By Ranganath Iyengar, Advisor, Coach & Leadership Facilitator. www.strategicin.in

If you are a leader in today’s world, one of the ‘must have’ skills is to use social media. However, social media is like a double-edged sword as it is intense, personalized, precise, dynamic and also disruptive perhaps even uncertain, risk prone and unpredictable.

Leaders are often visible to different stakeholder groups and communication levels and content can be radically different. Here are the tools and technologies leaders could use to become social media savvy:

Social media @ Personal level

Skills at the personal level could include aspects like create and communicate online every day in a creative manner, developingengaging- maintaining a followership, filter and manage the ‘noise’ by cutting through the clutter of good and irrelevant feedback – in simple terms build one’s personal brand and influence over relevant affinity groups.

Leaders could therefore need tools to create and embellish compelling high quality content, distribute information rapidly and frequently and manage inward communication flow smartly. Some tools to consider for visual content include Makewebvideo.com, Animoto. com, Camtasia.com, Needly.com Slideshowpro.com and Youtube editor. To manage campaigns, conversations and results consider Hootsuite.com and Vedasemantics.com.

Social media @ Organizational level

Skills at the organizational level could include aspects like staying connected with customers and channel activities, facilitating vertical and horizontal collaboration across business functions within and beyond organizational boundaries, and at a deeper level use the power of social media to understand and interpret cultural, behavioral and community / affinity group impact.

Leaders could therefore need tools to focus on engaging different stakeholder groups which could include employees, customers, channel partners, special interest groups etc. – this could require social media awareness internally within the organziation with suitable extensions beyond organizational boundaries with a key focus on getting people to communicate, create and collaborate. Additionally, such tools can also be used to keep track of markets, trends and innovations.

Some tools to consider could be Social CRM for sales, marketing and technical teams which can be a force multiplier for employee engagement, customer connect and knowledge collaboration – examples are Oracle CRM, Microsoft Yammer, Nimble, MZinga, Socialtext. com and Batchbook.

Leadership Leverage

Social media usage as has been demonstrated in various types of organizational and institutional platforms – be it the ongoing election campaigns in India, opinion polls, examinations, online only product launches for products ranging from mobile phones to SUVs, governance aptly demonstrates a clear direction and maturity in the usage patterns which is possible only when leaders in organizations understand the freedom, reach, power, potential, vulnerability and risk that social media brings. So, are you a social media savvy leader yet?

The new look corporate office

The corporate offices of the future will need entirely new skills and competencies – social media writers, analysts, social media brand experts, online PR specialists and even online event managers – as a leader are you aware of these significant possibilities?