Study Finds CEOs Missing the Social Networking Mark

As popular as Twitter and Facebook are for consumers and business professionals, some still find that they just cannot jump on the social networking bandwagon. While it could be a generational thing, this lack of participation in these innovative online forums could be inhibiting.


Computerworld reported recently on a new study that found that CEOs of top companies in the United States are significantly disconnected from the social networking phenomenon. In fact, only two CEOs from Fortune magazine’s list of the top 100 companies have Twitter accounts and only 19 have a Facebook (News - Alert) page. None of these 100 had a personal external blog.

“In our opinion, the top CEOs appear to be disconnected from the way their own customers are communicating,” said Sharon Barclay, an UberCEO.com editor, in the Computerworld piece.

“They’re giving the impression that they’re disconnected, disengaged and disinterested. No doubt, 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.”

Part of the aversion to using sites such as Facebook or MySpace (News - Alert) could be the junk that seems to accompany an account. A person cannot simply rely on the site to interact with people. They are sent invitations to games, they get poked, snowballs are thrown at them and they receive 10 Best List suggestions, to name just a few. As TMC’s (News - Alert) Jessica Kostek noted in her Facebook piece, this social networking tool may just be too social.

Even with the success of these sites, MySpace is facing cuts due to a shift in the market that is causing users to leave this site in favor of Facebook. Whether it is MySpace’s rush to dominance that caused a few hiccups or Facebook’s ability to appeal to the masses, the former is still scrambling to try and keep customers, but has failed to maintain sustainability in this tough market. If it isn’t careful in its strategy, Facebook could face the same fate.

Even with this slow uptake and the unnecessary extras on these sites, executives at smaller firms are recognizing the value that they can deliver. In staying connected with associates and customers on Facebook and other sites, these individuals are finding that they can help to generate significant sales growth during a tough economy.

According to industry analysts, there has been increasing pressure put on companies and their executives to use Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to stay connected with both customers and partners. UberCEO.com notes that perhaps the message has not reached the top of the company, yet.

Of those top CEOs that participated in the study, only 13 are members of the LinkedIn social network for business professionals. Of this small number, five are connected to just one other person on the site.

“Three CEOs stood out from the pack on LinkedIn, each having more than 80 connections,” added Barclay. “However, they are all from technology companies -- Michael Dell (News - Alert) (Dell), Gregory Spierkel (Ingram Micro) and John Chambers (Cisco).”

Barclay also noted that these executives could be missing out on an opportunity to positively influence the public perception of their companies. Too many people are already convinced that CEOs live in a different world, far removed from reality. A step in the direction of normalcy through online social networking could deliver more benefit than they realize.