29 Jan Striking a Balance Between Personal and Professional

In light of the multiple crises that occurred throughout 2020, authenticity has become an even more valued trait in leaders. As people turn to social media to connect with brands and individuals, executives who make effective use of their online presence can seem more authentic and relatable to audiences and work to dispel the stereotype that C-Suite level executives are elitist, inaccessible, and unaffected or removed from reality. 

Initiatives like the CSuite Digital Leadership Awards encourage this type of leadership by recognizing executives who create a positive impact through their social media channels. While there were many executives honored in last year’s CSuite awards, today we’ll be focusing on Brian Scudamore, the CEO of O2E Brands who is best known for being the parent company of junk removal company 1-800-GOT-JUNK?. 

Scudamore received the Best Leader on Facebook award. Under this category, the CSuites looked for a leader who has established a strong Facebook presence through catchy posts, heartfelt updates, and other meaningful content. In this article, we’ll be looking at Scudamore’s Facebook and LinkedIn presence to see how his creativity and authenticity on social media led to this award win. 

Showcasing Personality through Facebook posts 

On Scudamore’s Facebook account, the executive maintains a friendly, approachable, and personal tone while simultaneously showcasing his company. One way he does this is by addressing his followers’ questions or asking for their opinions and feedback in his posts. By engaging with your audience and encouraging two-way communication, this shows your followers that you genuinely care about hearing their feedback. This emphasis on communication can help executives foster trust with their customers. 

Scudamore often supplements his text posts with photos, many of which include photos of himself. While text-only posts may not always properly relay an executive’s emotions, including photos is an effective way to do so, which in turn helps to humanize an executive and their brand. Additionally, not all of Scudamore’s images are the highest quality, but that’s not necessarily a drawback: our research shows that for some brands and executives, lower-quality images and videos of executives may help convey authenticity more easily since the more professionally shot content can come across as overly manicured and less genuine. Executives can also be more relatable by including their own thoughts, opinions, and emotions in their posts, even when sharing company announcements and initiatives. 

The CEO is also not afraid to share heartfelt or humorous posts, like this post about a virtual team huddle (shown below). While overusing emojis may come across as unprofessional, the way he uses them adds a personal touch and effectively captures readers’ attention. Fun, lighthearted posts add a more unique element to an executive’s page that show off their personality.

Ultimately, Scudamore’s Facebook page effectively shows how executives can organically incorporate company messages and values into personal posts. Even when Scudamore includes more promotional company content, he is transparent about it. For example, in one post he acknowledges that he “never misses an opportunity to market.” But rather than separating the professional and the personal, he tends to intertwine the two. Executives, one effective way to strike this balance is to share updates or posts from your brand’s page and attach an original comment that speaks to you or your company’s values. 

Showcasing Thought Leadership on LinkedIn 

Though Brian Scudamore tends to repurpose most of his Facebook content across his social media platforms, he tailors his LinkedIn profile to include more thought leadership and industry-related content, particularly about his own expertise in franchising. 

He often uses his LinkedIn to promote his book, WTF?! (Willing to Fail): How Failure Can Be Your Key to Success. For example, in one post, Scudamore created a giveaway that offered free digital copies of his book to any user who tagged three friends in the post. This type of giveaway is often seen on Instagram since it’s meant to boost engagement and he has successfully used it on LinkedIn.

In another post featured below, he appears in a video where he discusses the concepts of his book. Given the professional demographic on the platform, LinkedIn is an effective channel to promote projects that may interest people in the industry (such as articles, books, or any other type of passion project). 

Given LinkedIn’s more buttoned-up nature compared to other social media platforms, Scudamore includes more professionally edited videos and photos that help to promote his company. 

Improvements: Hashtag Usage and Posting Consistency 

Though Facebook’s hashtag feature has not historically been known for being very effective in the past, the use of hashtags on the platform has been growing within the last few years. Scudamore doesn’t currently use hashtags in his Facebook content, but choosing relevant hashtags may help improve his posts’ discoverability. For executives, we recommend using a maximum of two hashtags per post. 

It is also important for executives to choose hashtags that are relevant to the specific platform. For example, this LinkedIn post by Scudamore uses the hashtag #biggerandbettertogether. This particular hashtag has no followers, indicating that it is not very searchable or popular among other users. When including hashtags on LinkedIn, executives can use the search bar to see how many followers a hashtag has. On Facebook, searching for hashtags will show how many people are using it. 

Lastly, while Scudamore posts often, his posting schedule can be inconsistent. Sometimes he will post once a week, twice in one day, or once every few weeks. We recommend that executives create a content calendar and stick to a consistent schedule. While executives don’t have to post every day, sticking to a predetermined schedule will make it easier to create and review content, and can help maximize engagement. 

Conclusion 

While Scudamore won an award for being a top leader on Facebook, interestingly, Facebook doesn’t seem to be a popular social media platform for executives despite it having the largest user base of all social platforms. However, it’s an effective channel for connecting and building relationships with customers, as well as reaching a large audience. 

Executives like Brian Scudamore show that platforms like Facebook are ideal for sharing more personal and relatable content. He then supplements his Facebook content with business-oriented content on LinkedIn that appeals to a different type of audience. This multi-platform strategy can help create a stronger and more cohesive executive social media presence. 

If you’re an executive who hasn’t yet mastered the multi-channel approach, we can help you strategically tailor your content to create a more well-rounded social media presence. Click the button below to schedule a conversation with one of our digital marketing experts today!