Sharing isn’t always caring when it comes to social media. This is something we see every day through lengthy status rants on Facebook, detailed dirty laundry blog posts and 24 hours of a sick day chronicled entirely on Instagram.
For entrepreneurs running their own businesses, sharing via social outlets needs to be a somewhat more calculated process. Brands are backed with a unique voice, and that voice will ultimately translate to how successful and recognizable they are in the long run. As such, these voices need to be savvy and smart but also know how to toe the line between what constitutes as sharing versus over-sharing in the content they publish on their company blog.
Potential Partner Name-Dropping Before Anything Happens
When an established business takes the first steps to partner alongside your startup, it’s easy to get excited about the big news and feel inclined to jump the gun on how you’ll be working with xyz major brand. But that’s the thing about the first steps—they’re the earliest possible stages in working together. Until you sign on the dotted line, everything is subject to change, and the partner can still bow out.
Wait until you have all agreements between both parties signed before making your big announcement. And have a plan of action as to how exactly you want to announce the partnership, as the other brand may have a strategy of their own they’d like to implement. Never put the cart before the horse in this area, unless you want egg on your face when a friend asks whatever happened with the big partner you prematurely blogged about having.
Your Financial Information
“How much money is your startup really making?” Maybe you’ll receive this question in the form of an anonymous comment on your blog, or maybe it will come from a person with an identity that they make public. Or maybe you’ll feel like you’ve run out of things to blog about, and the last ditch-effort to keep people around and interested is to tell them the nitty-gritty about your financial statements.
Avoid spilling the beans about your finances and personal life if you don’t want them made public, because once you blog and tweet about it, trust me, it’s out there. Your blog is what you make it to be, and if there’s something you don’t feel comfortable sharing, don’t.
Yourself: on an Endless Loop
Keep your WIWT and GPOY selfies limited to your personal blog; the company blog is not your diary, and you shouldn’t be its sole focus. If you are, for a short time frame, the main attraction of your company blog, find a way to make the content speak to the audience and relate back to them. A post on mistakes you made and learned from is a lot more effective than recapping how brilliant you are at every turn.
Your Secret Formula
A magician never reveals his secrets, and neither should your business. We may live in an age where information is readily accessible at every turn, but don’t tell all about your success. A little intrigue goes a long way in maintaining and sustaining the magic behind your brand!
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
Image credit: CC by Jonathan McIntosh
