Last fall, before I joined the Spin Sucks Pro team, Gini Dietrich asked me to contribute a letter to Dear CEO, an ebook compiling advice from more than 30 PR and Marketing experts to CEOs in the new era of communication. Following is my letter. You can purchase the eBook here for $40.

Dear CEO,

You may have discovered you have become the leader of a media company in addition to the business you’re accustomed to guiding. If you haven’t, I hope you’ll think about it that way as you move forward.

I know. You’re on it. Your organization embraces social media. You have dedicated staff working the social networks. They are broadcasting news, interacting with customers, blogging. They are talking. But are you taking a good look at the walk?

Communications is just as much walk as it is talk. Let your actions lead your communications plan. What do you want to be? How do you want to be perceived? Are you being that at every level of your organization? And when I say being, I definitely don’t mean are you just saying it on social media. Big difference.

Transparency and authenticity. What exactly does it mean to be authentic? Tony Hayward was all too transparent about his feelings and it cost him his job. He certainly couldn’t be accused of being inauthentic when he said he wanted his life back.

So what does that mean to you? How do you navigate this new world and avoid being the butt of the next satirical video that goes viral?

Inspire us. We want to be inspired by a great leader and learn lessons from someone like you. If you’re running an organization that inspires us in any way, we want to know everything about you. We want to know what you’re reading, how you start your day, how you manage your time, and where you get your inspiration. Lead an organization that is bigger than just selling your widgets. Be a great place to work, be a steward of your community. Share your knowledge. We’ll do the talking for you.

If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide.

Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there on the digital landscape.

If you are uncomfortable opening your blog to comments, or starting a Facebook page because you are not prepared to go there, you are hiding something. Look inside, identify where the source of the potential backlash is, and fix the problem. Then, go do your best champion self-talk in the bathroom mirror and face the masses.

The negative discussion will happen with or without your presence. Invite it to your forum, wherever that may be, and address it head on.

Don’t be a stranger. If you’ve been inspiring us and engaging with us, you’ve built a community that knows and trusts you. In times of crisis, you’ll be pretty happy to have them on your side.

Let us inspire you. I’m sure you are curious about us. What are our habits, behaviors and preferences? You can ask me what I’m reading, what I’m doing this weekend. Wow, you can conduct your own market research under the guise of just you know, talking to us. And when you show an interest, and we’re sharing stories? That’s engagement.

So when you sit down with your PR professional, and ask, “How can I get people to understand we’re a big community philanthropist?” The answer should be simple: Be one.

When you ask, “How can we get people to think of us as the go-to such and such widget maker?” Be one.

Be one. And let others do the talking for you.

All the best,
Lisa Gerber
Chief Content Officer
Spin Sucks and Spin Sucks Pro

If you were to give just one piece of advice to CEO’s about digital communication, what would it be?

Guest post by

WARNING: What you’re about to read might sound like heresy coming from someone like me, who others have described as a “social media expert”: As a CEO or business leader, don’t get too sucked into or carried away by social media.

To explain what I mean, first let me set the record straight: Though others may call me a social media expert, I have never labeled myself as such. It is because of what my company does – I started working in online marketing back in 1998 as founder/CEO of an agency, Web Ad.vantage, which I still own and operate – that I am even involved in “social media” as we know it today. And yes, somewhere along the way I also wrote a book on social media subject matter.

Ironically, from day one, I’ve never espoused that one single online tactic, let alone online all by itself, should be the be-all/end-all of a company’s marketing strategy. I believe in an integrated approach – one that involves both online and offline marketing, advertising, public relations, and business development. With this in mind, any marketing tactic just becomes another tool in the toolset, all given fair consideration.

When I consider my own social media activities, I first try to adhere to our own agency’s social media strategy (I am my own client after all), but I also give myself permission to not always be able to accomplish these goals on a day-to-day basis.

As the company leader, I see my responsibilities in this order: #1 – To my employees; #2 – To our clients. Our business development and marketing efforts, of which social media is a part, fall below these two.

In the course of any given day, my best intentions for tweeting, checking all my LinkedIn connections, creating content, or conducting a podcast interview may fall by the wayside, usurped by something more important in running my company. (And don’t get me started about generating more videos, which is still on my wish list.)

Is my attitude setting me up for a competitive disadvantage? I don’t think so. Am I being realistic and managing my time wisely? I’d like to think so. Do I feel disappointed or guilty if days go by and I haven’t demonstrated any social media activity? Truthfully, yes, but I get over that pretty quickly.

What I am reminded of and why I do have conviction in social media is that, as the business owner, I am most likely to have success in selling for my company (Brad Farris has empirical data on this), and putting my personal brand out there is a big part of that sales process. So I happily “bear the burden” of representing my company by “being out there,” but I also try to put things into perspective. In order to be successful, I have to stay focused on my priorities.

Author of the book Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day, Hollis Thomases is president and founder of Maryland-based WebAdvantage.net, an online marketing company that provides results-centric, strategic Internet marketing and analysis.

Instead, however, I asked my Twitter friends what they would like me to write about and I got some great ideas!

* Brad Farris suggested how to feel like you’re in control of the business while traveling.

* From Bruce Smith: Trust.

* Scott Yurashek had an attention-grabbing idea: How the lack of public commentary has been lacking and how social media has made it interesting again.

* Troy Costlowhttp recommended how the intended message can’t be directly stated modestly.

* Several people suggested I write about how to get past writer’s block, which I guess I’m kind of doing by writing this blog post, even though I called them all smarty pants.

* And, God love her, Nancy tried to create a topic out of my wanting to veg out.

All of these are great ideas and you’ll see them as blog posts in the next few days. But this made me think…what would YOU like to see me write about?

* What kinds of conversations do you want to join?
* Is there someone you’d like me to interview?
* Is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask a CEO?
* Is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask a business owner?
* Is there anything you don’t understand about social media and need help?

The parameters are to stay within the PR industry, social media, or what it’s like to run a business.

If your idea is chosen as one of the blog posts, you’ll receive about 30 seconds of fame. And a fun surprise (which means I haven’t yet figured out what it is).

So when his cover story, “Often, men help women get to the corner office” ran today, I was more than intrigued. As usual, his style of reporting is fair and covers all of the reasons the title he choose might be true.

The premise:

* There are more men in leadership positions at companies big and small so it makes sense the mentor a woman has is male (only 29 Fortune 1000 companies have women CEOs).

* Men, (Gini adds “unfortunately”) have the power to make women great.

* Female champions are rare.

I agree with all of this. I am in a communication business and I’ve only had one female boss my entire career…where females are prevalent at the lower levels, but not at executive levels.

But I am FIRED UP! Why, you ask? I just spent 20 minutes reading the comments. Because there are nearly 200 comments, I started with the most recommended ones.

I am shocked and appalled there are men out there, like Slay and ChristianCon3, who still think women belong in the kitchen and not the workplace. And that people recommended their comments for others to read!

Read this comment from ChristianCon3:

“Not an issue for me since I believe women do not belong in the workplace, but at home tending to the children and the husband. Much of what is wrong with our society today is because of women’s liberation (a product of liberal / socialist thinking) and the idea that women “can have it all.” — family AND career. Well they can’t. Just look at the divorce rates. The crazy, drug addicted children that come out of two career households. It’s high time we get back to a traditional nuclear family: husband who works, wife who minds the house and two or three kids.”

Now I know that by putting this on my blog, I’m engaging this man and his ludicrous opinion. Did he not read the story? The point is that, even in 2009 where women ARE in the workplace and DO have it all, their mentors still are men. That even though we’ve come a long way, we still have to rely on men for procreation and to promote our careers. And that does NOT mean we’re sleeping our way to the top as other comments on the story suggest.

I have belonged to two women-only organizations in the past and have gotten nothing from either of them. No return-on-investment of my time or money. Not one woman from either of those organizations referred business to us – most women see other females as competition. I’ve always kept this in mind as I grow a business – that women deserve as much mentoring as the men in an organization.

But truth be had, the most ROI on my time, the most referrals we receive (even today), and the people who affect my business decisions are men. I have a handful of women business confidants, outside of the Arment Dietrich walls, but I’d venture to guess they’re less than 10 percent of my “mentors”.

Social media is changing that. I’ve been able to connect and engage with women business leaders around the world and we help one another quite often. It’s fun to get a woman’s read on a particular situation because we look at things so much differently. We lead differently. We think differently. We act and feel differently. We should be mentoring one another, without threat, and with a man’s assertiveness and ability to forgive and forget sprinkled in.

With Del bringing this very sad reality to light and with our social media connections, soon behind every successful woman will be another woman.

As is natural for me, I internalized his comments and have been thinking about it since then. What does a level 5 CEO mean? What kinds of traits, skills, and knowledge do I need to become a leve 5 CEO? Do I need to be a Jack Welch or Steve Jobs? If yes, what does that look like? Beside Bill Gates and Michael Dell, who are some great level 5 CEOs? And what makes them so?

These are all of the questions I asked myself this morning as I rode 30 miles alone.

And, I’m really nowhere near the answer, but this is what I think right now:

* Surround myself with super smart people

* Let the super smart people with whom I already work to do their jobs and then some

* Stop feeling guilty about delegating

* Give up control

* Coach, coach, coach…and don’t get flustered or frustrated when someone doesn’t “get” it initially

* Hire slowly…and spend a lot of time making the decision to be sure everyone fits our culture and is willing to drink the vision kool-aid

* Stop doing things that don’t make the company money

* Stop feeling guilty for arriving to work 15 minutes late on the mornings that I have long rides

* Lead and inspire people by leading by example, even when I’m not talking

* Develop and grow people to take over my job someday

* Spend time daily thinking, being creative, and reading

* Spend more time outside of the office marketing the firm and being our own brand ambassador

* Make it rain every day!

* Communicate the vision every day

* Hold people accountable

* Position the company for organic growth and client retention

What else would you add to this list? What does it take to be a level 5 CEO?

I read a ton of books.  I read every article I could find.  I brought it as an issue to my Vistage group.  I asked other entrepreneurs turned CEOs.  I kept a list of things I thought I should be doing as a CEO.

It turns out being the CEO of a company you founded means different things to different people.  What is important to me may not be important to other business leaders, which is probably why I couldn’t find the magic answer in all of my searching.

Following are some of the lessons I’m learning in my journey to the top:

* Cash truly is king

* Debt isn’t bad, unless there is a recession and you can’t get access to capital

* Big is not always better; profit is always best

* Leadership is not about being the first one in and the last one to leave, nor about working the most hours

* Employee communication should happen only in person; internal email sucks

* Just because you have three letters after your name does not mean you have to be all business all of the   time, if it doesn’t fit your personality

* If our clients aren’t happy and want me working on their accounts, it’s because I haven’t done my staff   coaching and mentoring job well enough

* My time is best spent on innovation, coaching and mentoring staff, landing the whales, and being the face of the company

* It’s okay to say no, if it’s for something not in the four areas listed above

* It’s good to shake things up every once in a while, in an effort to stay ahead of the trends

* It’s great to have friends who run competitive companies; if the relationship is set up correctly, we work very well together

* People like working for a company that stands for something and lives its values

* My gut is ALWAYS right

* Engagement, connection, and transparency are the most important communication tools – with employees, with clients, with prospects, with talent candidates, with vendors, with partners, and any other stakeholder

* Bad news does not go away and it does not get better with age; no matter how much I hate conflict, sometimes it’s worse in my head than it is in reality

* Having fun with my colleagues, and connecting with them as people, is what I truly love about getting up and going to work every day

What have you learned? What do you do that is not on this list?