Is it appropriate for leaders to share personal views about business via social media? - SmartBrief

All Articles Leadership Is it appropriate for leaders to share personal views about business via social media?

Is it appropriate for leaders to share personal views about business via social media?

1 min read

Leadership

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.

Last week, we asked: Is it appropriate for leaders to share personal views about business via social media?

  • It’s very appropriate, and it’s a great communication vehicle: 17.11%
  • It’s OK sometimes for specific, noncontroversial topics: 31.89%
  • It’s only OK in rare situations: 21.43%
  • It’s never OK: 29.57%

Business is a no-tweeting zone. A surprisingly high percentage of you feel leaders sharing their views on business via social media isn’t appropriate other than on rare occasions. The question I’d invite you to answer is what benefits are you missing out on (recruiting potential, brand building, positioning as industry experts) in exchange for the perceived risks you’re avoiding? These responses strike me as gun shy and risk averse. Understand that your aversion to sharing your thoughts carries true opportunity cost along with it. Tweet and “like” responsibly if you’d like to reap many of the benefits of social media.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”