It’s Official CEOs are social media slackers

Here’s an interesting survey conducted by UBERCEO. It looked at the US Fortune’s 2009 list of the top 100 CEOs to determine how many were using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia or used a blog. 

The survey results clearly place CEO’s in the laggard’s basket with very few engaging in any social media communities or activities. It’s not a surprise, but it does make you wonder about the future of some companies.

Below is the published summary of UBERCEO’s survey:

  • Only two CEOs have Twitter accounts
  • 13 CEOs have LinkedIn profiles, and of those only three have more than 10 connections.
  • 81% of CEOs don’t have a personal Facebook page
  • Three quarters of the CEOs have some kind of Wikipedia entry, but nearly a third of those have limited or outdated information
  • Not one Fortune 100 CEO has a blog

So what’s the problem?

Surely, the uber over paid CEO’s are expected to join the conversation so they can understand the possible opportunities or threats of social media.  In my experience, CEO’s or anyone else for that matter cannot obtain a real understanding of the social media culture by throwing money at creating a social media team. Even recruiting the best people for the job won’t give you that insight.

Social media has to begin with the company’s top executives. If they don’t, how can the social media culture of trust, openness and collaboration be accepted or implemented by the rest of the company?

I have to agree with UBERCEO when they say CEO’s are DISTANT, DISINTERESTED & DISENGAGED. I would like to add ANTISOCIAL, BIASED & CONSERVATIVE living in a closed world with no connection with their customers.

“By not being as connected as their employees, customers, partners and shareholders, they are missing great opportunities to reach their target audience and positively affect their company perception” UBERCEO

If you’d like to see the rest of UberCEO’s survey…

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Posted under Digital Media   | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “It’s Official CEOs are social media slackers”

  1. Uberman Says:
    July 4th, 2009 at 4:18 pm

    very interesting…I must take a look.

  2. pete Says:
    July 8th, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    Social media is only of interest to teenagers, wanpreneurs, marketing people and a few other special interest groups made up of little people.

    CEOs do not need/use fads like Twitter because a) they are getting shown up for what they actually are: uncontrolled, voluminous unedited drivel, and b) have temporary novelty value only.

    The recent Iran elections showed us the pointlessness of Twitter – any worthwhile news was drowned out by self-important, middle-class Americans feeling ’sympathy’ or ‘empathy’ or something. What bandwidth was left was controlled by fake state security service accounts telling us everything was OK.

    Here’s some futurolgy you marketers might be better jumping onto: Twitters days are numbered, as were Facebook’s and before that mySpace. Nothing replaces ‘real’ stuff.

    Re CEOs: Big people like these guys report to boards, analysts, shareholders, staff, and the media through human interaction and cold hard numbers.

    They do all this without gimmicks like Twitter.

    ps. I find our PM’s presence on twitter slightly embarrassing actually. He’s meant to be a statesman for godsake, things like the fact he attended the Buderim ginger festival doesn’t make him look more human, just silly for telling us.

  3. pete Says:
    July 8th, 2009 at 7:33 pm

    ps. Personal blogs from big people are a similarly ridiculous idea. I don’t invest in shares, or work for a company or sell to a company wanting to know about their favourite garden plants. As for strategy etc. social media is not the right channel. It’s just too light-on discipline wise to impart worthwhile information. I’m not arguing CEO’s are overpaid, and (in light of the recession) hopeless, just that social media is not very important.

  4. Gordon Says:
    July 12th, 2009 at 9:48 pm

    @Pete what is exciting marketers about social media is the ability to engage communities, hold conversations with people and collaborate with people, rather than mass marketing.

    You have a right to your views and so do I. As marketer I think you are wrong and so are those CEO’s, COO’s, CIO’s & CFO’s who don’t try the new or resist change.

    Its all about trust and people trust other people they can speak to…not faceless people who are behind closed doors.

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