V8.45: Become A Social CEO

Welcome to the technological age, where Tweets are not just the sound a bird makes and Facebook is not some book with a lot of faces displayed, but an entire community of people. It seems like we’ve all jumped on the social networking bandwagon, right? WRONG! Apparently, only about one in every five CEO’s even have a social media account.

I read a great article from Hubspot about how important social sites are in regards to your CEO. It seems that many higher up executives, including the CEO, have been MIA in the social networking universe. This can be truly detrimental to your company. The article mentioned something that really stuck with me. “The truth is, CEO’s can’t afford to ignore social media. Not in today’s world.”

As the face of the company, it is the chief executive officer’s job to build up their reputation, even if only to boost the company’s reputation. I’ve talked before about how inbound marketing helps build up brand recognition and trust. Why should it be any different for the head of the company? I understand that we’re all very busy, but it is absolutely vital to show our customers and our potential customers that we are trustworthy and dependable. It is our job as the representative of the business to promote our best selves.

Brandfog’s 2014 Global Social CEO Survey  came up with three great reasons why CEO’s that utilize social sites are our future.

1. “Social CEO’s Make Better Leaders” It has been proven that executives that participate in social sites actually increase leadership skills from 45% to 75%.
2. “Social CEO Engagement Leads to Brand Trust” I started talking about this already, but it is still true. People want to trust the businesses they buy products from. As a CEO, it is your job as the face of the company to build up a good public presence, one that is trustworthy.
3. “Social Media is Modern PR” I talked about PR in a previous blog. Inbound marketing is the new Public Relations. CEO’s that utilize their social media are really just creating good PR for the company.

So, you see how important social media is for everyone? No one is exempt from the necessity of social networking, not even the CEO. It is probably more important for the chief to engage in the online world.