Leadership with Social Media: 7 Essential Tips for The New Leaders

Here’s the thing: social media has completely changed how communication works.

While brands and businesses are using social media channels to their advantage, leaders are not left far behind in this regard. After all, communication is the key to being a good leader.

They use social media as a tool in their arsenal to build stronger, trustworthy relationships with their followers and their workforce. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that establishing a significant social media presence is the first thing on the to-do list for new leaders.

Although many young leaders are taking to social media like a fish takes to water, they still have a long distance to traverse.

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Here are some essential tips for new leaders to establish their leadership using social media:

1. Find a Channel That Works for You

Choose a channel that works for you. For instance, if you want to reach out to a young audience, then Snapchat is the word because the content sharing portal has the youngest audience at 45% of its users under the age of 24.

Similarly, if you want to hop on the ‘Live Video’ or simply, the ‘Video’ bandwagon, then Facebook’s Live Feature is your go-to option just like how Tastemade’s Facebook page demonstrates its use.

At the same time, you also need to take into account what type of content you’re posting. For instance, if you want to establish yourself as a thought leader through tutorials, take the Martha Stewart route and settle for Pinterest. Whereas when you want to educate, inform and create awareness, check out what Moz does in the Whiteboard Fridays videos on YouTube!

This will give you a hint of what path you need to follow!

2. Have Your Own, Unique Voice

Having your own voice is one of the mainstays for establishing a strong social media presence and getting your message across. Let’s also not forget the fact that without having the ‘charisma’ of a leader, people will not notice you in the first place.

So, how to go about it?

The answer is simple: Be you. Get recognized for who you truly are.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates takes to LinkedIn to post articles that keep the readers hooked and so does Richard Branson (on the Virgin website). German Chancellor Angela Merkel reaches out to her audience via Instagram while Justin Trudeau became the first politician to hold a Snapchat Live Story Q&A.

These widely-recognized icons have built their charm, reinvented themselves and churned up interesting content that shows different facets of their personalities.

3. Be Inventive

Want to spark more engagements, increase the follower count and see your posts going viral?

For all these, you need to come up with an inventive idea that’s no one else’s but yours. This will spark more engagements, lead the posts to go viral and, bring more followers.

Take the baton from ShaunMcBride or Shonduras, who shows off his intricate art skills on Snapchat. The 27-year old’s talent has led to several deals with top brands and earned him a huge fan following. This can be attributed to his quirky ways of using the platform and posting hilarious content.

This demonstrates that being creative on social platforms do pay off. Always!

4. Make Room for Interaction

Track the footsteps of other leaders in your niche. Know what kind of fans and followers they have, but most importantly, keep an eye on the kind of interactions they have. Going through the conversations on their page will put things into perspective and spark more engagements from your target audience.

Generate more interaction by:

• Showing gratitude
• Listening to the users
• Handling queries
• Solving a problem
• Posting thought-provoking content

5. Be a Storyteller and Make People Listen

We all know how and why storytelling works magic for brands and marketing.

And know what the best part is? It doesn’t take much to become a storyteller on social media or create awesomesauce content that contains a story.

Remember, storytelling done right will help to reach out to customers and making them come back for more.

6. Repurpose Content, Then Repurpose Some More

Posting content on social media is undoubtedly the best step for increasing audience engagement. But with hundreds and thousands of words being posted online leading to content saturation, it makes no sense to spend to create content from the scratch.

This is where repurposing content comes in handy.

You can use presentations, podcasts, emails, newsletters, eBooks, whitepapers, etc. as repurposed content on social media.

7. Steer Clear of Controversy

No one loves being a controversial figure online. When you’re on a public platform, your moves will be constantly monitored by your fans, followers, and people in their network. A wrong step will spread like wildfire and it won’t take very long for your downfall as we’ve seen in the case of PewDiePie. Most importantly, know that once your image is tarnished, it’ll take a long time to repair it. And then, whatever goes online, stays online!

The solution: stay away from using anything that spells trouble including hurling abuses, being an insufferable internet troll or responding using foul language.

I hope these tips will help take your leadership to the next level with social media.