Page 7 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

vi INTRODUCTION

sion of personal freedom and affirmation, a forum for all, a univer-
sal ocean of connectivity and interrelationships unlike anything the
world has ever seen—and it’s getting bigger every day.

Barack Obama was the first U.S. president to successfully surf
the wave of social media (until recently also sometimes referred to
as new media) and ride it all the way to the White House. As the
contest heated up in 2008, his campaign ignited political buzz with
chat rooms and posted daily barrages of online clips showing the
candidate in action and talking in sound bites. In effect, social media
put the candidate “on the air” (in this case, in The Cloud or Ether-
net) twenty-four-seven and kept an interactive dialogue of millions
of Americans—mostly his target audience of younger voters—
stoked and buzzing right up to election day. Some pundits have sug-
gested Obama’s success in the voting booth was due in part to his
mastery of the new media such as YouTube and Twitter, while the
McCain campaign relied far more on “old media,” such as newspa-
pers, magazines, and traditional networks.
So social media can be a great political resource, and we will see
more of social media in future campaigns. But without a candidate,
social media is just a tool and can never take the place of the candi-
date. Without Obama, social media was just social media.
No one knows how big social media will eventually become,
how far it will go, or how it will ultimately effect and infl uence our
behaviors. No doubt social media will present opportunities for
future business leaders. But it can never trump fl esh-and-blood
transactions and interactions. Twitter, Google, Facebook, YouTube,
LinkedIn, and more on the way can help market your business—
and you—but they can never be you.
Social media can never be:

the new CEO who so impresses the analysts that the stock
soars 20 percent the next day
the team leader who drives productivity up 15 percent
the entrepreneur who articulates the vision that shapes a whole
new industry and makes markets