This is the first post in a long series that will focus on social media. The series will teach you simple concepts that you can implement right now that will immediately improve your organization’s social media strategy. Each of the concepts are so simple you probably learned them in kindergarten (or should have!).

This lens will be helpful to explain the type of approach that you will need to implement if you want to be truly successful in using social media as a tool to grow your business sustainably.

This first post focuses on “Being Kind to Others.”

Perhaps you already treat your customers as part of your community – if you do, this approach should be pretty easy for you. I think it is worth conceptualizing so that you understand what you are doing and what is making you successful. If you treat your customers as transactions that provide you money for your service, with your only goal of interacting with them being to gain you the most money for your service, then this may not be an easy shift. The second approach doesn’t really work in social media. It’s pretty clear when an organization cares about the people they interact with. It’s equally clear when they do not.

Be Kind To Others

One of the crucial things that we learn early on in Kindergarten is to “Be Kind to Others.” Being kind, and treating others as you would want to be treated, is a solid guiding principle for any social media strategy.

Think about it:
Do you want to receive an “auto-follow” direct message when you choose to follow someone on twitter? Would that make you feel special? Would it make you want to know more about what the person has to say? Probably not.
Do you want to receive a ton of spam links that promote a pay service that looks sketchy at best, and is a total scam at worst? Probably not.
Do you want to be treated kindly? As though your opinion matters and as if your feedback is valuable? Probably.
Do you want to be treated like a number? As though the only reason you matter to a business is because you are paying them for a service?

Ask yourself before you post: “Is this kind? Is it necessary to share this? Will someone else find this valuable? Can this help someone?” Post content that you yourself care about. Talk about what you are interested in. Think to yourself “If I didn’t know this, would I want to?”

Remember to be kind and to treat others well. You are destined to add value to your organization if that approach is central to your social media strategy.