When it comes to social media most top executives in companies prefer to remain in the background. In fact, a study from CEO.com showed that 61% of CEOs in the Fortune 500 still have no presence on social media. Of the ones that have a presence most of them only have a LinkedIn account which they use infrequently if at all.
Instead, they let their marketing team use the company accounts to share stories and deliver the brand message.
However, research shows consumers today have a strong desire to create deeper connections with the brands they use and promote. A small percentage of CEOs have figured out a way to integrate their personal and business brands via social media and leverage it in a big way to market their companies.
beBee, Co-Founder and CEO, Javier Camara, is very active on the platform he created and regularly engages with his user base. Many of them have told me over and over how much they love seeing a top executive from the company drop by their posts to comment and engage with them on a personal level.
Another example of an executive that is leading this trend is the way T-Mobile CEO, John Legere interacts on Twitter. Legere's edgy tweets have become legendary. And with over 3-million followers he has a presence that is four times larger than the T-Mobile official company Twitter account. Legere's Twitter account is a massive traffic producing marketing arm for his company.
Hootsuite CEO and LinkedIn Influencer, Ryan Holmes, recently wrote about why it is important for CEOs to have a personal brand on social media:
"The greatest motivator for CEOs to get on social media may be simple necessity. Social media represents a cultural shift, not just a technological one, and it's already made the leap into the workplace. In the end, it's very difficult for a CEO to guide this transformation without 'getting' social media on some level--ideally a personal one."
In addition to being a LinkedIn Influencer, Ryan is a prolific blogger. His blogs appear on multiple platforms which keeps his company top of mind and in front of millions of potential readers every month. Here’s a recent piece he did on Medium.
These three CEOs realize that engagement with their community online is contributing to consumers falling in love with their products. CEO interaction with customers on social makes them feel special and creates a strong emotional attachment to the brand.