Fortune 500 Executives Aren’t Using Social Media and That’s OK

The comment from David Churbuck is a great example of a failure to see the opportunity in using social channels both internally and externally to develop a stronger link between the employee experience and the customer experience. The content of what a CEO or an HR person posts to any social network is within their control and provides an excellent opportunity to share knowledge, respond quickly to problems, and match the branding message to the humans inside the organization. It is the silence of the people with the “C” level titles to recognize that the more remote they are from the employees in the organization and the customers the more difficult the recovery will be. When problems arise, be it a dive in the stock value, a large recall due to quality issues, a class action lawsuit based on poor employee relations practices, an oil spill etc., the more difficult the recovery will be. People are no longer content with the stock PR responses to problems as they tend to generate distrust based on too many experiences with a PR response that does not reflect the real actions of the company decision makers. Perhaps one of the most frustrating experiences for a customer is that the marketing and advertising messages bring one to a business only to discover that the people behind the brand do not reflect the expectations set out. A significant contributor to this disconnection is internal communication weaknesses that can be found in many organizations but the larger the organization, the bigger the problem. This type of problem is often found in the presentation of a role and company culture by a recruiter and hiring manager vs. the experience of the employee once on staff. Consider this one point for now: the outsourcing of many jobs overseas has resulted in not just job loss locally but in an upsurge in customer dissatisfaction. There are noted problems with quality, shipping issues for tangible products, difficulty understanding the CSA, inability of the CSA to satisfactorily respond to a problem. Yet, companies are still taking this tactic in a bid to save short-term dollars while ignoring the long-term costs. This has become such a huge issue for large corporations in particular that customers and employees alike are no longer committed to the success of the business. There is sufficient evidence in the social network realm for any CEO to gain awareness of how significant the problem is-yet they remain invisible, only briefly showing up behind a PR façade.

@biztag Thanks!

@markwschaefer and info realise the irony of what I write about not harassing influential people and my previous message to you.

@markwschaefer hi mark. Wouldn't normally do this, but it has some relevance to you last shared links. http://t.co/cCa7JkeR my latest blog

With exception of Steve Jobs... Wait, what is the most valuable company in the World again? Doing and understanding can be one in the same, to be a great deligator you must engage in driving forces. If that means learning new and trending strategy, then adoption may be key to reaching new stock holding success. CEO's are exposed to so many interesting scenarios every hour of every day, sharing their insight, thoughts and ambition may present unique opportunity throughout the world. ie #askrichard ...trending! *biztag

@markwschaefer This is a great take on the issue. Thanks for sharing it Mark! And thank you @ginidietrich for writing it!

Great article. Refreshing take as well. Many people get caught in the "hype" of social media and treat it like the only activity that's worthwhile. You make a great point about that it shouldn't be an either/or question; all the time a CEO, or another C-level exec, is faced with a decision about how to proceed. They weigh out the costs and benefits. I'm sure the CEOs realize that to be effective on social media, they must spend a few weeks getting working with it before they can realize how to even begin to use it for their business. For example, Twitter has its own mores, terms, and expectations that take time to learn. A CEO may realize that it's not cost-effective to use it personally and may have others do it. It doesn't mean they shun social media; they simply realize the value of their time.

As long as the CEO espouses and promotes the values in which social media thrives - transparency, openness, responsiveness, listening - then their inactivity with social media is by no means a terrible disadvantage. 

@hessiejones talked about the social media knowledge gap and value behind our @stjohnsrehab #foundation ceo getting more involved.

While CEOs should, at the the very least, have a presence on social media, there is no real urgency for them to do so. I am going to be a devil's advocate. If I have a 10 year old car that runs almost as well as the day I bought it; if the same maintenance plan were applied from day one then why should I change it? The truth is CEOs are not necessarily in tune with the new media. It has not proven that it will trump today's methods to make money or save money-- which are the goals of most organizations. There is also a knowledge gap that needs to be satisfied. I have a friend who counsels C-suite on new media and why they should care. He does this as a private practice for the purpose of informing and training. I think many C-level execs are aware of social but they don't know what to expect from it, how to implement it or how to measure it. Bottom up approaches take a long time to permeate through the organization and are less likely to get to the top of the chain unless significant results are delivered. Should CEOs be more active? Absolutely. But like everything else, they have to buy into the medium and do it because they see value in it. Social media means a shift in mindset. Once that happens, not only will the CEO grow and change, do will the organization .

We can't expect traditional CEOs to tweet/share/blog for fun or business. We do expect them to drive bottom line returns.

The question is when does social engagement equate to increasing bottom line profits?

- When the CEO uses it to better understand the customer experience?

- When he becomes more trustworthy to staff and customers (as illustrated in eMarketer research)? - When he increases feedback and brainstorming among employees through internal social networks like Yammer?

- When increases the reputation and brand awareness of the business thus acquiring new customers or reducing churn?

The "Big Guys" among the Fortune 500 simply have enough momentum and existing market-share (and enough mid-level managers doing this for them) that their absence is not noted nor does it drastically impact their bottom line. For now. This is a short–lived reprise.  Competition is on their heels. Customers are speaking.

The impact when those select few truly engage is noticeable. In profit.

Even if they are not actively tweeting, blogging, or posting on Facebook, Google+, etc., I think all CEOs should get the gist of it all, at the very least. As for them actually using social media, I guess it really depends on how knowledgeable they are, in general, on how each site works and how to not directly or indirectly embarrass themselves (and the company) - i.e. bad grammar.

Anyway, great article!  I also posted it on our blog here:

http://www.amirashiraz.com/blog/2012/07/18/fortune-500-ex…a-and-thats-ok/

@1SamJones My pleasure! Glad you liked it.

I'm absolutely not surprised. I think it definitely depends on the industry, too -- my dad works in the paperboard industry, and it's very "old school" sales, leadership, and business tactics. But I work at a startup, and for certain roles, if you're not on social media then you may not even be considered for the job. It's all a matter of perspective. Also, there's the flip side -- you might give a CEO a Twitter account and tell him to tweet, but what if he says something that reflects poorly on the company? 

Agree with the "they've got others things to do with their time" response. Unless the CEO is a celebrity like Mark Cuban, do consumers really care what the CEO thinks? Do they even know who the CEO is? 

Hard to imagine the ROI is there in most cases. To wit, I would be very curious to know the traffic on Mackey's blog and if that had anything to do with his posts falling off. All CEOs should understand social, of course, as it is the most transformative business trend of the past few years. Past that, most probably don't need it.

@ginidietrich CEOs need to be face and voice of their brand. Richard Branson (Virgin) rec this to Sara Blakely (Spanx). Look at her now.

@ginidietrich We had a similar go when I suggested a separate channel 4 business n u pooh-poohed that. I guess idea's from laymen r a no go?

You are right, this should not shock anyone my dear @ginidietrich ... often all of us get stuck in the whole I am more important than I think I am and social media is the best hype-bubble. At the end of the day it is their job to make money. I would argue though that senior folks in marketing including CMOs should  have an understanding of social and how their business is using it. I have talked to folks, whose coworkers in marketing and executives who still think social is a fad. And these are MARKETERS. 

Great article Sir Trev! Thanks for sharing this...RT @TrevorMadondo: Fortune 500 Executives Aren’t Using Social Media http://t.co/iUyPNsPj

It has probably been said but anybody in a C-suite leadership position is thinking strategy and they certainly have a hierarchy that does the ground work to support the strategic direction.

In my view, the CEO needs to drive the strategic direction of a companies media presence and can only support an arm like social after understanding the benefits. Expecting the C-suite to participate seems like it would be counter-productive.

The stats are not surprising. Where it might get interesting is the small to mid-size companies innovating on social strategy to nip at the heels of the big boys. No CEO can ignore the impact of social media and it doesn't seem like they need to participate in the same way they don't sit with their CFO and count beans.

It is evident in my wife's firm where she has dragged the President of her organization kicking and screaming into social. Guess who writes his blog posts?