Why Every Leader have to need Social Media Skills with Qualities?
What are social media skills? Being skill and experience in social media in today’s market is definitely changing frequently. There are new social channels popping up and big changes to current channels happening often. Integrating your social media networks to your business is very important it allows you to establish and publicize your brand, expand the reach within your target market, interact with your active users and send interesting information about your company to your desired audience. Why are the Need Entrepreneurship for Small Business?
The social media revolution has taken the business world by storm. Few areas of business and society have been left untouched by the social media revolution. Social Responsibility. Concomitant with this trend, companies and business leaders have realized the immense power of social media and have started to tune their strategies accordingly. This article discusses six essential social media skills that every leader must have to succeed in the world of Web 2.0, Best Characteristics and Qualities of a Good Leader.
Becoming a Producer
Business leaders must incorporate social media in their communications by producing and sharing rich media in their blogs and by opening Facebook and Twitter accounts through which they can communicate to their stakeholders. Of course, this is easier said than done as most business leaders are behind the curve where social media is concerned. To alleviate this shortcoming, business leaders have to learn to use technology more effectively and more efficiently. This means that they would have to upgrade their technical skills and become social media savvy. This literacy and expertise in using social media would be a major advantage to them as they go about communicating to their stakeholders.
Becoming a Distributor
The convergence of vertical broadcast media and horizontal participatory media means that the business leaders must master the knowledge of this interplay between these very different paradigms at work. For instance, traditional communication is largely hierarchical and follows command and control flow. On the other hand, social media follows system dynamics that determine whether the content goes viral or not and hence, business leaders must become experts in controlling the distribution of content that would let them influence the flow of communication throughout the organization. Knowing what to say and how to say are as important as the distribution of these messages to the wider audience.
Becoming a Recipient
A common refrain one hears in the information age is that we are besieged with information overload. Drowning in a never reducing flood of Facebook posts, tweets, and emails, business leaders can get lost in this electronic maze that would impair their ability to sift through the content and determine what is useful or not. Given the fact that traditionally business leaders have had assistants to wade through the information and give them what is necessary, they might have to employ web savvy staff to do this for them in the changing world of web 2.0
Becoming an Advisor and Orchestrator
Once the business leaders realize the importance of web 2.0 for their organizations, the next task is to ensure that they let this insight percolate throughout the organization. In other words, they have to become change agents wherein they would harvest the potential of social media by inspiring their employees to embrace social media effectively and efficiently. To do this, they must have the skills described in the three sections above and on top of that, they must don the hat of evangelicals who trumpet the advantages of social media to their employees.
Becoming an Architect
The social media revolution has challenged the traditional conceptions of organizational communication, as there is a thin line between free exchange of information throughout the organization and the risk of irresponsible use that poses existential threats to the organizations. For instance, it is common in many firms to ban the use of social media by the employee during the time they spend in office. Instead of these autarkic responses, business leaders must develop appropriate strategies that would merge vertical accountability with horizontal collaboration. In other words, the merger of organizational hierarchical communication with that of informal networks of communication is the challenge before business leaders.
Becoming an Analyst
Finally, business leaders must not only leverage social media for their organizational success but also be ahead of the curve by riding the wave of change and anticipating the next paradigm shift. As the next generation internet of things is already on the horizon, business leaders must use all their intellect and experience to see how their organizations can profit from the coming changes. This means wearing multiple hats at once and ensuring that they are ahead of the curve instead of behind it.
Good Qualities of a Leader Really have to!
A leader has got multidimensional traits in him which makes him appealing and effective in behavior. The following are the requisites to be present in a good leader:
Physical appearance: A leader must have a pleasing appearance. Physique and health are very important for a good leader.
Vision and foresight: A leader cannot maintain influence unless he exhibits that he is forward looking. He has to visualize situations and thereby has to frame logical programmes.
Intelligence: A leader should be intelligent enough to examine problems and difficult situations. He should be analytical who weighs pros and cons and then summarizes the situation. Therefore, a positive bent of mind and mature outlook is very important.
Communicative skills: A leader must be able to communicate the policies and procedures clearly, precisely and effectively. This can be helpful in persuasion and stimulation.
Objective: A leader has to be having a fair outlook which is free from bias and which does not reflects his willingness towards a particular individual. He should develop his own opinion and should base his judgement on facts and logic.
Knowledge of work: A leader should be very precisely knowing the nature of work of his subordinates because it is then he can win the trust and confidence of his subordinates.
Sense of responsibility: Responsibility and accountability towards an individual’s work is very important to bring a sense of influence. A leader must have a sense of responsibility towards organizational goals because only then he can get maximum of capabilities exploited in a real sense. For this, he has to motivate himself and arouse and urge to give best of his abilities. Only then he can motivate the subordinates to the best.
Self-confidence and will-power: Confidence in himself is important to earn the confidence of the subordinates. He should be trustworthy and should handle the situations with full will power. (You can read more about Self-Confidence at : Self Confidence – Tips to be Confident and Eliminate Your Apprehensions).
Humanist: This trait to be present in a leader is essential because he deals with human beings and is in personal contact with them. He has to handle the personal problems of his subordinates with great care and attention. Therefore, treating the human beings on humanitarian grounds is essential for building a congenial environment.
Empathy: It is an old adage “Stepping into the shoes of others”. This is very important because fair judgement and objectivity comes only then. A leader should understand the problems and complaints of employees and should also have a complete view of the needs and aspirations of the employees. This helps in improving human relations and personal contacts with the employees.
From the above qualities present in a leader, one can understand the scope of leadership and it’s importance for scope of business. A leader cannot have all traits at one time. But a few of them helps in achieving effective results.
Clearly, these are early days. Most companies recognize social media as a disruptive force that will gather strength rather than attenuate. But social-media literacy as we define it here is not yet an element of leadership-competency models or of performance reviews and reward systems. Equally, it has not yet found its way into the curricula of business schools and leadership-development programs.
This needs to change. We are convinced that organizations that develop a critical mass of leaders. Who master the six dimensions of organizational media literacy will have a brighter future. They will be more creative, innovative, and agile. Attract and retain better talent, as well as tap deeper into the capabilities and ideas of their employees and stakeholders. More effective in collaborating across internal and external boundaries and enjoy a higher degree of global integration. Benefit from tighter and more loyal customer relationships and from the brand equity that comes with them. More likely to play leading roles in their industries by better leveraging the capabilities of their partners and alliances in cocreation, codevelopment, and overall industry collaboration. And they will be more likely to create new business models that capitalize on the potential of evolving communications technologies.
It takes guts to innovate radically in leadership and organization, for legacy systems, cultures, and attitudes are powerful forces of inertia. Fortunately, the inherent quality of social media is a powerful transformational force. Social-media engagement will confront leaders with the shortcomings of traditional organizational designs. Leaders who address these shortcomings will learn how to develop the enabling infrastructure that fosters the truly strategic use of social technologies. When organizations and their leaders embrace the call to social-media literacy, they will initiate a positive loop allowing them to capitalize on the opportunities and disruptions that come with the new connectivity of a networked society. And they will be rewarded with a new type of competitive advantage.
Reference
1. Six social-media skills every leader needs – https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/six-social-media-skills-every-leader-needs
2. Qualities of a Leader – https://managementstudyguide.com/qualities_of_a_leader.htm
3. What are social media skills? – https://www.quora.com/What-are-social-media-skills-What-kind-of-knowledge-do-people-with-social-media-skills-have-about-various-social-media-platforms
