How engaged in your social media efforts are your executives?  If you are like most of us, the answer is…not very.  But why is that?  Here is some great perspective from Erik Qualman.  He takes an interesting angle on social media in his post published yesterday:  Social Media and Executives Don’t Mix.   This post is Qualman’s summary of a great source post by the social media firm DemingHill.   It asks you to think about  social media from the executive’s perspective.  It is an interesting way to calculate the social media quotient at your company.   Qualman takes these lessons away from DemingHill’s (excellent but longer) post on why senior execs often don’t like social media:

1. Lack of understanding = fear. The rapid rate of change in digital innovation has caused CEOs to feel extremely vulnerable around technology.
2.  I want control. I want to control my company! I want to control my brand! I want to determine my destiny! It’s too important to leave it to chance (or simply be outvoted by the uninformed bourgeois)!
3. Fear that it’s a fad. The truth is, I would love to commit to social media in a significant way, but so far nobody in my organization has stepped forward with a cerebral, strategic, multigenerational, integrated, systematic, and sustainable methodology and roadmap for synergistically capitalizing on this medium over the long haul.

So why should executives get behind the momentum of social media efforts in their marketing mix?  The authors suggest a few good reasons that include:  unfiltered feedback from the market, authenticity-”keeping it real,” and the fact that it’s a powerful but relatively low-cost marketing approach. 

Check out the posts from the links above and see what you think.

Very useful video compilation of Erik Qualman explaining his theory of Socialnomics(TM) along side relevant social media statistics.  Beware: upon watching it, you will feel behind the curve!  Thanks to my friends at 7Summits for the suggestion.