This week we want to highlight the huge steps taken in social media and the dramatic impact they are having on society, companies and staff.
By social media we are referring to Facebook, YouTube, Skype, Flickr, Twitter and a number of other quick and effective communication and social interaction tools freely available on our internet and mobile phone systems.
Like them or not they are here to stay, grow and become an increasing part of our lives. As Leaders we need to understand them and their impacts on our leadership models, as well as how our colleagues, peers, families and social circles use them.
American author Erik Qualman’s book Socialnomics, reflects some stats which make telling points:
- 60 million status updates occur on facebook daily
- Media grow to 50 million users: Radio - 38 years; TV - 13 years; Internet - 4 years; iPod - 3 years; facebook 200million in less than a year.
- Actors Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres combined have more Twitter followers than the populations of Ireland, Norway or Panama
- There are more than 200 million blogs on the Internet
All this means that as leaders we must embrace the Social Media fully so as to be able to use the popular sites for staying in tune with our pool of contacts, be it competition, colleagues or social, as well as send out messages, link with people and lead effectively.
The start point is to discuss the sites within your teams, decide which ones will be the best fit for you, signup to these user friendly sites, and plan how you will use them to maximum effect. There are too many to be on all so be very clear about what you will use them for before taking the plunge. And if you are intimidated by this rapidly changing field, be reminded that the fastest growing segment on facebook recently was reportedly 55-65 year old females!
Key take-outs
- Understanding and using the Social Media is vital to remaining an effective leader
- News travels very fast in the Social Media age - 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, 14 % trust advertising
- People update any where, any time - poor customer experiences and decisions can create a rapid response across the globe.