How to Use Social Media & Virtual Meetings to Improve Your Board's Governance

• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/bl.30180
• Author: Kristin Dyak
• Published date: 01 January 2021

6 BOARD LEADERSHIP

How to Use Social Media &

Virtual Meetings to Improve

Your Board’s Governance

by Kristin Dyak

Kristin Dyak is digital marketing director at The Cyphers Agency, an integrated

marketing and PR rm based outside of Washington, D.C. In this article, she

discusses how board members can leverage social media and other digital tools to

enhance governance.

Social media can serve as an incred-

ibly powerful tool for organizations

and individual board members to raise

awareness of their existence, their mis-

sions, and their messages.

However, when utilized effectively

it can also greatly improve board gov-

ernance—not only by making your

requisite monthly meetings easier and

smoother to run but also, perhaps,

by making these sometimes mundane

tasks more engaging as well.

As a current member of two boards,

those of the Chesapeake Chapter

of the Public Relations Society of

America (PRSA) and Broadway Crew,

a promotional staffing resource for

Broadway-related brands and events,

I’ve seen these improvements happen

firsthand by helping introduce and

implement just a few easy-to-adopt

actions.

With that in mind, here are my

top recommendations.

How Boards Can Utilize Social

Media for Better Governance

As any board member knows, it

can be—or more accurately, always

is!—a challenge to find meeting times

that suit everyone’s schedule and

actually get your board members to

attend them. For larger boards in par-

ticular, social media can be a useful

way to promote meetings to boost

attendance. Boards that prefer public

awareness can publicize the specified

date, time, and place across the vari-

ous social media platforms to ensure

a wide and relative audience. And if

you would prefer to keep things more

private, the use of direct messaging,

LinkedIn InMails, Facebook, and

LinkedIn groups are optimal for shar-

ing information about the meeting,

such as links and agendas, via a more

limited means.

It’s also worth considering creating

a private Facebook or LinkedIn group

for board members to create a more

casual space for continued discussion

and community. Private groups pro-

vide a place for board members to

correspond and engage beyond the

formality of email. Group leaders and

members can share information about

the board, whether asking for feed-

back or asking members to share the

information with their larger networks.

It also gives the members the opportu-

nity to discuss an issue, agenda item,

policy change, etc., in a private forum

before releasing information to a pub-

lic audience. Fun, lighthearted content

is also welcomed in Facebook groups,

such as sharing pictures of your hol-

iday decorations or pets. Bringing a

human quality to the conversations

among your board members and

allowing them to get to know each

other can lead to greater collaboration

on initiatives and decisions.

The content you choose to post

on the organization’s social media

channels is important for a few rea-

sons. First, it showcases the identity

of the organization in general, plus

its members and leaders. Second, it

can create a place for conversation

within the comments and enhance

your digital community. And third, it

allows the leaders (board members)

to champion the organization’s mis-

sion by engaging in the content and

projecting the overall reach. Encour-

age your board members to increase

their year-round participation and

engagement by promoting initiatives,

events, and announcements on social

media. Whether it’s sharing the con-

tent posted on the organization’s page

or posting content on their own pages,

the extended reach will help spread

the word along with reinforcing your

support.

How Boards Can Utilize Virtual

Meetings for Better Governance

Virtual meeting platforms are well

equipped with share capabilities. Pro-

viding resources such as documents,

hyperlinks, and jpeg images through

the chat function during the meeting

will help streamline your meetings

by allowing you to pass these assets

around in real-time instead of relying

on members to search through their

inboxes and desktops. Another helpful

feature is screen-sharing, which allows

the group to view a presentation,

video, or document simultaneously,

thereby ensuring that you’re all on the

same page and, as an added bonus,

better holding everyone’s attention.

When scheduling, it’s important to

make sure the meeting is organized

for optimal communication among

the group. Including Q&A portions

throughout is a great way to allow

and encourage everyone to engage in

the conversation without trying to get

your attention by interrupting. Social

cues are a greater challenge during a

virtual meeting than in-person, so take

your time and give a moment to the

group. It can be time-consuming and a

bit of chaos to ask everyone to chime

in aloud. Again, turning to the chat

function for the group to submit their

questions and/or answers is a stream-

lined way to participate without being

disruptive. And if your board needs to

time meet in smaller groups or com-

mittees, consider using the breakout

room function available in a number

of virtual meeting platforms, such as

Zoom, to meet separately and then

rejoin the larger group.

Keeping the group engaged can be

one of the largest challenges when it