Report Shows Corporate CEOs Neglect Social Networking
A new study gauging how well CEOs are connected to their customers showed that the heads of top U.S. companies might be engaged in the boardroom, but they’re switched off when it comes to social media, Reuters reported.
The blog UberCEO.com conducted a research study that looked at Fortune’s 2009 list of the top 100 CEOs to determine how many were using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, or had a blog.
The investigation found the majority of CEOs were mostly absent from the rapidly growing social media community, and only two CEOs had Twitter accounts and 81 percent of CEOs did not have a personal Facebook page.
The professional networking site LinkedIn was used by only 13 CEOs that were surveyed and only 3 of them had more than 80 connections and they were all from technology companies. They included Michael Dell from computer maker Dell Inc., Gregory Spierkel from technology products distributor Ingram Micro Inc., and John Chambers from Cisco Systems Ltd.
A Wikipedia entry was found for three quarters of the CEOs, but nearly a third of those had limited or outdated information such as incorrect titles, or a lack of listed sources.
None of the Fortune 100 CEOs maintained a blog.
Sharon Barclay, editor at UberCEO.com who runs executive PR firm Blue Trumpet Group, said it was shocking that the top CEOs can appear to be so disconnected from the way their own customers are communicating.
“They’re giving the impression that they’re disconnected, disengaged and disinterested,” she said.
Barclay said financial reporting regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Reg-FD make CEOs cautious about communicating freely, but they’re missing a fabulous opportunity to connect with their target audience and raise their company’s visibility.
The latest figures from Nielsen Online show that social networking sites are booming, as the number of minutes spent on them in the United Sates doubled over the past year alone.
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