Is Your CEO on Social Media?

Throughout your career as a digital marketing leader, you’ve probably been tasked (at least once) with adding another layer to your role that wasn’t part of your job description: proving to your CEO that their personal involvement in social media is crucial to the success of the business. With only 30% of CEOs and Executive Heads on social media, it’s time you schedule lunch with the C- Suite and get them online.

As digital marketing continues to become an integral part of a company’s success, CEOs know that in order to stay relevant, their brand must have an online presence and a digital media team to keep the conversation flowing. However, what CEOs may not realize is that having a personal social media presence is an effective addition to a digital media strategy that will greatly improve the company’s reputation.

Share these 3 reasons with your CEO to show them why their social media presence is valuable:

• Above and Beyond (Virtual) Customer Service

When a customer has a complaint about a product or service, they want their concerns to be addressed immediately. Instead of waiting on hold to speak to one (or more) customer service representatives, people are going straight online to share their experience on the company’s social media profiles, on their personal accounts and/or on a Google or Yelp review. While it’s necessary for the brand to take action and respond to the issue, imagine how important a customer would feel if the CEO of the company also took the time to address the issue. Showing your customers a C-Level executive is involved in their experience will prove the company genuinely cares about their reputation. Similarly, if a customer offers praise online, a thank you from both the brand account and the CEO will show quality customer service.

Further, A CEO responding to users’ comments is a great way to grow the company’s customer base. When someone is looking for a new product or service, they will often check online reviews or the company’s social media accounts to check its legitimacy and see how they respond to feedback. When they see that a busy CEO generates conversation with their customers they are more likely to trust the business.

• Instantaneous Digitized Information to a Wider Network

As a digital marketing leader, you are on top of the trends and are ready to share timely news with your network. Thanks to social media, sharing positive news and content about your company is instantaneous and can reach hundreds of people in seconds. With the addition of hashtags, your information gets pushed to even wider networks that will generate new followers and leads. Want to keep the conversation going? Get your CEO to re-post the content onto their own personal networks – this produces twofold results. First, your positive news will be seen by more people and will reach a large pool of C-Level Executives your CEO is connected to. Second, it will show your CEO’s commitment to the company and their pride in their employees’ hard work.  

Having your CEO on social media can also improve the recruitment process and corporate culture. When your company shares job postings on social media, they immediately reach a large, targeted audience. Having the CEO share the same information digitally will show to potential candidates that they are approachable, involved and care about finding the right candidate for the position. 

• Increased Collaboration Between the Head of Digital Marketing and the CEO

Both the Head of Digital Marketing and the CEO have the same goal: they want the company to prosper and succeed. However, with a lack of CEOs on social media, there is a disconnect in priorities, and often the strategies to reach the same goal are misaligned. To show your CEO why their social media presence is crucial to the business, share your analytics with them. When your CEO can see and understand conversion rates, traffic and engagement through both paid and unpaid social media, they are more likely to allocate a bigger budget to your team.

To further explain your case, you can show the C-Level Suite examples of CEOs that are currently active on social media (Richard Branson, Jeff Weiner, Tim Cook) and how, with their help, the company is growing and has a high level of engagement with their customers. By sharing analytics, you can prove how together your efforts will bring the company to the next level.

Join the brightest minds in digital marketing from organizations such as Unilever, Philips, Marriott International, Toshiba, Sun Life Financial at this year’s Digital Marketing Leadership Institute. Here, you will spend 2 ? days collaborating with your executive peers on innovative strategies to improve your digital marketing strategy and bring further success to your company.