This eye-opening YouTube video was recommended to me by an online colleague, and it poses the question – is social media a fad? My take: you absolutely MUST watch this video! It doesn’t matter whether you are a leader in a large company, a start-up entrepreneur, or somewhere in between, you owe it to yourself and the continued success of your organization to do so. In less than five minutes, Erik Qualman will give you a perspective on social media that you may have never considered before.
So now you’ve watched the video, and you probably also know that the focus in my professional practice is turning managers into leaders. The question just begging to be asked is: what are you doing as a leader to harness the power of social media? There is clearly a fundamental shift in the way people are communicating with one another, and it has enormous implications for how you should be recruiting, motivating and leading your people. And if you go beyond your department and look at the long-term success of your organization, social media is changing how your clients and customers select and buy your services and products. What are you doing to keep up with them?
I don’t know if you caught all the specific statistics in the video, but this is not just a “young people” thing — social media users are not just the Millennial generation! This wave is coming fast and furious. It’s not a small rapid in the river or a little wave on the beach; this is a tsunami that is coming stronger and faster than you might realize. And it’s coming right at you! Tell me … what are you doing as a leader in your organization to keep up with your employees and your customers?