If there is anyone whose advice on social media we should take seriously, that person is probably Richard Branson. The man is the founder of the Virgin Group of more than 400 companies, several nonprofit initiatives, lives an incredibly adventurous life and looks like a rock star. Recently, he set up a new record, becoming the first LinkedIn influencer with more than 1 million followers. Guess who his next competitor is? Barack Obama, with half as many followers. He is a huge advocate for social media and urges other CEOs to get engaged as well. Although building up a follower base of 1 million followers might be easier when you can tweet about your adventures from places like Antarctica; I bet we can also have good use of his advises. Let’s see what he recommends on online communication:
- He truly believes in personal
contact with costumers. Even as a CEO, he often travels on Virgin flights or
visits Virgin gyms to directly talk to the people who use the services and
learn from their opinions. He does the same on social sites: he makes sure he
reads related comments and tries to reply (!) to as many people as possible.
- His second advice directly
follows from the first. When writing a blogpost or creating online messages, he
recommends to talk as you would talk to your friends or colleagues as ’everyone
loves a personal touch’.
It couldn’t be more simple, could it? In case
this does not seem enough to become a million-follower woman/man, then go check
out more of his posts here.