Should your CEO get more social?
If you’re a CEO—or you’re advising one—you’re probably more than tired of hearing how important it is to have “a social CEO.” The numbers are clear—only a minority of Fortune 500 CEOs are on even LinkedIn, much less Twitter or a blog. (Check out Domo and CEO.com’s Social CEO Infographic.)
Looking into the trend for 2014, CEOs who are willing to curate a bit of their own original content will discover obvious advantages that won’t necessarily be apparent in the raw numbers of followers.
Some of the benefits are still big though:
- It’s easier for journalists to find you
- Your company’s culture is more in the foreground
- Your younger employees find you more relatable
Social media presence grants a CEO a public voice to share ideas, promote a point of view, and showcase the human side of the business.
The CEO’s natural “celebrity” status is an opportunity that benefits not only her, but also her company. It’s not a strategy for all personalities. However, if your company has a CEO that’s open to spending a few moments a day of wait time sending a tweet or voice-dictating a blog, your whole company gets a lot of benefits:
1) More top of mind awareness
2) More advantage from the CEO’s network
3) More engagement with your customers and prospective employees
LinkedIn figures for Fortune 500 CEOs
One word of caution on this b2b PR and marketing trend—it’s a quality- not a quantity- strategy. When Warren Buffett got a Twitter account, he got thousands of followers a minute. That sets a pretty high bar. Don’t let ego get in the way of a great content distribution avenue for your brand. A recent study by CEO.com says that 30% of CEOs on Twitter have fake followers, which can make it look like your counterparts are “doing great” when it’s all really fluff. We’ve found when the average B2B CEO takes to social, followers come slowly while the content stream is often read—so set expectations.
TIP: Want to start super slow and simple? Install Buffer App, for your CEO and configure it for LinkedIn and Twitter. Ask her to use the web browser button to share content publicly when she reads a great article.
Read the previous b2b public relations trend we covered for 2014, on optimizing for voice search.
Read the second most critical b2b marketing and public relations trend–about what’s happening with webinars next year.