Like 10 million other people, I follow George Takei on a couple different social media platforms. The way he uses social media has always impressed and fascinated me, so when this interview with Cosmopolitan popped up on my Facebook newsfeed I was intrigued. Despite it being a Cosmo article, there are a number of valuable lessons about Social Media Management contained within… many of which I frequently advocate myself. So here are 4 Lessons in Social Media Management from Uncle George himself.

Lesson 1: social media thrives on conversation and relationships

When people tell me their engagement rate on their content is low (or non-existent), I ask them if they’re inviting their audience to engage with them. I’m usually met with either a quizzical look or complete silence, as if they’d never thought to ask their audience to share their thoughts. “Good social media is about giving people an opportunity to laugh, cry, wonder, and share together… They want to do this around ideas, around the news, around something that binds them together,” he says. And I have to agree.

You can improve your social media engagement by including calls-to-action in your posts that encourage interaction. Ask open-ended questions. And seriously… when someone leaves a comment, RESPOND!

Lesson 2: follow the 80/20 rule

I talk about this rule a lot. Basically, it means that only 20% of your social media content should be about you, and the rest should be a healthy mix of various types of content – articles, pictures, videos, etc. – both created and curated by you. That’s right… your social media content does not need to be original 100% of the time. In fact, it shouldn’t be. George has some wise words about how to use social media: “…for goodness sake, stop talking about yourselves. I like to remind people that they need to take the ‘me’ out of ‘social media.’”

Take a look at any of George’s social media profiles, and you’ll see that the majority of his content is sourced (curated) from elsewhere. In his case, he’s built up such a following that his fans do most of the curating for him, but he still has a team of people go through the content and schedule the best. You can emulate this by delegating the curating of content to your Virtual Support Team.

Lesson 3: have a purpose and a strategy

George’s initial intention for using social media was to bring awareness to his musical, Allegiance. He shared content that appealed to his ideal audience and as it grew, began to discuss topics related to Allegiance (chiefly the Japanese-American internment during WWII) along with promoting the musical itself. That strategy has grown to include ways for George to discuss and promote other matters that are dear to him, especially marriage equality.

You absolutely need a strategy to support your social media activities. Developing a strategy can be as simple as asking yourself the 5 W’s: who, what, where, when, and why. Having a strategy keeps you focused, gives you direction, and assists your Virtual Support Team with targeting the right audience, and creating and curating the best content.

Lesson 4: ask for help

Right out of the gate, George admits he had trouble mastering the 140-character limit on Twitter, so he delegated it to his writing team. As his following grew, and monitoring his accounts became more and more time-consuming, he hired staff to manage his different profiles. He very clearly understood that his responsibilities were to be the public face of Allegiance and to continue his humanitarian work. He couldn’t fulfil those responsibilities by sitting in front of Facebook all day.

And neither can you. As the CEO of your company, your responsibilities are to serve your clients and grow your business. Having an online presence is vital to helping you grow, but spending time on social media is something that you need to stop doing and start delegating.