Social media for leaders – what’s in it for you?

Zoe Amar is a freelance charity marketing and digital communications consultant. She’s interested in leadership, organisational change and professional development as well as digital communications and social media strategy. Zoe has worked with ActionAid, Anglia Ruskin University and the School for Social Entrepreneurs and will be speaking at Evolve 2014.

You’re a busy CEO, with a million and one things on your agenda. So why should you start tweeting or blogging?

I’m going to show you how social media is a valuable way for you to develop relationships with key stakeholders, widen the reach of your charity’s work and talk directly to stakeholders. But first, let’s look at the question another way. According to research by BA online, 8 out of 10 people are likely to trust an organisation whose CEO and team use social media, while 93% of employees think ‘social CEOs’ are better equipped to handle a crisis.

Having a good social media presence doesn’t need to take a lot of your time, and I’ll be explaining exactly how you can do this at the Evolve 2014 workshop, Social Media for Leaders on 16 June. My passion for this topic led me to co-found the Top 30 Charity CEOs on Social Media Awards last year, whose winners included Ciarán Devane from Macmillan, Julia Unwin from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Peter Wanless from the NSPCC. So if you start using social media as a leader you’ll be in great company.

You can nominate a CEO for the 2014 awards on socialceos.org.

Building a social media presence will help you to…

Develop relationships with key stakeholders

I’ve seen many CEOs – of both large and small charities – reach out to influencers successfully on social media. Whether it’s connecting with that director of a potential corporate partner on LinkedIn, tweeting a journalist to get media coverage or blogging about a topic which puts you on a funder’s radar, social media can open doors to some amazing people.

Widen the reach of your charity’s work

When Mark Flannagan, CEO of Beating Bowel Cancer, tweeted his own #nomakeupselfie he drew attention to his charity’s cause with the aim of helping it fundraise. Your status as a CEO can be amplified by social media, highlighting the amazing work that your organisation does.

Talk directly to stakeholders

Julie Bentley, CEO of Girlguiding, is a brilliant example of a CEO who has conversations with her members via social media. It’s a platform that can offer you immediate access to what your audience is saying. Not only will this help you strengthen your relationships with the people who matter most to your charity, but it will keep you in touch with what’s happening on the ground.

Want to know more?

I’ll be talking about all this and more at the Social Media for Leaders workshop at Evolve 2014. You’ll leave with lots of useful ideas for building a powerful social media presence. Hope to see you there.