How To Be A Social CEO - Lessons From Europe's Best

Twitter has established itself as one of the most important channels for brand communication, with customer service and senior executives, all the way up to CEOs, using the social network. At times, it is equally – or even more - important than news channels.

We’ve already analysed the Twitter performance for some of the CEOs of the biggest quoted companies in France, Germany and the UK and discovered that CEOs can have a substantial impact on a company’s reputation – in a positive or negative way. That’s likely why many are still hesitant about using social media.

Using advanced social media analytics from Talkwalker, we looked at 28 CEOs including representatives of CAC40, FTSE 100, and 100 DAX companies to see which are swimming against the tide and making smart use of Twitter. We looked at the mentions around their names on Twitter between June and September, analysing more than 18,000 results. Considering we could only find active accounts for 28 CEOs, C-Suite may be missing out on a valuable opportunity.

 

Twitter Over News for CEO Discussions

CEO share of media types

 Twitter is the most important platform for CEO mentions, followed by online news and newspapers

 

Although top CEOs are still hesitant about establishing a Twitter presence, the numbers show that it’s the most important channel for conversation about them. According to our social media analysis, Twitter accounts for almost 54% of CEO mentions – more than double the rate of online news!

With that in mind, let’s have a look at how CEOs are using Twitter – and whether they’ve really seized the opportunities the platform offers.

 

Hard News Drives More Interest

Corporate news is understandably a major factor in driving buzz about CEOs and their brands. But it is far from the only one.

 

share of voice all 3 months

Share of voice across all online channels for the CEOs analysed

 

Pearson’s John Fallon makes it into the top three of the list due to his company selling its shares of the Economist Group, while Martin Bouygues’ refusal to sell the Telecoms unit of the group made headlines mid-June. John Fallon was in the spotlight once again at the end of July, when Pearson’s sale of the Financial Times made global headlines.

Two German CEOs also made it into the top 10: Olaf Koch of Metro Group and Wolfgang Büchele from The Linde Group. Koch sparked interest with his company’s expansion into the Chinese market, while Büchele made the news when he travelled to Russia for negotiations about a major new industrial project.

 

share of voice ceos on twitter 

Richard’s Israel comment and Pearson’s sale caused huge spikes in mentions for both.

 

Orange CEO Stephane Richard sparked strong reactions in early June, when a public comment spun out of control and was quickly interpreted as a call to boycott Israel. Richard rushed to clear the confusion and apologise to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

 

Richard Israel tweet

His decision to do this via Twitter however, may have helped to personalise the response more than, for example, a general press release.

CEOs are constantly in the spotlight – this is true both on and offline. And audiences are quick to take to social media to discuss the actions and comments of such prominent figures. As such, top managers need to be mindful of their choice of words at all times. This is especially important when it comes to company news or other sensitive topics like politics.

SAGE Group’s Stephen Kelly the Current Social Media Star

Stephen Kelly share of voice twitter details 

Stephen Kelly dominated the Twitter conversation from late August to late September

 

Comparing the Twitter presence of industry leaders reveals that just 28 top CEOs across the US/UK, France and Germany even have personal Twitter accounts. A quick Twitter analysis using Talkwalker social listening shows that Stephen Kelly, CEO of SAGE Group, and Stéphane Richard of Orange dominated the conversation on Twitter. Mentions for Kelly show a peak mid-September, when he attended Dreamforce, an annual user and developer conference. Stéphane Richard managed to boost attention with a #AskSRichard Q&A session on Twitter, which received close to 2,000 mentions in total.

 

kelly richard tweets

Both the above examples show that events and Q&A sessions on Twitter are a great way to engage with people on social. CEOs can leverage such opportunities not only to increase their visibility – and by proxy, also their brand’s – but it also brings them closer to other users, making them much more human and approachable and offering a chance to build relationships with potential customers.   

UK and French CEOs Are Most Active

CEO twitter owner actitivy stacked (2) 

While UK CEOs  received more attention overall, French CEOs were more active on their personal pages.

 

With five out of ten most active CEOs over an extended period, English-speaking CEOS are more active than their French colleagues. German CEOs, on the other hand, do not even make it into the top 10 – with the exception of Bill McDermott, an American working as CEO of German software company SAP.

Martin Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management, took a different approach to communicating via Twitter by mixing industry expertise with more personal content about his interests:

 

martin gilbert aam twitter 

Being a sports fan makes him more authentic and relatable to his followers, giving the figure of the “distant CEO” a more human touch.

 

Your Best Brand Ambassador: Your CEO

With CEOs being the face of their brand, Twitter offers a great opportunity for them to engage with people online and strengthen the relationship between their brand and its customers.

  • Attention is a valuable currency, but few CEOs know how to create and use it. Twitter offers them the chance to increase their visibility, at the same time giving more exposure to their respective brands.
  • Being present on social media allows CEOs to re-shape the narrative during an (upcoming) crisis, allowing them to make sure their point of view comes across as well. It enables them to reach journalists, shareholders and the broad public at the same time.
  • Sharing small personal details, like a passion for sport, gives CEOs a more human touch and makes them more relatable to others.

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