My friend didn’t know why his social media strategy was not as successful as that of one of his peers who, in his words, “is just killing it!” I didn’t have to think at all to answer that question. The answer was simple and obvious: it’s because he’s engaged and you’re not.

If you have a public presence online whether you are an author, speaker, actor, politician, reporter, pastor, CEO or housewife, I’m convinced that’s virtually impossible to have an impact-full social media presence if you delegate your message solely to an assistant or to a marketing company.

In full disclosure, my company, The A Group, often designs, implements and manages social media campaigns, but we’re very careful not to do what only our clients can do: be themselves. And when they abdicate that privilege, results are never what they could be.

If all your posts are about your product, your book, or your latest gig than you’re missing out on the best part of what social media offers us: to emotionally connect with a large audience by letting them see a glimpse behind the curtains of our professional lives, and to be gracious when people we don’t know extend kindness our way, or expose us to their network thus broadening our reach.

I’m a firm believer that if people really understood the transformational potential that social media has for their brand, they would stop doing a lot of non-productive busy work and devote part of their schedule towards their online presence.

How do you manage your online presence?