Who are the business leaders with the best B2B social media skills??

Being the head of a company is more than just about being a leader and making sound business decisions. You are the face of the company’s brand and often seen as the personification of the corporation. If something goes wrong, you’re the first one that comes to mind, and you are looked at for explanations and solutions.

So it only makes sense that business leaders have a great personal brand and the PR skills to match. Here’s my list of the top 5 business leaders who have proven to be PR mavens, and what makes them so popular and influential.

Sir Richard Branson

Founder of Virgin Group, it’s no surprise that Richard Branson is on this list. Businessman, investor and philanthropist, he’s known as the man that “walks the talk”. If he makes a bet and loses, he carries it through, and if he believes in a cause or charity, you can be sure he’s up front and centre, donating almost half his fortune to it.

But he’s not just all fun and personable, he’s known for his leadership too. Virgin’s success and profit margins aside, his LinkedIn profile has amassed 8.3 million followers. This is more than Google, Apple and Microsoft have combined. he is the most followed business leader on LinkedIn.

Branson's page is peppered with podcasts, leadership quotes, his ethos in regards to work, creativity and more, all of which people somehow find relatable and insightful. And let’s not forget, he’s also literally reached for the stars with Virgin Galactic, and bounced back like zero gravity despite his rocket dreams seemingly crashing and burning.

His PR profile strength is in showing that you CAN be both a likable person, and still have your opinions taken seriously as an industry leader, despite putting on a dress and makeup for the world to see. With over 400 companies under the Virgin Group and almost no signs of slowing down, Sir Richard Branson’s business bravado has garnered him a business rockstar status.

James Caan CBE

Entrepreneur and investor James Caan is probably most well-known for his TV appearance as an investor on the hugely popular BBC show – Dragon’s Den. Similar to the US’ Shark Tank premise – where people pitch business ideas to receive funding – Caan played a Dragon from 2007 to 2010. But don’t be fooled by this “Dragon;” his charity work has seen him working closely with Children in Need. Through this, they filmed a youth version of Dragon’s Den.

Caan is also known for being a serial investor, as he truly believes in helping to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit, and is always on the lookout to help SMEs, charities and the “next big thing.” From hosting CNBC’s “Business Class,” to launching the “James Caan Business Secrets” mobile app and the “Start Up Loans” Initiative, the man really knows how to put money where his mouth is. And of course, as a serial entrepreneur, he’s also known for his many recruitment portals and brands, such as Alexander Maan (since sold) and HBRIDA.

His PR accolades include being a LinkedIn Influencer, with over 2.38 million followers, making him the 7th most followed profile on LinkedIn. He’s even surpassed U.S. President Barack Obama (by about 400,000 more). He also joins the likes of Steve Jobs as a fellow “never do well” in school.

Arne Sorenson

The President and CEO of Marriott International, Arne Sorenson is the first non-Marriot to head the hotel empire, which comprises of 4,087 properties in over 80 countries and territories globally. And it’s safe to say that several of these are thanks to Sorenson, who over the past 3 years of his career (and still going strong) managed to raise the company’s stock, and add tens of thousands of rooms worldwide annually, putting it on pace to pass 1 million rooms open in 2015.

It’s no wonder that Sorenson managed to breakthrough a “family-owned-and-run” empire, when Bill Marriott (son of the company’s founder) offered him the job. And as the head of a known name in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry, you can be rest assured that his PR skills are on-point – his blogs on LinkedIn attest to that.

Sorenson is easily the most influential hospitality leader on LinkedIn. Not only does he blog on a consistent basis about subjects ranging from Cuba to Tripadvisor but he is happy to engage on subjects that might be uncomfortable for the industry (such as negative comments on social media) but that he knows his employees are talking about and concerned about.

I find his blogs refreshing in their insights and candidness. I wish more CEO's took his lead and created as much compelling content. Whether it's him or his team who does this he has endorsed the way the subjects are covered and fully embraced how to use LinkedIn to engage socially with employees, clients, media and investors and futures ones of all four. 

Arianna Huffington

Of course, no list would be complete without some strong female players, and to say that Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, is a power player, is an understatement. A frequent Forbes-lister, her accolades cover from 2009 when she made it to number 12 of Forbes’ inaugural Most Influential Women in Media, to number 52 of Most Powerful Women in the World (2014).

And clearly as a great content creator, curator and storyteller, she is on every social media platform that’s worth following, such as Instagram (92.4K followers), Facebook (1.34 million followers), and Twitter (2.11 followers). But her largest following is on LinkedIn, so naturally, she too, is a LinkedIn Influencer, with over 3.5 million followers – now we know someone who’s higher up on that list than James Caan CBE.

Other than a plagiarism scuffle decades ago, Arianna has yet to step one foot out of place, which is a tall order given her industry, showing that her PR game, is most definitely beyond reproach.

and others leaders not on social social but who still have amazing PR..... 

Elizabeth Holmes

Of everyone on this list, Elizabeth Holmes is probably the dark horse, so to speak. Yet another college dropout (proof again you don’t need a degree to be brilliant), this medical genius is the youngest female billionaire at age 30. Her company, Theranos, revolutionised the blood testing industry. Goodbye vials of blood and needles – with Theranos’ new testing methods, a pin prick for a single drop of blood can yield tons of health information, and far more quickly too.

Well at least that was the hype...it turns out this may not be true at all with reports that her laboratories do no better than everyone's else in using revolutionary equipment. This is truly a test of her PR skills and her brand, can like many others on this list, she with stand a scandal? There are plenty of people defending her as well as burying her....

While she doesn’t have a personal profile up on LinkedIn, Theranos’ company page does a good job of branding and bringing forth the company’s ethos of innovation, and providing affordable, efficient healthcare. In her words, “We’re successful if person by person we help make a difference in their lives. Our purpose is to give people access to the basic right of being (blood) tested when they need to or want to. If we can do that, then we will have made a difference.”

So why is Elizabeth on this list? Because she’s proof that sometimes good PR is not all about broadcasting far and wide. As an extremely private person, she shows that quality versus quantity is just as effective in building a huge brand quietly, while still causing disruption in the medical arena. The scandal enveloping her will test this theory further.

She’s not the only one who values her privacy; other leaders such as Marissa Meyer (Yahoo), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook) and Sundar Pichai (Google) have also “sworn off” some forms of social media. For example, you’d think that they’d at least have a decent LinkedIn page as professionals, but their number of followers and posts are negligible.

And there you have it – 4 Top CEOs who show what good PR and personal branding can do for you. There are several others who deserve to be on this list as well, but to include all of them would require an entire volume on its own. That said, how are YOU harnessing the power of good PR to bolster your own (and your company’s) brand?