Social media soufflé

Soufflé is a dish that’s exceptionally difficult to perfect. You have to get the heat just so, use good ingredients and remember not to poke it at the wrong moment.

Do it right and you can create something beautiful, something magical, something that will make you the toast of the town. Rush it, try a short cut or follow a “fool-proof” recipe from the internet and the chances are you’ll end up with something deeply flaccid. As you can see from the photo above, it's not something I've mastered.

The right ingredients

I was having a natter with someone the other day about social media. After a year of what they saw as solid commitment to their social media activity, they’d decided to take a few weeks off. They were busy with other projects and were kind of interested to see what would happen.

They’d invested a lot of time into their social media approach, retweeting other people’s content that was relevant to their clients and potential clients, following useful accounts and generally making themselves visible, but almost as soon as they stopped being active, their followers started to dissipate. It was slow during the first few weeks, but the process quickly accelerated.

Like a soufflé cooked in an oven that’s too hot, the number of followers quickly deflated.

The right temperature

There are a couple of things that you need to do to make sure your social media activity stays appealing to the eye and the pallet.

Making sure that you are active and visible on whichever site you chose is important, but just amplifying other people’s content unlikely to add much value. All you are doing is boosting other people’s numbers, and if you are just doing that then you’ll find yourself quickly forgotten.

Serve quickly

You also need to make sure that you are contributing to conversations that are relevant and taking place in the sort of places where your clients might be. If you say something interesting, people might have a look at your profile and that can start them on the path to picking up the phone and eventually becoming a client, which, let’s be honest here, is the ultimate goal.

Add a flourish

Finally you need to offer something to the community that explains who you are and what you do. Don’t be too salesy, but if you’ve got some expertise, let people know. Again, if you say something intelligent, people might look at your profile and that can start them on the path to picking up the phone and eventually becoming a client.

Ultimately, social media is not a panacea. It’s a great amplifier for your messages, but you need to make sure that you are getting your own messages out there. Otherwise your followers are just numbers, your activity is not a strategy and your soufflé will quickly collapse.

Magnus Allan is a freelance communications consultant who has worked across a variety of industries. Follow this link to read In defence of business English.

Twitter: @Zatag1234