Socially thankful CEOs

Spending some time investigating non-tech CEOs who are socially-inclined is critical to demonstrating to the average CEO that social can expand their horizons and provide opportunities to connect with employees, customers and other key stakeholders. In our study on social CEOs, 76% of employees — from diverse industries — say they want their CEOs to be social. The question on CEOs’ minds is that so what am I going to talk about online? It requires a more conversational and human tone than a typical memo.

A recent article on hootsuite by Evan LePage looked at five non-tech CEOs’ social content and what they tend to share:

1. Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin, @RichardBranson:  Let’s admit it. There is no other more social CEO. There’s a very good reason he is on every single social CEO list. In his social media, “He shares that life through social media and followers join him on his journey, all the while being exposed to Virgin and its products and services.”
2. James Caan, CEO and founder of Hamilton Bradshaw (private equity), @JamesCaan: This CEO who is very active on LinkedIn and Twitter provides business advice that add value to entrepreneurs and companies. Worth following.
3. Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra Group, @anandmahindra: His tweets contain news about his company, inspirational quotes as well as his insights about American politics and other topical items. As LePage says, he posts engaging and useful content. His social presence undoubtedly helps raise awareness for his company’s reputation and he’s “all in.”
4. Doug Conant, chairman of the Avon board of directors and former CEO of Campbell Soup and now head of Northwestern’s Kellogg Executive Leadership Institute, @DougConant: An active tweeter who is encouraging other executives to join the social revolution. And he does not keep it limited to just business in what he shares. A very human leader. I’ve written about his handwritten notes on my other blog, reputationXchange.com
5. Peter Aceto, CEO of ING Direct, @CEO_INGDirect: He has been very active in social media, going way back. He has added personality, verve and humanity to ING Direct. In fact, I always recall how he joined a Twitter Dialogue we had years back on why CEOs should be social. He is omnipresent and a good one to emulate if you are trying social for the first time.

However, what I liked best about the article were the comments. Several of these CEOs posted on the site thanking LePage for the article and mentioning them. Talk about reaching out and connecting. I just thought it was proof positive that these CEOs do live and lead socially.

Dinosaurs need not apply

Thought this was an interesting way to find a social CEO. Lyle & Scott decided to go all out with social media to find someone with the right mix of tech saviness and hipster-ness. Instead of banking on the usual executive recruiter process, they decided to use Twitter (#nextgreatleader) and build a microsite to attract the next fashion brand leader in Britain.

As stated in the article where I first learned about this clever recruitment strategy for nabbing a social CEO, they recommend the microsite because it is well-branded with a strong design, incorporating of the brand history , what it akes to be a leader, and how to apply. As the site says, “This is a great opportunity for the future of Lyle & Scott and we are excited about the prospect of having fresh energy leading us into our next chapter.”

“Sue Watson, owner of Lyle & Scott, wants a modern tech-aware retail CEO who is social media literate. By conducting the search using social media, we automatically select out the dinosaurs.”

Hopefully they will attract the right social media savvy and Indie type CEO for the position. Dinosaurs need not apply.

Employees as Foot Soldiers

  I was reading an interview with Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of Mashable. In regard to social media, he says that “Then there are some companies that are so risk-averse, they don’t give their employees the tools to be foot soldiers for their brands.” This makes common sense but too often, employees need more than just the tools. For many companies, CEOs also have to give employees the permission or bandwidth to use social media in the way it was intended to be utilized — interacting two-way with customers or others and having a conversation. If employees are given access to the Internet during the day, they are not likely to help spread the word of your “good brand” or defend your “good brand” as foot soldiers unless they know that they can speak up (within reason). The challenge is how do you give employees the tools but also the training in how to use social media tools responsibly. I often wonder how many companies actually provide social media training and a review of social media policies and guidelines on Orientation Day. Instead of waiting for an employee to make a mistake online, how about explaining the guardrails on Day One. Maybe a video would be a good idea. Until that happens, you will have a passive army of foot soldiers that won’t do your brand good when you need it most.

CEOs drive digital success and failure

CEOs are bullish on digital, so says McKinsey. The five digital trends that McKinsey explored among global executives are: big data and advanced analytics, digital engagement of customers, digital engagement of employees and external partners, automation, and digital innovation. Although executives realize that progress is being made digital-wise, there’s clearly more to get done. CEOs say that their companies are one-quarter the way toward their digital end goal. A realistic assessment.

Executives report making the most progress in customer engagement and less progress on using digital means to engage employees. Although senior executives use online tools for employee evaluations and that type of feedback, the research says that companies need to boost their digital acuity in areas such as collaborative product design and knowledge sharing across the supply chain. WHen it comes to “big data,” companies are using these new types of analytics to grow their businesses. There’s still more room for growth.

When it comes to CEOs themselves (where I am particularly interested), it is again made clear how important it is to get the CEO’s buy-in to embed digital within the organization. The good news is that progress is being made. Compared to one year ago when 23% of executives said their CEOs were personally engaged in their digital initiatives, 31% are doing so now. This is critical because as McKinsey says, “…the CEO is the only executive who has the mandate and ability to drive such a cross-cutting program.” Isn’t this always the case for everything? McKinsey continues to underscore this point. When it comes to success or failure, the research says that executives most often attribute the success of digital programs to managerial factors — senior management’s interest and attention, internal leadership, good program management, and alignment between organizational structure and goals. And much less to any technicalconsiderations. “Interestingly, the absence of senior-management interest is the factor respondents most often identify as contributing to an initiative’s failure.”

CEOs must be on board to make digital work for them in growing their business. A fairly large 65% say that they expect digital investment to increase their companies’ operating income over the next three years and another 40% say their organizations’ digital efforts have already yielded a measurable business impact. The ROI is clear and especially if leadership is plugged in.

Stats to be social by…

   Here are some reasons why CEOs should consider social media. Pretty compelling. I found these (see below) in an article on socialmediatoday. The writer also references a McKinsey study that found that social technologies across four sectors they studied could potentially contribute $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in annual value. If a CEO is “social” and sets an example through his or her use of social media, just imagine how much value they could spark. As I said, compelling. The world is social, time to join!
1.1 Billion Users – 20% have bought something because of ads seen on Facebook

500 Million Users – 67% are more likely to buy from brands they follow

359 Million Users – using the ‘+1’ button increases page traffic on average by 350%

1 Billion Users – 6 billion hours of video is watched every month

48 Million Users – users spend more time per visit on Pinterest than Facebook

200 Million Users – Average household income is $109,000

It’s a start

I think I saw the future. I found a new list on the most social CEOs in the travel industry. Although this may not be a big deal to many, I think it might just be. Most of the lists of social CEOs include the most social ones we can easily recognize because they appear on many lists when it comes to social influence and most social CEOs. They include Richard Branson, Rupert Murdoch and Marissa Mayer, to name a few. There are always a few surprises but not many, and it is pretty hard for your average Fortune 500 company CEO to compete with some of these well-known brand names. This new list of top travel CEOs on social media might just be the start of industry rankings on social CEOs and a way to build reputation by setting one’s company apart from peers. The fact that one list is underway is an inflection point and a hint at what we can expect in the future. More industry-specific lists will be coming our way as more CEOs take to the social airwaves and transparently engage with customers, employees and others.

It’s the start for sure and I am thrilled to see it. My instincts and the research we’ve done at Weber Shandwick may have added to the wave that’s coming our way.

Top 30 Social CEOs

Here is a good listing of social CEOs that was just issued. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. At first, I thought it was going to be another list that did not add much but who tweeted the most but this listing has something going for it in its methodology. It calls itself the first listing of the top 30 CEOs on social media. I am not sure that is entirely true but who’s arguing. What is different is that they did not just rank CEOs by the number of followers and Tweets or some other metric of raw quantification. What they did was to take into account both quantitative and qualitative measures in their ranking process: “Value added was measured in terms of originality and positive impact on the corporate world, their industry, and application to their own company. We favored CEOs who had actively contributed to the leadership agenda. We reduced their score if it was seen as too obviously self-promoting or if we believe they have no direct involvement in social media content. We favored CEOs who had consistently contributed over time.”

I enjoyed going through the bio and leadership philosophy of each CEO listed as well as recent Tweets. Many of the CEOs in this list appear on all the social media and influence lists I’ve seen but the presentation was easy to flip through and I am always interested in leadership tips and quotes which they provide. They also give a short synopsis on what to expect from the CEOs’ social media ventures — discussion on leadership, personal information, sports, all business, etc. It was a nice mix of social media purpose and how many choices CEOs have to express themselves. In our counsel to CEOs, we always say that you have to know why you are doing it — the social purpose — before engaging in social media. It makes it easier to do if you know why you are doing it.

No surprise that Richard Branson was at the top of the list. What list is he not at the top of when it comes to social media? He has certainly extended his brand in the social media realm. Good for him.

The list was compiled by a new site that is in beta — worldofceos.com. I had never come across it so this was a first time look. The ranking of social CEOs probably has given it a good boost.

Courage is what it takes

In our new social CEO study, we asked executives how much courage it takes for a CEO to paricipate in social media? Personally, I think it takes courage because it is still not the norm and there are risks associated with CEOs going online. If managed properly, however, the risk can be reduced. Overall, 64% of executives on a worldwide basis told us that it took a great deal or a moderate amount of courage (22% vs. 42%, respectively). The remainder said CEOs social media participation required a litle courage or none at all. In North America, 62% said it took courage, 52% in Europe and 77% in Asia Pacific. In Asia Pacific, CEOs being social is more unusual and therefore more courage-intensive. If you have a social CEO, he or she is a member of the lion-hearted.

CEO cyber-stalking more common than you think

One of the more interesting points in our new research on social CEOs was when we asked executives how often they search for their CEOs on the Internet. I have always thought that employees search to see what their CEOs are up to, saying, visiting, posting, not posting, etc. but I was not sure how many actually do. We learned that worldwide, CEO cyber-stalking is fairly common. A fairly large 73% in total say they search for what their CEOs are saying in social media. Probably a good sign that employees even know their CEOs’ names! How do the numbers break out by region? The percentages were highest in China (96%) and Indonesia (83%). Brazil was high (79%) as was Germany (80%). Executives searching for their CEOs online were fairly low by comparison in the U.S. (48%), the U.K. (53%), France (41%), and Australia (38%, the lowest). Japan was as I expected, 60%, in between.

This is a proof point that if CEOs want to get their messages through to their workforce, social media is bound to reach them. I wonder how this compares to how often employees read internal e-mails, memos, etc. The comparison would be telling if employees are skipping over CEO internal communications in traditional formats but checking out what they are saying online when they have the time or just roaming the Internet in off-work time.

I have to confess. I have searched for online for our CEO to see what’s been said. I do the same with competitor CEOs. I am always curious where CEOs in my industry think the discipline is headed. So be it.

CEOs on Twitter

Our new research on social CEOs around the world has received very quite good coverage. I think there is an inherent interest in social CEOs, whether your CEO is social or not. One fact is clear — employees/executives want their CEOs to be social. Over 7 out of 10 told us so. It is the future.

I was delighted to see the blog post in Huffington Post this week by the CMO and Chief Customer Officer of Enterasys Networks, Vala Afshar, on our research although I can’t figure out for the life of me why he did not mention our name, Weber Shandwick. He correctly cited our research but there was no mention of us.

But moving on since I am forever grateful, Afshar provides a list of 50 social CEOs that have been recommended to him or he follows. They are active, engaging and have something meaningful to say. Here is the list below. What intrigued me was that of the 50, only 4 were women. I was disappointed that not more women are tweeting up a storm but because they had to be a CEO, there’s far fewer to pick from. That’s the catch. I thought it might be interesting to look at what these four women are tweeting about.

#19, Charlene Li, Altimeter, @charleneli (In her recent posts, Charlene Li, CEO of a social media/digital consultancy, talks about a webinar she is hosting, her entry of a blue cheese walnut sour dough bread at the San Mateo County Fair, a report by a colleague on the Collaborative Economy, the weather, layoffs at Zynga and how they need to go mobile). Has 85,500 followers.

#24 Wendy S Lea, Get Satisfaction, @wendyslea (In her recent posts as CEO of GetSatisfaction, a customer community management company, Lea refers to articles, thanks a publication for naming her as one of the most influential women in San Francisco, mentions partners, praises people for getting jobs done well). Has 5,000 followers.

#29 Marissa Mayer, Yahoo, @marissamayer (In her recent posts, the CEO of Yahoo, thanks someone for completing a job, talks about the Tumblr acquistion, shows a photo of Pinata cookies for her birthday, invites people to a charter school event and thanks David Pogue for his positive review of Flickr ). She has 349,500 followers.

#39 Michelle Rhee, StudentsFirst, @michellerhee (As CEO of Studentsfirst, a public education reform movement and consultancy, Rhee sends her condolescenses to Santa Monica shooting victims, informs people of where she is speaking about education reform, defends the Chicago public education school system and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, references articles and discussions on public education reform). Has 52,000 followers.

Here is Vala’s list of the top 50 CEOs on Twitter….

1. Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com – Twitter: @benioff
2. Richard Branson, Virgin – Twitter: @richardbranson
3. Bill Gross, IdeaLab – Twitter: @bill_gross
4. Chris Brogan, Human Business Works – Twitter: @chrisbrogan
5. Brian Solis, Altimeter – Twitter: @briansolis
6. Jon Ferrara, Nimble – Twitter: @jon_ferrara
7. Mark Cuban – Twitter: @mcuban
8. Gary Vaynerchuk, Vaynermedia – Twitter: @garyvee
9. Jack Dorsey, Square – Twitter: @jack
10. Aaron Levie, Box – Twitter: @levie
11. Steve Case, Case Foundation – Twitter: @stevecase
12. Ray Wang, Constellation Research – Twitter: @rwang0
13. Roman Stanek, GoodData – Twitter: @romanstanek
14. Peter Cashmore, Mashable – Twitter: @petercashmore
15. Steve Forbes, Forbes – Twitter: @steveforbesceo
16. Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media – Twitter: @timoreilly
17. Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX – Twitter: @elonmusk
18. Brian Halligan, HubSpot – Twitter: @bhalligan
19. Charlene Li, Altimeter – Twitter: @charleneli
20. Donald Trump, Trump Organization – Twitter: @donaldtrump
21. Michael Dell, Dell – Twitter: @michaeldell
22. Peter Aceto, ING Direct – Twitter: @CEO_INGDIRECT
23. Andrew Grill, Kred – Twitter: @andrewgrill
24. Wendy S Lea, Get Satisfaction – Twitter: @wendyslea
25. Bill Gates, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – Twitter: @billgates
26. Shervin Pishevar, Sherpa Foundry – Twitter: @shervin 
27. Micky Arison, Carnival – Twitter: @mickyarison
28. Mark Fidelman, Evolve – Twitter: @markfidelman
29. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo – Twitter: @marissamayer
30. Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation – Twitter: @rupertmurdoch
31. Aneel Bhusri, Workday – Twitter: @aneelb
32. Mark Bertolini, Aetna, – Twitter: @mtbert
33. Kevin Rose, Google Ventures – Twitter: @kevinrose
34. Bryan Kramer, PureMatter – Twitter: @bryankramer
35. Dennis Crowley, Foursquare – Twitter: @dens
36. Dick Costolo, Twitter – Twitter: @dickc
37. David Morin, Path – Twitter: @davidmorin
38. Jeffrey Joerres, Manpower – Twitter: @manpowergroupjj
39. Michelle Rhee, StudentFirst – Twitter: @michellerhee
40. Ryan Holmes, HootSuite – Twitter: @invoker
41. David Karp, Tumblr – Twitter: @davidkarp
42. Drew Houston, Dropbox – Twitter: @drewhouston
43. Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn – Twitter: @jeffweiner
44. Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp – Twitter: @jeremys
45. Daniel Ek, Spotify – Twitter: @eldsjal
46. Gary Knel, NPR – Twitter: @NPRgaryknell
47. Jack Salzwedel, American Family Mutual Insurance Group – Twitter: @amfamjack
48. Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed – Twitter: @peretti
49. Andrew Mason, Former CEO of Groupon – Twitter: @andrewmason
50. Hikmet Ersek, Western Union Company LLC – Twitter: @westernunionCEO