What do you do if your social media efforts aren't fostering professional connections?

Every one should take the time to reevaluate their goals every so often to make sure that the goals you had then still line up with where you are now. It's important to be specific on your goals and detailed. You can absolutely have big goals, but you should have smaller goals that will help you get to those bigger goals. The smalls win add up, just 1% better each day!

Make sure that you narrow down your niche. Who is the audience that you are talking to? Be so specific that it almost seems like you are talking to one person. It's okay if you aren't getting crazy amount of traction in the beginning. Just keep going, people are watching. Also take the time to plan your content ahead of time. Map it out for the week so you don't get stuck on low energy days. Make sure that you are putting out quality content that is helpful, informative and insightful.

Personalization is key. As others have shared - who is your audience, and what do they care about? How can you tap into what they care about and weave it into your content strategy? These are key questions to consider as you think about the goal of making connections and establishing yourself as a thought leader.

Over the past few years as I have been learning out to market, what I found that increases engagement is connecting with others personally and also on your page. Also adding value about the topic you are an expert at. Over time you start to gain even more and more traction with will inevitably lead to more clients, followers and engagement.

Always engage with others. Add insightful comments and feedback. This will increase your visibility and thus get more traction to your page. Engagement is absolutely a two way street. Contribute quality content to others posts as well. This is an important step when it comes to expanding your network.

One piece of advice our mentors often stress is to 'get out of the house.' For me, that means being strategic about networking and connecting with others. While people in your area may see your online presence, meeting them in person can create deeper connections. Therefore, I seize opportunities to attend local networking events, allowing me to establish face-to-face connections and then continue to engage with them on social media.

Leadership networking is important. It's they way to get in touch with more professionals, build relationships, share knowledge, learn from each other, build partnerships, and so on. Network leadership is nowadays the way to reach organizational goals together.

When my social media efforts were not yielding the professional connections I hoped for, I realized it was time for a closer analysis. I dove into the analytics, focusing on engagement rates and the reach of my posts. The data revealed that my most engaging content was often shared at times when my target audience wasn't active. So, I adjusted my posting schedule to align with peak activity times. Also, I experimented with different content formats, shifting from text-heavy posts to more visually appealing infographics and videos. These changes, informed by data, significantly improved my social media engagement and led to an increase in valuable connections. It was a clear lesson in the importance of using a data-driven approach.

First and foremost and while we need to keep social media as a substantive back up tool to our communications, stakeholder engagement etc. We need to remember that as human beings living in a connected, AI driven and what have you including fake news; our primary focus should remain human to human interaction, with those who share our values and transmit them further. Good and continuing interpersonal connection generate value and create impact, with our own people, partners and other stakeholders. This has been and always should remain the case. ✅