This document discusses developing an online presence as an individual rather than just through marketing or communications teams. It uses balloon metaphors to evaluate the quality of one's online presence and training. Having 75% of your online presence run by others leaves you with only a quarter of a balloon. Developing your own content and engaging in two-way conversations online gives you a full balloon and the ability to develop meaningful relationships. The best returns on developing an online presence come from meaningful conversations rather than just analytics reports. Developing personal experience with social media will lead to better decisions than leaving it solely to marketing teams.

1. Half a balloon
doesn't fly
To get better at being online,
you need good guidance
Anke Holst

2. Social media.
It's a great need for businesses,
it's the marketing that works,
everyone does it, and everyone
wants to do it for you.

3. Before you decide to allow anyone to
speak for you - before taking
someone's advice - it would help to
know what you are doing.
How do you judge
the advice from experts, when
everyone is one?
What should you be aiming for in
your online presence?

4. In 2010 I talked about investing
part of any social media budget
into training for the decision
makers, of whom many did not
have any experience of being
online as a person, which
influenced their decisions. Badly.
That was a utopian idea then, but
now in 2016, individuals do feel
renewed pressure to have a digital
presence, a trusted online network,
better engagement with their peers
and the general public.

5. Depending on your
industry and on their
background, your
trainers will teach you
with either a
communications or
marketing bias. Being
online as a person first,
you don't need to do
much of what marketing
or comms do.
But you'll learn that.
More importantly,
because their roles are
focused on
broadcasting, they will
often miss a few bits.
This talk will give you a
simple tool to evaluate if
any training on personal
online presence is
complete.

6. Learning to be online as a person is not an easy
process. Using a different medium, as well as new
technology, to express ourselves, can feel unsettling.
Expert, sensitive training can help open us to new
experiences. Bad training can be traumatic, as well as
waste time and resources.
Your trainer should create a safe space for you to try
new things. The aim should be to get 100% of what
you need, and none of what you don't need.

7. What follows are tools to help you gauge your
online presence, as well as the contents of your
lessons and not least the online presence of the
person guiding you.
It's easy to position oneself as expert, and there are
many instant experts as soon as there is a training
budget. But because we are talking about online
presence, it is equally easy to evaluate the claims.
We will look at outgoings and returns.
WITH GRAPHS!

8. 75%
25%
We'll start with what goes
out, the things put into the
world in your name.
Do you have an online voice
which is run by others?
Your PR agency, your social
media person?
You have about a quarter of
a balloon.

9. 50% 50%
Do you say and write some
or all the content yourself?
Do you have a twitter
account where you
conscientiously document
what is happening? Do you
write well-considered
commentary, do you
describe your day?
Congratulations, you have
half a balloon.

10. Are, on the other hand, your
tweets as much replies as
statements? Do you listen as
much as you talk?
Do you create actual two-
way relationships, not only
with the people who reply to
you, but also responding to
what others are saying?
You have a whole balloon,
now you can fly.

11. But nobody does anything
without expecting
something in return.
So the following three
slides look at what you
expect to get back from
being online as a person.
Why do you do it?

12. 75%
25%
The less you know, the more
you can be fooled with
meaningless stats.
Does your return on being
online come in the form of a
report with colourful
numbers and graphs?
You have about
a quarter of a balloon.

13. 50% 50%
Do you go online and see
the conversations yourself?
Do you search for your
online accounts and see
what is posted? Or have a
twitter account where you
watch but not join in? Do
you lurk in the shadows,
letting the 'digital natives' do
the 'engagement'?
Congratulations, you have
half a balloon.

14. Do you do as much listening as
talking, taking others seriously
not just as targets for your
marketing but as people, and
open yourself up for respectful
relationships, for which it
doesn't matter that they
happen online?
Do you get
replies, information,
connection, inspiration?
Yay! you can fly.

15. There are very few people privileged
enough to do things 'for inspiration', so
let's look at what a confident, personal
online voice can do for us.
Every one of your (potential) clients
would prefer to be taken seriously rather
than marketed at.
Your staff and colleagues have access to
your inner life, which creates trust. More
information, resulting from you talking
directly to them, doesn't hurt either.

16. And on the other hand, everything
is moving fast. The digital landscape
changes week by week. You need to
know about technology but how
many experts can you invite to
teach you?
With an online presence, you can
build yourself a trusted network of
your peers and learn from them.

17. 99% of
organisations could
do better on social
media. But better
decisions will only
happen when
decision makers are
more personally
experienced and
involved.
Take it out of the
hands of marketing,
and things happen.
Allow more voices.
Allow an integration
with other
departments. Have
a central account
that curates rather
than blocks.

18. Keep working on getting better.
Remember, this is about people, so if your
only returns are abstract, you are missing
something important.
Half a balloon doesn't fly.

19. http://ankeholst.com
@the_anke
“I will see
you online.
Images: Technical drawings of
historical hot air balloon designs, by
Joseph Clement, in the public domain