Mark R. Tercek
Before becoming CEO of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the world’s largest environmental nonprofit, I was an investment banker on Wall Street for twenty-four years. As you can imagine, this was quite a transition.
In the business world, I kept my private life to myself. In the environmental space, I found that people wanted to know more about who their leader was. This was a big adjustment – and one that social media helped me navigate.
I’m still very much a novice, but here are few lessons I’ve learned as a social CEO in the environmental sector.
Building an authentic voice online
In my job at TNC I was encouraged to share some aspects of my personal and private life, similar to the way political candidates do. While most of my social media posts addressed environmental challenges, I tried to weave in details about my travels, occasional family news and personal interests. I’m told that my colleagues and TNC supporters enjoyed following along with what I was reading, where I was traveling and what topics were top of mind.
At the same time, I’ve learned that sharing personal details online can cut both ways. For example, I’m a vegan. I’ve never really chosen to be an evangelist on the topic because people want to make their own choices about their diets. But some of my colleagues encouraged me to be more open about this part of my life.
For some environmentalists who were unsure about a conservation leader who hails from Wall Street, sharing this information on social media increased my credibility. But other key constituents, including farmers and ranchers who are working very successfully with TNC to improve sustainable agriculture practices, got miffed. I can understand and respect both perspectives, but in the end, I’ve found sharing this information helpful to building an authentic voice online. Just because I’m a vegan doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the farmers and ranchers around the world who are doing their part to sustainably manage land and feed the world’s populations. Two things can be true.
Watching out for nuance
Whatever field you’re in, you probably deal with some touchy subjects on occasion. Some controversial topics, especially nuanced ones, aren’t well suited for social media. That’s a lesson my team and I learned the hard way.
For example, I once penned a thoughtful blog about genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It was very balanced. The blog made the claim that we should let science be the guide on whether or how GMOs can effectively and safely be used. My colleagues and I then shared the blog on social media.
As it turned out, this was unwise.
The blog generated a flood of vitriolic hate mail, which isn’t very useful for an NGO’s reputation or its valuable staff time. What’s more, the hate mail was inconsistent with the contents of the blog. It appeared that the letter writers hadn’t read or understood my argument.
Another challenge I’ve faced is using humour. I tend to make very dry jokes, and sometimes people take them too seriously. I once shared a picture online of my daughter sitting on the set of the David Letterman Show, thanks to a friend who had access to the production set. I wrote a cheeky caption about her becoming the next host – and received many serious inquiries and notes of congratulations about my daughter taking over for the King of Late Night.
Spreading the word
Of course, social media is also a good tool for raising awareness for your mission. We can all write blogs, speeches and books – but people are busy, and there is a lot of messaging out there. Social media is a good tool to let people know what your organization does that makes you proud.
I was very fortunate. I had a great job where I came to work every day with excellent colleagues and inspiring partners to address the biggest challenges humankind faces.
But the work itself was hard. Take climate change. It’s the biggest threat to the planet, but greenhouse gas pollution is invisible. That makes it hard to convince people about the urgent need to act.
What’s more, there is an unwillingness to address the root causes of climate change, like dependence on fossil fuel energy. The solutions require massive transformations of the economy. Creating change at the scale we need will take more people and more resources on our side.
Thanks to social media, environmental organizations like TNC now have a low-cost way of communicating with huge numbers of people. The trick of course is being creative in crafting your messages to stand out from the many voices online. I found that talking about science in terms of real projects with tangible outcomes could be very compelling. You can’t overdo the wonkiness if you want to engage a lot of people. Plus, social media gives you good, instant feedback on what gets traction and what doesn’t. Try something new, see if it works and if it doesn’t you can delete and try again.
By the way – it works the other way around, too. I used social media to support peer organizations and shine a spotlight on important, but sometimes less visible, work. And it also helped me learn what was going on with other organizations and leaders. For example, if I was invited to speak at a conference, I could follow along with the event hashtag to catch up on the events of the day and what people were talking about. I also recommended to my colleagues that they follow a small number of thought leaders in their field – this is a great way to discover important news and analyses as they happen.
A valuable tool
When it comes to social media, I’m still very much a beginner. But I found it a good way to connect with my colleagues and TNC supporters, stay informed and highlight the important work of TNC and other great peer organizations. I can’t imagine a CEO in any business not wanting to use social media as a tool for advancing their organization’s mission.
Five tips for social CEOs in the environmental sector
1 Don’t engage with trolls online – only in person. In real life, I believe it is very useful to meet and discuss with your critics. I always told my colleagues that our critics were often our friends – they wanted the same outcomes we did, they just wanted it done a different way. When we did have a chance to meet with these people or organizations, we often ended up learning something new. (And they learned from us too.) However, I have not found that this approach works on social media.
2 Be positive. There are a lot of mean-spirited, glib critics on social media – and a lot of room for more positive voices. When you come across good news that should be shared broadly, support it.
3 Be wary of humour. Not everyone has the same sense of humour. What’s funny to you might not be funny to someone else.
4 Support lesser known causes – and don’t pile on. This is especially important if you have a big following. You can retweet smaller or lesser known organizations that are doing good work or tag journalists who are doing important, tough reporting. And resist the urge to pile on celebrity tweets where your voice will be drowned out.
5 Grab attention. Recognize that social media is competitive, and your posts need to grab attention. One thing I tried to do was ask for feedback from colleagues on what they thought would work best.