Crucial, of course. Easy enough answer but I thought the New York Times addressed an interesting point this weekend about whether John McCain’s lack of technological expertise would impact his possible role as President. Enough to debate there on the role of the President as a “visionary” versus a “manager” but let’s take it down a notch.

What about CEOs and similar top end corporate leaders? What about Executive Directors at nonprofits?

Is it necessary that these individuals understand the intricacies of Twitter or impact of running a solid blog? My vote says the more knowledge about social media and the importance of networking, the better.

All communication trends point toward social media continuing to flourish as an important component of any communications department. The more knowledge a CEO has about social media, the more impact a company can have with full buy-in from the leadership level on down to each and every employee.

Chris Brogan has identified 12 Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss. Obviously there will always be a need for convincing management (to some degree) of the utility behind social media but I’ll be curious to look back in a year and examine how much less of a “sell” this becomes.

Cheers,
Scott