I WAS recently in Kuala Lumpur having breakfast with four senior-level executives and their social media teams from Asia's leading financial institutions. We were discussing how the C-suite can use social media and thought leadership as a tool for brand building, and I was curious to know what pain points they had while implementing social strategies.

Surprisingly, the barriers were unanimous: Fear and anxiety.

Prior to working at Hootsuite, I spent seven years as a consultant at PwC before working with a number of burgeoning tech firms. I then transitioned to the world of start-up, then enterprise, followed by IBM, before becoming an executive coach with one of the global leaders in Leadership Consulting. I was fortunate enough to speak to CEOs who were under tremendous pressure to simultaneously drive growth and inspire a vision for their employees and customers. Today, social media has only increased this pressure. The on-demand culture requires more transparency and quicker responses than ever from brands and leaders focused on customer experience.