Executives with the biggest bullhorns barely make a peep on social media.

Blake Bowyer
Media Program Analyst

In business, CEOs are the celebrities, and the Fortune 100 is the VIP list. These execs get into the hottest clubs, invited to exclusive retreats, and asked by Presidents to serve on advisory councils. CEOs have followings that go far beyond their stockholders and employees. Take Steve Jobs – mobs of Mac fans await his gospel every time he foretells the future of Apple and turns water into iWine. The same can be said for moguls like Richard Branson, Michael Dell, and, to a certain crowd, Bill Gates. These are the boardroom equivalents of @britneyspears, @aplusk, and @THE_REAL_SHAQ. The problem is, with all of the followers they have offline, few Fortune 100 CEOs are using their rockstar status to engage their customer base. Why are CEOs falling down on the job?

In last week’s post, I briefly discussed how the private sector is surprisingly slow in integrating social media as a component of marketing strategy. Imagine the lack of surprise when this article popped up, labeling Fortune 100 CEOs as “laggards” in social media.  From the story, these numbers stood out:

· 2/100 are on Twitter

· 19/100 are on Facebook

· 0 write blogs (!!)

Those are staggering figures. Despite this dearth, one might ask: Why should CEOs waste their time on living on Twitter or in the blogosphere? Don’t their companies have departments for that? The likely answer is an obvious “yes” to the latter, but the answer to the former is only obvious when pointed out: people will listen. No disrespect to Ted in the Online Marketing Department at XYZ Global Conglomerate, but more people would rather know what Warren Buffet ate for breakfast than your musings on cloud computing.

I understand CEOs don’t have scores of time on their hands, as does the author who cites that as the most likely reason that CEOs aren’t active online. But with a built-in audience – from the sycophants and superfans to the product users and passersby – CEOs should be active on social media for the sake of their companies. Even a few tweets, a status update, and a blog post per week would gather crowds around their Web sites and draw more attention than a TV ad ever could. Executives write books on leadership, give keynotes at colleges, and break ground around the world, but are still more globally visible from cyberspace.

For now, social mediums are still looking for a C-level champion. Sir @richardbranson is giving us the best example with 125 tweets, a regular blog, and a thriving Facebook fan page, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with his bombastic style. Most people aren’t buying biographies to hear from the ambitious, erudite, and eccentric men and women at the top of the world’s most powerful companies. Engage your consumers, because they’re ready to listen. If you’re a CEO, add this to the job description: “Social media personality” and give the long line behind you a glimpse behind that velvet rope.

P.S. Mr. Buffet, let’s at least narrow it down: Grape Nuts or Cocoa Pebbles?