To go social or not to go social. That is the vexing question for CEOs today, the vast majority of who have answered a resounding “No.”
CEO.com released a study recently, titled 2012 CEO.com Social CEO Report, in which they conducted a thorough analysis of the social media presence of all of the Fortune 500 CEOs. Their findings were rather startling, considering the benefits for connecting with customers, shareholders, journalists, and others through online social platforms. The following are some excerpts from their report.
While 19 CEOs, or 3.8%, are registered for Twitter accounts, only 4 CEOs, or 1% have verified accounts, and only 9 CEOs, or 1.8% are considered active on their accounts (meaning they tweeted in the past 100 days). The average amount of followers for CEOs is 33,250. Comparatively, 107 million Americans, or 34.3% of the US population are registered on Twitter. Among the notable CEOs on Twitter are Rupert Murdoch, who joined a year ago, and Meg Whitman, and Warren Buffett, who are the longest-tenured among CEOs in the twitterverse.
There are 38 CEOs, or (7.6%) on Facebook. Among them, 25 CEOs, or 65.8% of those on Facebook, have less than 100 friends, 11 CEOs (28.9% of them) have between 100-500 friends, only 2 CEOs (5.3% of them) have more than 500 friends, and 36 CEOs (27.9% of them) have 1 or 0 connections. Comparatively, 157,348,340 Americans, or 50.5% of the US population, are on Facebook.
The CEO.com study shows that 129 CEOs, or 25.9%, have LinkedIn profiles. Of those, 32 CEOs (24.8% of CEOs on LinkedIn) are not updated with a current company or title, 76 CEOs (58.9% of them) have more than 10 connections, 10 CEOs (7.8% of them) have more than 500 connections, and 53 CEOs (41.1% of them) have 10 connections or less. Comparatively, 62,790,000 Americans, or 20.2% of the US population have LinkedIn profiles.
Clearly fear of the downside has created an environment of avoidance to engage social media for today’s Fortune 500 CEOs. There certainly have been enough instances reported where someone lost their job because they inadvertently tweeted something offensive or false.
A Wall Street Journal article, 140 Characters of Risk: Some CEOs Fear Twitter, acknowledges the risks and concerns about CEOs venturing into the social media universe with the following:
Chief executives are under pressure these days to appear accessible and "authentic," but social media—with its demands for quick, unscripted updates that can quickly go viral—poses risks for top managers and the companies they represent, in the form of lawsuits, leaked trade secrets or angered customers.
Nonetheless, the CEO.com study concludes that the benefits outweigh the risks:
So while the majority of CEOs have yet to pick up the pace in their personal social media efforts, it seems those who do will be better equipped to successfully grow their companies. And with both employees and consumers clamoring for connection and clarity, CEOs who commit themselves to social media are more likely to be rewarded with better engagement and loyalty at every level.
Everyone understands the demands on the time of a major CEO, of course. Constituents and stakeholders of any business though want to see the human side of a company and its leadership.
Therefore, the best approach for any company is to build a small communications team around the CEO who will own the responsibility to engage audiences on social platforms through dedicated social accounts registered for the CEO in a structured way, but in a way that includes the CEO in the process enough so that his personality comes through.
Outsourcing social media for a brand can be risky business as noted in a blog posting from ragan.com, When—if ever—should a brand outsource tweets?. It is very important to note that social media account management for a CEO should never been outsourced. It has to be organic in order to be successful.
The business case for putting a CEO out front on social will grow more and more over time as sales and positive media exposure are increasingly tied to social media platforms.
So now is the time for companies to ease their leadership in to the waters of social media in a way that reduces the risks of mistakes but enables followers online to hear directly from corporate leaders themselves, and for the opportunity for business growth to be realized through every possible channel, even those that have not fully formed or matured yet, but will likely do so in the future.
Photo credit: CEO.com
