Beware The Overly Self-Promotional CMO
CMO is a tough job.?The half-life is short.?The pressure is high.?And the job often is so multi-faceted.?A CMO has to:
It’s a big job.?And part of being a good marketer is … well, marketing yourself.
Many of the top CMOs are out there are always marketing.?Both their company and many times, themselves.
And that’s good.?Having a CMO that is present, that is visible, is great for recruiting and much more.?I’ve just observed one thing:??CMOs that spend?too much time marketing?themselves generally fail.
Why??Because it’s too easy.?It’s too easy to slip into podcasts, into articles, into videos that are as much or more about the CMO than the company.??It’s easy to fall into this trap in a job and role that is in large part itself promotional.
And that just doesn’t ever seem to leave enough time left to truly do the rest of the job.?The real job.
领英推荐
So my only advice is just this: when the time comes to hire a CMO, take a look at their LinkedIn, their Twitter profile, their blog posts.?Is at least 50% of what they are promoting … their company — or themselves??If the former, go forward.?But if the majority of their promotions are themselves, and not their companies, I’d pass.
They may know the full playbook.?But too much of it will be about putting themselves up in the limelight.?And not enough about the company.
And also be aware that many people will love the overly self-promotional CMO.?Your board will almost certainly love them.?The rest of the team may love them.?They are, after all, highly practiced at self-promotion.?And often quite charismatic.?But it’s your job as CEO to make sure the majority of that energy benefits the company.
--
Want to hear more advice like this? Maybe even meet your next CMO? Join us in San Mateo for SaaStr Annual 2022.
Networking, masterclasses, and workshops to help you go further.
Content Strategy Evangelist | Co-Host of Coffee and Content | Host The Content Wrangler Webinar Series
3 年I don’t think the measure of potential CMO success should be tied to what they post on social media. First, you make a huge assumption that CMOs use their personal LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. accounts to pump the brand of the company for which they work. A casual look at social accounts reveals that CMOs are like everyone else — they use social how they want to, sometimes preferring to share less marketing content and more about their areas of interest. I get the point you are attempting to make, but your advice is flimsy, and, if followed, has little chance of improving the quality of a CMO hire. Come on, you can provide better advice than that.