Why all businesses need to be on social media, Michelle Harris

Interesting interview with Michelle Harris who shares her social media insights with us.

What is your background briefly?

After leaving school abruptly not knowing what I was going to do, because I was led to believe I could learn how to use a computer in 6th form during office studies.   However 3 months had passed and I realised this wasn’t going to happen. There was only one computer in the whole of the 6th form and our class hadn’t really learnt anything at all, so rather that waste any more of my time, I left, I left.

After doing some government business courses, I became a temp at an agency.  A great way to learn about different jobs, I must add.

Eventually I found myself at Philips Service as Tech support who took me on fulltime after 18 months as a temp.

So cutting to the chase, in 35 years I’ve had experience in support, sales and marketing, IT and digital technology.  Working at Philips Service and I found I loved helping people, after that moved on to British Telecom which was again helping customers and logging details on a computer. Then from a position of Sales Co-ordinator, I worked my way up to Office and Warehouse manager at a small local company over 8 years.

And in my spare time I was learning all I could about computing, IT and building communities online since from the days of IRC and MirC

After being made redundant and working for a spin off company from home, and helping out at my son’s school. I soon became full time, working as a special needs assistant then teaching assistant. Creating and maintaining the schools website, teaching IT classes for kids and parents and providing IT support for all of the teachers.

That wasn’t so brief was it!

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Yes, it really does, with Social Media; I think my experience enabled me to be a fast learner – which you need to be, to keep up with all the new trends, apps and platforms and to either use them for your clients, or to help people understand how they can use them. You also need to have some technical savvy and be analytical. And the experience in dealing with customers/staff sales and marketing has also helped.

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

Now and for the last ten years I have been helping Start-up’s, small businesses, CEOs, and entrepreneurs to increase their visibility, creating conversations, trust and sales online using social media strategies created for them.  They were struggling to make a difference by themselves, they either just didn’t have the knowhow or didn’t have the time but it’s usually both.

As a busy networker myself I have built and maintained many groups or communities for my clients and for myself – Such as the Thomas Power networking group for 5 years and my latest personal community a side project which I have just started building called “Save the World” a big ask but I really wanted to do something useful with the influence and connections I have made over the years, to help people make a difference.

Why did you get involved with Social Media Management?

In the late 90s I had started writing a personal blog and by mid 2000s I got into reviewing gadgets, phones and the internet.  I was just doing this for fun and freebies at the time. But suddenly it morphed into a blog about new platforms as they appeared on the internet. I became an early adopter for social media sites. So I would write tips, how tos, alert people to new sites and how to avoid scams etc.

I realised then that all businesses needed to be on social media and that the first users were going to reap the benefits. During this time someone I was helping was amazed that I had all this knowledge and called me a Techie minx, so in 2009 my website became techieminx.com.

It got a lot of reach and people started to ask me to set up and run their social media accounts for them. 2 years later – I had so many I had to leave my job and become a social media manager full time. Eventually I merged my two website then into the one michelleharris.social.

What does ‘good’ and bad look like, who does it well?

Bad

1. Social profiles not consistent, incomplete
2. Spamming, promotional messages on social media or in groups
3. Oversharing, know how often and what to post
4. Auto DMs

Good

1. Maintaining a brand identity on all networks
2. Knowing your audience and how they want to be perceived
3. Conversation over Promotion
4. Having a strategy and owning it

Cancer research UK jumps to my mind because I saw some tweets from them this morning, they have fantastic campaigns that involve and empower their followers to make a difference. Social for good, is one thing I love that we can do with social media.

I also have always loved Buffer App, they are transparent, and they have always involved the customer.  They and they post helpful, interesting updates to social media.

What faux pas should one avoid?

• Just posting updates to social media about your own business.
  Not considering that different networks need different content
• Not considering what is happening in the world when posting
• Not being consistent
• Similarly with community management, what are your top 5 tips for doing it well?
• Choose the right channel for your business or your topic.
• Involve the members regarding rules, ask them what they’d like to see
• Post regularly, I’d say every day at least but if not be consistent so people know what to expect.
• Engage, engage, encourage.

How can people find out more about you personally & your work?

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/michelledh/

Twitter – https://twitter.comichelledh
Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleharrissocial/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MichelleDebraHarris

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

Yes, you didn’t ask what my hobbies are and I feel this is a big part of me.
I’ve been a gamer since I can remember, really getting into it at 15 when we got a ZX spectrum and even more so when I discovered MMOs in 2000, I was then totally hooked.  And I’ve just got into VR having recently got an Oculus rift.

I am a contributing writer at many websites such as Huffington post and EnSpirit Global and I am a part of WOW women on the web, supplying short tutorials helping people in various areas of social media. I am happy to contribute if I feel I can be useful

I am being an online influencer I am often asked to be an ambassador which at the moment I am for the Samaritans, Visme.app and abillionveg.

And because most of my life is spent online – I like to relax by drawing using traditional methods, at the moment I am into drawing pet portraits using pastels

I used to kite buggy on the beach but it’s been a few years now, but I still ove to go to the beach as often as I can to get my serotonin hit.

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