Businesses can no longer afford to have top leaders sit on the social media sidelines, a new study finds.
More than three-quarters of executives worldwide believe it is a good
idea for CEOs to participate in social media, the research from public
relations firm
Weber Shandwick and research partner
KRC Research found.
The study identified a wide array of benefits that come with top
executives who are socially active online. More than 70% of those
surveyed said CEO sociability increases information-sharing throughout
the business, improves company reputation, demonstrates innovation,
humanizes the company and improves business results.
"CEOs are now expected to be chief content providers for their
companies," said Leslie Gaines-Ross, Weber Shandwick's chief reputation
strategist. "Social media is not only an efficient and engaging way to
relay information but is also linked in executives' minds with being a
better leader."
The research revealed that CEOs who aren't using
social media
aren't necessarily being antisocial. Half of CEOs who don't participate
in social media are already communicating with employees through
company intranets, while more than 60% make themselves visible to
external constituents on their
company websites.
"CEOs must strategically utilize the right digital platforms that
advance their communications — ranging from their own intranet and
website to social network pages and feeds to video and image-sharing
platforms," said Chris Perry, global president of Weber Shandwick's
digital practice.
As part of the study, researchers developed a profile of the most highly social CEOs, which includes these elements:
- Use an expansive set of social tools: Hyper-social CEOs
realizesociability goes beyond dropping messages into a Twitter or other
microblog feed. World-class sociability requires a strategically
crafted plan for driving the company's content across several channels.
- Keep a blog: Highly social CEOs see the value in long-form
content creation as a way of giving their perspectives context, meaning
and depth.
- Leverage the website: These leaders realize that the website
remains "digital ground zero" for company information-seekers and offers
a platform for content to be delivered in multiple formats.
- Self-author: By taking a DIY approach. Their frequent postings
influence their determination to author everything themselves, although
they probably take input from their marketing and communications
executives.
- Be forward-looking: These CEOs intuitively understand that
technology and social media are the future of content distribution and
they want to be part of this communications revolution.
- Be spontaneous yet not too informal: Socially adept CEOs maintain
the formality of their office but let stakeholders know that they can
react quickly and seize opportunity.
- Engage stakeholders. These CEOs see the value in sociability and use it to reach out to a wide portfolio of stakeholders.
The study was based on surveys of 630 business professionals in 10
countries across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
Photo: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. Image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
