b'skills, May, current chair of ASTA and vice president of Globalquestions, shaping them as, Strategic Marketing Seed Treatments at BASF, says. We needwho are your people? Why to teach strategic thinking, how to embrace change and how todid you start your business? become problem solvers. From there you can start By investing in young leaders now, you ensure a smooth tran- thinking about social media sition between generationsbut the key is starting that invest- platforms and response strat-ment as soon as possible. egies.There are plenty of ways to get knowledge to these aspiringWe see a number of com-young leaders, including many free or inexpensive solutions suchpanies that are, what we call, as podcasts and audiobooks, May notes. Sending aspiring lead- serial posters. So, they post ers to industry meetings always helps better their skills, even if itevery day, but theres no one seems expensive to do so. actually in those accounts in And, when it comes down to itinvesting in young leaders isthose platforms creating con-something that never depreciates. versation or even answeringCrystal Mackay is founder and CEO of Loft32.If you invest in your employee base and they get better,basic questions that people theyll make the people around them betterand that improvesare asking on their posts. your overall company performance, Schweigert says. It allWhich, I mean, thats just a starts with investing in your talent so they can get better andhuge faux pas, he adds.improve. An important part of social media is working with all employees on it. Tweed says that when Tweedia works with a new company, theyll sit down with the employees and go through social media train-ing plans. This work focuses on what the brand is, how theyre going to present it on social media and what they want their brand to sound like. Charles Tweed is owner of The truth is, (social media)Tweedia. resonates different coming from a real person in your office with their face at the top of their profile, right? It just hits differently on social media. So yeah, the more you can bring them into the fold the better, he says.On top of that, you need to make sure your employees under-stand the importance of social media, both corporate and per-sonal accounts. Mackay says being a good brand ambassador should be part of the onboarding experience for new employees. You should lay out what is considered offside for posting, such Dont Forget About the Power of Social Media as swearing or excessive party pictures.When it comes to social media for your company, it can be aLets have a conversation about how youre repping our daunting task if you dont understand how it can fully be utilized.brand all the time, and how does that interact with your personal As a company, you dont want to go viral for the wrong reasons,brand? I think its really important to give employees the free-and that may make you timid in your approach to social media.dom to have some personality in their posts and to share their Social media is an integral part of business these days thoughpersonal experiences, she says.and having a social media policy is non-negotiable. Tweed adds its important to help employees understand how Its a fairly new territory as far as policies go, Crystal Mackay,the success of the company, which includes social media, is tied founder and CEO of Loft32, says. She encourages companies toto their own personal success. If an employee doesnt understand share their social media policy with employees to make sure itswhy social media and their personal brand is important, then the fully utilized and doesnt get forgotten about. companys social media presence isnt going to work, he adds.To start making a social media policy you should think of it asAt the end of the day social media isnt going anywhere, and a circlewho are you? What do you do? Charles Tweed, ownerTweed says if you havent taken a serious look at it as a business of Tweedia, says from there you should re-ask yourself thosethen you need to take an examination of why that is.106/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2022'