The Social CEO

Businesses from small to large are using social media to accomplish their business goals. Not every business which is active in social media has CEO who appreciates, understands, and leverages social media.

For many organizations, the CEO is the face of the company. Social media is a natural extension of the duties of a CEO. While the physical form of social media is relatively new (from a business perspective), there isn't anything new about people connecting - which is the role of a CEO.

There are CEOs all over the world who have realized the potential of social media and taken the plunge. According to Adweek, 79% of Inc 500 CEOs have a presence on at least one social media site. We don't have to look internationally to find great examples of Social CEOs, we have some great examples right here in Alberta. I had the opportunity to chat with Dave Mowat, CEO of ATB Financial. We discussed the importance of social media to CEOs. What became very clear was Dave's appreciation and passion for the opportunities social media provided him to connect with others.

Why social media?

According to Dave, you need good communication to run an organization. When Dave first jumped into social media, he didn't have a sense of the magnitude it would become, but realized it was a great listening post. One of the goals a CEO should have with social media is the opportunity to identify issues and get to the source of the issues and fix things quickly. For ATB Financial, they see this as a huge opportunity to make fans. As my social media marketing idol, Scott Stratten has said, "when organizations screw-up, it's not a fire to put out, but a chance to be awesome."

According to Adweek, some of the other benefits of social media that CEOs have realized, in addition to being a great listening tool include:

• Improved brand image
• More transparency
• Improved company morale
• Better leadership

How to encourage social media use in an organization

Another responsibility of a CEO is to empower and encourage social media use within their organization. This can be done through crafting the right policies, providing incentives, training, setting an example, and more.

Don't discourage or act as a stumbling block to innovative social media ideas. One of the best pieces of advice from Dave about how to build social media use in an organization is the following:

The biggest thing is that we don't restrict sites within the organization. We don't discourage people.

Rather than saying no to unofficial accounts or social media ideas, develop a code of ethics to guide the process. Social media is a medium that can be quickly corrected.

Advice to new CEOs starting with social media

Social media can be challenging and frightening to a CEO who is considering representing their company on social media for the first time.

Don't let this concern scare you off. The benefits far outweigh the risks.

When first getting started, you need to listen. Dave suggests that the most boring people on social media are the ones just out there pounding content out. They are not listening to the conversations of their followers and customers. When anyone does this, the chance people will the content interesting is really low. Dave's advice for the type of content to share is this:

Find ways to link content to something that is interesting. When you strike a chord of interest, you'll get more followers.

He gave the example of young people complaining about holds on their account and how this topic provides an opportunity to share great content. You need to listen to know what your audience really cares about.

The other advice that Dave offers new CEOs on social media is to have personality. Don't hide your personality because you have to remain "corporate". If you're going to be active, show your personality. Hiding your personality makes your presence feel unnatural. Your social media presence should become an extension of you - people should be able to visualize you saying the content that you share.

Dave practices what he preaches. If you check out his Twitter account (@dmowat_atb), you'll see his personality. You'll see that he is listening to his audience and sharing content that his audience cares about. You can see this because of his engagement rate. People are liking, retweeting, and commenting on his content. Dave gets it. Do you?

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