I don’t think I’ve told you this before, but I am a big fan of Brian Solis. He is a well-known thought leader in the area of social media, communications, technology and business and I have so far learned a lot from him. I follow his blog and I’ve also read all of his books, apart from the latest one, which is on my reading list. I have quoted him a few times in previous posts, but now I thought I’d share with you my favourite Brian Solis quotes.

Here we go:

"Social media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism, one-to-many, to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers."

"Social media is less about technology and more about anthropology, sociology, and ethnography."

Yesterday I came across Stephen Waddington’s blog post introducing the findings of the 2013 Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor (KLCM) and I found them quite interesting and worthwhile discussing, so I decided to share them. (Oh and by the way, Brandzeichen (the agency I work at) is now officially part of the Ketchum network).

Some background first: the annual research explored the perceptions of 6,000 people in 12 countries on five continents “regarding effective leadership, effective communication and the intrinsic link between the two.”

Here’s what got my attention:

• Only 24% of people around the globe believe leaders overall are providing effective leadership.
• Last year astonishing 60% of people boycotted or bought less from a company due to poor leadership behavior.
• For the second year in a row open, transparent communication is the No. 1 characteristic of an effective leader.
• However, 29% point a gap between expectation and delivery on communicating in an open and transparent way and only 16% believe leaders are effective communicators.
• In the rank of credible information sources on a company employees are at the top, CEOs are placed sixth.

One of the main reasons why businesses are still ‘scared’ to jump on the bandwagon and put themselves out there on social media platforms is because of the potential criticism and negative comments they might receive from users. Indeed, such negative reviews can be damaging to a company’s reputation, but hiding behind the scenes is no good either – these conversations are happening with or without the company’s involvement, so businesses might as well start participating in them to potentially change people’s minds, gather ideas how to improve their products and services and so drive the conversations into a positive direction.

Similar applies to negative media coverage. A new academic study coming from the US, Burr Under the Saddle: How Media Coverage Influences Strategic Change (registration required), shows that even though negative press is unpleasant and especially unwelcome by the C-suite, it can also influence strategic decisions to make significant company improvements. As the authors of the paper identify, “the media is neither an enemy nor an ally to upper management... but one of a number of key stakeholders that can significantly shift a firm’s direction, often for the better.”

For centuries men and women (have) had very distinct roles in society and business: men were the ones supposed to make money, women were the ones supposed to take care of the children and the household. Such sexual stereotypes have guided the course of society and even today in some cases (and countries and cultures) they still do.

But things have changed. Women are now able to pursue the same career opportunities as men, however when it comes to the workplace it is more than apparent that even if women are just as capable as men doing the very same job they do not reach the leadership positions.

Some may call such inequality in the boardroom total discrimination and injustice, rooted in misconceptions and prejudices passed down over generations where women are seen as week and sensitive.

It is very difficult to dig into the reasons why there are a lot less women in leadership positions than men. It is a fact, however, that there exist serious gender inequities and massive pay gaps between sexes. According to research, women hold only 14 percent of the board seats at S&P 1500 companies. Female graduates in the same job positions earn a lot less than their male counterparts despite laws designed to ensure equal access to careers and pay.

But why?

Less than one in five of the general public believes that business leaders and government officials will make ethical and moral decisions. This was one of the main findings of this year’s Edelman Trust Barometer – the 13^th annual trust and credibility survey by one of the leading public relations consultancies in the world Edelman.

With 31,000 respondents in 26 countries, the study found that in general there are significantly lower levels of trust in business and governments and the traditional authority figures such as CEOs or prime ministers, but also in the media. According to Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman, what we are seeing today is “a crisis of leadership”.

50% of respondents said they trusted businesses to do what’s right, however only 18% believed that business leaders will tell them the truth in a difficult situation, suggesting that trust in leaders’ ethics and morality are very low. This massive gap between trust in business and trust in business leaders is an indication that the general public is much less confident in chief executives, but rather in company employees.

On the other hand, academics, technical experts and a person like yourself are nearly twice as trusted as a chief executives or government officials.