UberCEO reported the other day that CEOs of top companies don’t seem to be interested in social media. They gathered data about this year’s Fortune 100 CEO and came up with the following results:
- Only two CEOs have Twitter accounts.
- 13 CEOs have LinkedIn profiles, and of those only three have more than 10 connections.
- 81% of CEOs don’t have a personal Facebook page.
- Three quarters of the CEOs have some kind of Wikipedia entry, but nearly a third of those have limited or outdated information.
- Not one Fortune 100 CEO has a blog.
So what gives? Does this mean that mere mortals should give up their personal accounts in social media accounts since it wouldn’t turn your company into a Fortune100 company anyway? Does this mean that if you want to act all successful you should snub social media? Or does this mean that these CEOs don’t really care about connecting?
The answer to the last three questions are, no, you shouldn’t give up your social media accounts, no, it’s stupid to think even that, and not necessarily. First of all if you think about it most of these CEOs belong to companies that were already successful even before social media became really that relevant, so no one can claim social media to have been really key to their success. That doesn’t mean though that social media can not help you and your company succeed, especially now that social media is becoming more and more relevant. Second point, if you snub social media just to emulate the CEOs then it’s no wonder you don’t succeed because that is plain stupid. Figure out the CEOs business secrets that lead to success instead of just acting successful, anyway not having a social media account won’t make you seem more like a successful CEO anyway but more like a busy CEO, ignorant CEO, outdated CEO, or uncaring CEO. Either way, it won’t be flattering. Third point, those CEO probably do not really not care but have more immediate concerns with their obviously high-powered busy lives. Not that it’s an excuse since some busy successful CEO do have social media accounts that they actually use. They do have to start paying attention to social media though. As Uber CEO put it, “The long and short of it is that CEOs have the opportunity to positively effect their company’s perception, visibility and brand experience by taking part in social media activities. Right now, they’re absent from the discussion. With the public already skeptical about large corporations, CEOs can’t afford to pretend that social media is not for them.”
