As the Leader of your company, you have one job: to build a strong brand that attracts customers. You might ask, what are your primary tools for doing this? To name a few: your personality, your experience, and your insights! As the head of your company, you are the embodiment of all that it stands for. You are the primary ambassador for your brand; your ability to connect with people on a relatable level will help you attract both customers and employees.
- It helps with employee retention by showing your staff that they can come to you with their problems, and they’ll be heard.
- It helps HR find talent by boosting the profile of open positions and attracting the right candidates to apply.
- It helps sales by allowing them to have warm leads from prospects who have been influenced by what you stand for, both as a brand and leader.
Social Leaders have a positive impact on their organizations
Being an active Social Leader has a positive impact on your organization by:
- Increasing trust in the authenticity and transparency of your business
- Increasing visibility into the culture and employees, which results in greater engagement
- Creating more opportunities for engaging with employees throughout their personal networks, which increases exposure to new potential audiences
- Establishing credibility that comes from having the Leader publicly engage with people in their space; this sends a very powerful signal to potential clients and candidates that you are innovative and forward-thinking
Social Leaders can still be Leaders and maintain a public presence on social media
You don’t have to stop being the Leader in order to get out there and connect with your employees, customers and industry. In fact, your presence on social media can help you reach higher heights as a leader. A study by Weber Shandwick found that “almost all agreed that Leaders who engage in social media are more accessible and visible than Leaders who do not … [and] 61% of respondents think these Leaders are more trustworthy.”
When you’re a social leader, your employees and customers feel like they know, like and trust you. When they feel like they know you better, they trust you more – and trust is perhaps the most important component of leadership. If people have confidence in you as their Leader, it makes them feel confident about your company’s success under your leadership.
Social Leaders are more relatable to customers and employees
- Leaders who engage on social media become more accessible to employees. They’re also more relatable to customers. Social Leaders are humanized and perceived as less of a figurehead. This is why the most successful Social Leaders’ accounts share their personality and daily happenings, along with business-related content.
- When Leaders are active on social media, it helps build trust between the company and its community (both internal and external). The company becomes more personable when an actual person is sharing insights from their perspective, instead of appearing as just another company account talking about how great they are at what they do.
At the most basic level, people want to be authentic on social media. Accordingly, they expect their leaders to be the same. That’s why a Social Leader is more trustworthy than one that simply sends out press releases and conducts interviews, who are not as exposed. A study by Weber Shandwick found that 89% of executives feel authenticity is an important part of a leader’s public persona, compared with only 44% who think being well-spoken is important.
Additionally, Social Leaders are more relatable than their stiffer counterparts because they give followers an inside look at what it’s like to live in their world. Having real conversations with Leaders helps humanize them, and gives people a sense of connection. They carry dual personality traits that can translate into success for the organization.
Be confident in the idea that you can have a public presence and still be an effective Leader
As former General Electric Leader Jack Welch put it, “Credibility is everything. You don’t have to be warm and fuzzy, but you do have to be credible.” The same can be said of any Leader: credibility is crucial to your success in leading your company as well as maintaining your brand image.
You may think that hiding behind the curtain and keeping yourself isolated from your stakeholders will keep you safe (and sane). But the fact of the matter is that if people can’t see you and get a sense for who you are, they won’t trust you. Trust has been proven time and again to be a critical element in all aspects of business; without it, you run the risk of damaging not only what people expect from your brand, but also how much faith they put in it (or even how much faith employees have in their leaders). Plus, if people don’t trust you or your company, why would they invest their time and resources into working with or buying from you?