've done reporting for other clients, like on a, on a company side, not a personal brand side. And it does take time like with campaigns or, you know, with different branding that you're trying to put out there. But with this, it's like, I could show you a week's results, <laugh>. Yeah. And I can show you how quickly more people have been searching for your name in LinkedIn, like immediately that's, it's shocking, like how fast that can happen. Right.

Allison (17:35):

The impact, like again, just the impact of that consistent content going out. It doesn't have to be daily. Like LinkedIn would love it if you post it daily. Yeah. That's why, you know, like I had mentioned we're, it's, we are there to help create consistency to supplement any additional content that you are posting. But if, if you kind of hand us the keys and we're kind of driving that account, you'll still be able to see results. And since it is so, um, relationship focused that, you know, you don't have to reach a hundred thousand people to see a ton of value, you can reach that one person that you're like, oh, I'm in, you know, I've been talking with them, they're a potential client. That's huge value. Um, and a lot of our clients have been able to, um, kind of see that and, and kind of connect those dots that, that, you know, if someone is, is potentially going to be working with you, with your brand, they want to see who is this person I'm gonna be working with, you know, who am I, who am I partnering with? And so, um, having that personal brand side, um, and that authority really does help, um, to, to build authority <laugh> to have that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> <laugh>, it does. Awesome.

Allison (19:00):

Well thanks for joining me Keyiera, and kind of talking about this service line. I know we're super excited about it. And thank you for listening and be sure to join our next generation social media podcast.

OUTRO (19:17):

That's it for this episode of Generation Social Media podcast. If you had an aha moment or just a haha moment, I would be so grateful if you leave a review with the moment you loved most. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the next episode, fill out the form on Generation social media podcast.com.

inspiration, Business, Social MediaChatterkickMay 15, 2023internal team, Podcast, Executive Social, CEO