How Do You Know If You Are Effective On Social Media?

What does your entire social media presence represent?

Originally Published Aug. 6, 2018.

Social media is a powerful and almost necessary tool for marketing a business. How do you know when you are operating your social media the right way? When thinking about your online profile professionally, think about it holistically. What does your entire social media presence represent, and is the picture you paint effective?

If customers view your profile across the board on X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, will they get the same feel for who you are, or will you exude something totally different on each platform? Here are some questions you should ask yourself to make the most of your social media presence.

Are you consistent across all platforms? If you post a theme on Monday, have you committed to posting that theme every Monday, or do you get sidetracked and post it on Monday this week and Wednesday the next week because it totally slipped your mind? When building an audience, your viewers want to see consistency.

“Social media gives us an opportunity to showcase the different facets of who we are; developing a narrative consistent with how you want to articulate who you are is really important,” said Lisa Mesa, Enterprise Relationship Manager at LinkedIn. “It’s important to be intentional.”

“My typical formula is: an inspirational post in the morning, 2 pm, life captures during the day, and a quirky dating after-35 sucks post at night lol,” said Suezette Yasmin Robotham, M.S. who leads D&I for Google Search.

Lastly, when posting to various platforms, make sure you are clear about how each platform serves you. If you are a writer, Twitter may be a better fit. If your professional career is extremely visual, Instagram may work wonders. If you are a marketer or career coach, it may be best to hang out more on LinkedIn. Determine what platform suits you best and focus most of your energy there. Not all social media platforms are created equal.