12 questions that I get asked the most about social media

A lot of people know me primarily through social media – this blog ( and SAP blogs in past) , LinkedIn , Facebook and Twitter . This has generally been a net positive experience for me .

I have been stopped for conversations at airports around the world by random folks. I have walked into meetings with clients where they knew my point of view from my social media posts and hence felt like they knew me already . I was quite active in training and showing dogs till few years ago – I keep in touch with them on Facebook . I have hired quality talent , and made great friends over LinkedIn and Twitter . Just last week a guy who went to college with me and stayed at the same hostel in India – he was in Phoenix for a conference and looked me up on LinkedIn . We had lunch at my house and caught up after a few decades . The list goes on and on – and it more than makes up for the handful of terrible experiences I have had on social media .

I routinely get asked a bunch of questions about my views on social media and how I use it – mostly by people who want to learn , but occasionally also to just imply that they don’t think very highly of it

So I thought why not just address the common questions here .

1. You seem to have a lot of time to be active on social media . Don’t you have a real job ? I can barely keep up with my day job

Contrary to popular belief , I do have a real job and that needs my full attention 🙂 . However , over time I have figured out how to integrate social media into my daily routine . I generally use social media only on my phone – including for long form blogging. That saves a lot of time .

A lot of what I write about is of course regarding my day job . The conversations I have with my clients and colleagues and people I meet on my travels are usually the triggers for my posts .

We always find time for what we like and prioritize . I like to eat Indian food and don’t mind driving 10 miles extra to find an Indian restaurant . Another person might like working out daily and will spend that time running or finding a gym. “I don’t have time” translates usually to “it’s not important for me”.

2. Aren’t you worried about what you say openly in public domain ? Does your manager yell at you for writing something ?

I only talk about my personal views – and usually only about things where I have a strong point of view. So I don’t feel any worry . If I suspect people will mistake it as my employer’s opinion – I state upfront that it is just my views . It has worked well for me so far . I also have no problem standing corrected in public when proven wrong .

Thankfully none of my managers have ever yelled at me for blogging (they do so occasionally for others things) – and have only encouraged me to do so . And I have been their mentor a few times to ease them into social media.

3. Do you have a time table for social media ?

No I don’t blog or tweet at set times . I say something whenever I feel inspired to do that . I don’t check what times I should post to make biggest impact . I don’t aim to get a certain minimum number of page views. I do check statistics on my blog when WordPress alerts me and it’s usually something like “20% of what I write get 80% of views” . Time tables and fine tuned analytics work for many bloggers I know personally – I just haven’t taken that route yet .

4. How do we get started on blogging , twitter etc ?

I can only say how I progressed . My primary use then and now is as a source of curated information . I read at least 10x what I write . Then I started commenting on blogs that I started following . It took me a couple of years to have the confidence to write a blog myself – that was on SAP SCN site . A few years later I figured I have things to say that have nothing to do with SAP – so I started this blog on WordPress .

Twitter use has evolved over time . I use it less and less these days to say something . But it’s still one of the best places to get information . I only follow 150 people there and I think close to 9000 people follow me . Some folks think it’s rude to not follow back . I ignore that policy – I can’t stay on top of a feed any bigger than what I have now . I keep changing the list every now and then .

5. Do you only talk about work ?

Hell no ! I write about anything around me – politics , religion , economics , cricket, dogs … whatever inspires me is a fair topic . Some folks aim for depth on any one topic like Technology . That’s not my approach – all topics that interest me are fair game .

I try to not deviate from work related stuff on LinkedIn . But the truth is all popular social media platforms now have content overlap . You can use the controls they provide to tune your experience to some degree but it’s hard to completely set hard boundaries . I do have a handful of work friends on Facebook for example – and it has not stopped me from expressing what I have to say .

6. Do you take a break from social media ?

Yes I do ! Throughout the year , I take a few months off each channel I use . At the moment, I am out of Facebook . I delete the app on my phone to prevent the temptation to take “a quick look”. These breaks are one reason I continue using these platforms over the years . It also gives me time to read more books !

And there are a few months every year when I just can’t find any inspiration to blog . I have considered just giving it up altogether . But then magically one day I feel like it again and I open the app. The opposite also happens occasionally – I will post multiple blogs back to back .

7. What does success look like ?

For me , engagement is the big prize . When people comment and share and email me about something I wrote – I feel I did something worthwhile . Page views are a feel good metric too – and over the years a lot of page views happen for reasons I can’t always explain rationally . Some of the blogs that I thought I wrote terribly have had the most views – and sometimes even the most comments .

I push all my blogs to LinkedIn and twitter . And if I see someone tweeting or sharing , I will retweet or like. That’s the extent to which I promote . I don’t do any active SEO etc . As the networks have increased over time for me in various channels , I do get more people reading and commenting .

8. How long should a blog be ?

I am a minimalist by nature and quite lazy . So I try to use the minimum words to state my point of view. English is not my first language – so I don’t always succeed . Since I read most blogs on my phone, I tend to favor shorter blogs . There are amazing bloggers who do 5000+ words on average – I don’t have it in me to do that . 1000 to 2000 words is the most I can do.

9. Does someone review what you write ?

Not at all . I am kind of ashamed to admit this – but I also don’t do any proof reading or spell checks . When I finish typing, I hit publish . My wife usually spots errors when she sees it on her feed and routinely criticizes me on not being more careful . Generally this has worked for me so far so I don’t think I am going to change it . On the flip side – this is my biggest fear about writing a book . The process of professional editing scares the crap out of me 🙂

Strangely – I am fanatic about proof reading every document I create at work .

10. Who is your target audience ?

This may not come across very well – but the truth is – I write for myself . I like to believe someone other than me and my mother will find what I write to be useful – but as I mentioned before , only a relatively small proportion of what I write evoke any reaction from my readers . I am cool with that . When I do get feedback , I incorporate it as much as I can the next time I write .

11. Has blogging helped your career ?

Oh yes , without a doubt . While it’s hard to make a specific attribution – blogging and tweeting has generally been quite helpful in making me stand out at work. And as I said before – knowing my POV through my writing has generally been a help in my interactions with clients and business partners . To the best of my recollection – I have never been promoted or given a raise because of what I do in social media . I have been asked this a lot over the last decade . Career progression has historically been generally all tied to traditional metrics likes sales and delivery numbers and people management and so on . But indirectly , social media has only helped my case .

12. Do you use your blog to evangelize your employers products and services ?

In general, I don’t . I don’t think I sound credible pimping what we sell . However – I am very proud of where I work and what we do . So that might occasionally reflect in what I say . There are a few notable exceptions to this . Last year, an analyst criticized Watson in his report and I felt strongly that it was unfair – so I posted a rebuttal in my blog . I did explicitly state though that I am an executive at IBM and I own stock in the company . I have also written about SAP HANA when I worked at SAP Labs in the engineering team .