Social media has been rapidly growing and becoming the main source of communication over the years. While social media platforms can be an excellent source for connecting with others, is it the best location for professionals and active leadership? There has been a rise of leadership through the use of Twitter and Facebook because the internet gives everyone the opportunity to have a voice and be heard by anyone in the world. While there are many positives to using social media for leadership, there are many negatives that follow.
Before we get into the negatives of social media in the leadership context, lets discuss what we mean by leaders. Authors, Winter and Neubaum (2016) stated,
“While it was originally assumed that there is little overlap between leaders in different domains, later work has begun to identify overarching patterns that may be crucial for general opinion leadership. As one attempt to detect influential people and the domain-independent tendency to act as opinion leader, the construct of personality strength was introduced. People with high personality strength are characterized by charisma and a self-perceived ability to be successful and persuade others” (p. 3).
Everyone has their own opinion of what it means to be a leader and what and individual has to do in order to be a leader. Depending on the leadership style, it can lead the individual to being able to adapt to the situation at hand. This is especially important for leadership in the virtual world because it is constantly changing and becoming more complex.
In this article, I will touch on three different aspects of social media and leadership, however, there are many more that can be analyzed. We will look into leadership and information, future leaders, and the workplace. All will be covering the negative aspects, as there are many positive attributes, its important to look at the downsides as well.
“Social Media Cloud” from Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/outsourcetechndu/8244547406/
Leadership & Misinformation
Social media is unpredictable and unreliable. Anyone who has access to the internet, has access to social media sites and is allowed to post freely. This can lead to misinformation being shared and this can affect leadership by damaging the leader’s credibility, even if they did not realize the information was false. It is unreliable because anyone can falsify sources and their credibility. It is crucial for leaders to backup all information and facts so that the information they are sharing is 100% true.
Social media can be difficult for leaders to understand especially if they are new to using social media. This gives them a disadvantage because these media platforms are becoming the main source of communication between everyone. It also is harder for older leaders who have been doing this sort of work without the use of social media.
In order to understand how virtual leadership is affected by social media, the best way is for leaders to perform issue management tasks and crisis communication (Lua, Jiang, & Kulemeka, 2015, p. 170). Understanding how social media can affect a leader is crucial for the leader to understand and be able to adapt to. If they can’t, then they face issues with virtual distance, social isolation, and ineffectiveness.
“Social Media World Communication Together Community” from Pixabay Image source
Social Media & Future Leaders
Another aspect that can hurt leadership, is the potential that social media can be damaging over time. “Teens over share information to the public that can hurt them in the future when trying to get a job, and deleting the information is not good enough” (UK Essays, 2013, para. 8). Anything you post on the internet stays there forever, even if you delete it. Anyone can screenshot and save an old Tweet or post, and use it against anyone. People do not realize that when they interview for a job, that company will look them up on social media and use that criteria to base whether they get the job or not. Social media profiles are far from professional when used recreationally. This affects leadership because this is harmful to future leaders. They may not get the opportunity to succeed if they have a questionable profile.
“Leadership World Success Business Management” by Pixabay Image source
Social Media & Leadership in the Workplace
With the rising popularity of social media, many companies have adapted and created profiles for their business so they can connect with customers on a new level. This sets the stage for a new set of difficulties and obstacles that leaders now have to overcome or adapt to, especially if it is a virtual team.
“Many companies attempt to link participation in online communities to performance evaluations and financial rewards. This usually doesn’t work well. People only really engage in a community if they derive some learning from it or if it gives them emotional comfort and support. Successful online communities all have compelling and inspiring goals for their existence and their leaders are passionate about those goals” (Huy & Shipilov, 2010, para. 4).
Social media is constantly changing and becoming more complex as it becomes more popular. Hence why it can be a tricky tool for some leaders and it can be hard to adapt effectively. Social media platforms are difficult enough to fully understand and evaluate on its own and its even harder to incorporate effective leadership.
Make sure to visit the other articles that my group members have written, they also give an analysis on different aspects of social media and leadership. We would love to hear any input that you may have so make sure to contact us!
References:
Essays, UK. (2013). Positive and negative effects of social media. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/education/positive-effects-of-social-networking.php
Luo, Y., Jiang, H., & Kulemeka, O. (2015). Strategic social media management and public relations leadership: insights from industry leaders. International Journal of Strategic Communications, 9(3), 167-196. Doi: 10.1080/1553118X.2014.960083. Retrieved from https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=11&sid=79bf1462-b254-4bb2-8f74-caacbaa97d4f%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=103641794&db=ufh
Huy, Q., & Shipilov, A. (2010, Nov. 1). Social media leadership challenges. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2010/11/social-medias-leadership-chall
Werfs, M. (2012, Aug. 25). How does social media influence leadership attributes and how should leaders react? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkcreative30.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/how-does-social-media-influence-leadership-attributes-and-how-should-leaders-react/
Winter, S. & Neubaum, G. (2016, Setp. 5). Examining characteristics of opinion leaders in social media: A motivational approach. Sage Journals, 2 (3). Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305116665858
Leaders in Social Media 