Social Media For Suits

One of my favourite jazz musicians is Chet Baker—the guy has a voice like honey and plays a mean horn.

Baker, like many of his contemporaries, has mastered the art of improvisation.

Although seemingly chaotic, improvisation is born out of (chord) structure and (melodic) understanding. It’s a conversation on many levels : between the musicians, the artist and audience, the improviser and the emotional narrative they are trying to communicate.

Social media is the same, it’s all about conversation, understanding and exploring all the new technologies and available online platforms to create a new sound which people will want to engage with.

A leaders role is to provide the solid base for your staff to riff off: a focus, a cause, the direction, not the how so much but more the why.

This is about expanding the toolshed and allowing yourself and your staff to play (to learn).

Create social media Tuesdays (it can be any day) : one lunchtime every month where everyone presents on a new platform they have found and discuss the possible benefits which could be gained by its use.

Get your corporate team to blog (they won’t be alone) : you could even contribute like these guys as well.

Within this exploration of social media use patterns will emerge, standards by which your metrics of success will be set against, which will all aid your brand transparency and authenticity.

Life is a lot like jazz… it’s best when you improvise…

George Gershwin