A simple yet powerful technique to create goodwill and produce many benefits is to spotlight people on social media.

People love attention. They love recognition. So, why not give people what they want.

This is a simple technique and yet so few people do it.

Twitter Spotlight

A great example of this technique is the #FollowFriday strategy on Twitter. It is common for people to send Follow Friday messages on Fridays.

In most cases, this is poorly executed. People use the simple approach of simply including a bunch of unrelated Twitter ID’s without an explanation of why they are being shared. I have used this approach over the years. I limit it to only 4 Twitter ID’s and I do provide a simple reason why I am sharing these people such as, “Great Speakers”.

The better approach is to pick one person and tell something about them. This is a much better way to spotlight someone. It grabs their attention and creates goodwill. Plus, the whole reason to do a #FollowFriday is to encourage people to follow them. And when you give people an actual reason why to follow them, it is much more likely they will take action.

Facebook Spotlight

Let’s talk about Facebook. One of my favorite ways to spotlight people is to create a graphic featuring the person’s photo. Then, give a simple reason why you like this person. One day, I created a graphic featuring my friend Julia Neiman. I included a short message about her being an inspirational woman.

What’s nice about this approach is that is a positive interaction. In my opinion, there is too much negativity on social media these days. I would like to see more positivity. I am doing my part. And I encourage you to do your part.

Watch my Twitter and Facebook pages for examples. Give this strategy a try yourself.

In fact, email me a link to your next social media post spotlighting a friend. I would love to see how you implement this strategy.

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer