Leaders and Social Media:

Time to Get a Strategy

Whether you like it or not, the era of social media is here. And whether you actively manage your online social media presence or not, you and your company are probably out there being discussed right now. All this means you have two choices: proactively develop a strategy for social media for yourself and your company or ignore at your own peril.

By engaging you’re able to wield some influence over the public dialogue that’s taking place in Facebook and Linked-In updates, Twitter streams, and the blogosphere. It’s no longer possible for today’s leaders to sit in their offices and one-way “message out” to their stakeholders.

In this video, I describe how today’s leaders must be prepared and ready to engage in real-time, two-way dialogues with their broader stakeholders including employees, shareholders, the press, the government and the communities in which they operate. And, as the recent Quantas and BP events indicate, this skill only becomes more important during times of crisis.