With the exception of LinkedIn, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are participating in social media networks significantly less than the rest of us. CEO.com and Brandfog conducted surveys and looked at how many CEOs were actually using social media and what kind of influence they had. Their findings are startling.
- 19 CEOs from Fortune 500 companies (3.8% - up from 3.4% in 2011) have registered for Twitter
- 4 CEOs (less than 1%) have Twitter-verified accounts
- 3 CEOs have joined Twitter in the last year (Rupert Murdoch, Rory Read & Mike Mikan)
- The average number of followers for CEOs is 33,250
- Rupert Murdoch is the most active CEO averaging 2 tweets per day and Warren Buffet is the least active CEO with an average of .00085 tweets per day
- 38 CEOs (7.6%) from Fortune 500 companies are on Facebook as compared to over 50% of Americans who are on Facebook
- 25 CEOs (65.8% of the CEOs on Facebook) have less than 100 friends
- 11 CEOs (28.9% of the CEOs on Facebook) have between 100-500 friends
- 2 CEOs (5.3% of the CEOs on Facebook) have more than 500 friends
- Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation, has the most friends of any CEO with 1,723
- 129 CEOs from Fortune 500 companies (25.9%) have LinkedIn profiles
- 32 CEOs (24.8% of CEOs on LinkedIn) are not updated with current company or title
- 76 CEOs (58.9% of CEOs on LinkedIn) have more than 10 connections and 10 CEOs (7.8%) have more than 500 connections
- 53 CEOs (41.1% of CEOs on LinkedIn) have 10 connections or less and 36 CEOs (27.9%) have 1 or 0 connections
Google+
- 4 CEOs from Fortune 500 companies (.8% of CEOs) are on Google+
- Larry Page (Google) comes out of top and is found in more than 2.7 million circles
Blogs
- 6 CEOs from Fortune 500 companies (1.2%) contribute to a blog
- 1 CEO, John Mackey (Whole Foods) maintains his own blog
Since the majority of a Fortune 500 Company's customers are involved in social media, one might think this would be a beneficial place for a CEO to hang out. Additionally, surveys tell us that employees of Fortune 500 companies believe CEOs should be social:
- 78% of those surveyed believe a social CEO will increase business purchases
- 78% of those surveyed want to work for a social CEO
- 81% of those surveyed believe social CEOs are better leaders
- 82% of those surveyed social believe CEOs are more trustworthy
- 93% of those surveyed believe social CEOs are better equipped for crisis management
- 94% of those surveyed believe social CEOs will enhance the company's brand
In a separate survey, IBM tells us 16% of all CEOs in the U.S are communicating with consumers via social media and that number should increase to 57% within 5 years.
Conclusion
What does all this mean? CEOs of Fortune 500 companies need to engage in social media in their personal lives if they want to grow their companies. Customers and employees are looking to engage with these CEOs and it is incumbent on them to do so in order to build trust, loyalty and brand awareness.
What do you think? Are you more likely to purchase a product from a company if their CEO is engaged in social media?
It is really impressive when a CEO takes the time to reach out to you. It’s little things like that that really do leave an impression and leads to not only more sales, but a long time fan who will stick with that company forever.
That’s the point! People are impressed when a CEO takes the time to personally engage. More should do it.
Some realize that it is a REVOLUTION in business communications. The businesses and leaders that take it on – that own it – will take on a role that will be difficult to unseat by competitors.
You are correct in that. More CEOs need to understand this.
This is a new day and CEOs are leading their businesses in a new digital age.
Right you are!
In working with CEOs and corporate directors, I encourage everyone to enable their business to have a Social CEO.
Excellent advice!
We do see many companies investing considerable resources in order to participate in social media.
Yes, but is the CEO of the company personally interacting with customers of the company? That seems to be what the customers are hoping for in some cases.
I think that CEOs need to be active in terms of understanding and ensuring their business is integrating the tools, but they don’t need to be actively participating themselves
Interesting point of view. If they aren’t personally active in some way, don’t they appear detached and hard to reach? Maybe customers will not like this.
If CEOs don’t participate in social media, how will they ensure that their business integrates these new forms of communication? CEOs must lead by example. They don’t need to be consumed by social media to the exclusion of core leadership activities, but they do need to participate.
I couldn’t agree more! Thanks for the comment!