According to research conducted by UberCEO.com, CEOs from the top 100 US public companies appear to be mostly absent from the social media community.
The study 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 results showed a dismal level of engagement:
-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-Three quarters of the CEOs have some kind of Wikipedia entry, but nearly a third of those have limited or outdated information.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.
Twitter was the least used service by Fortune 100 CEOs, despite being one of the fastest growing social media networks. Wikipedia had the highest level of engagement among the Fortune 100 CEOs, yet 28% of those entries had incorrect titles, missing information or lacked sources.
LinkedIn, a site mainly used for professional networking, only attracted 13 Fortune 100 CEOs, five of which had just one connection. Three CEOs stood out from the pack on LinkedIn, each having more than 80 connections. However, they are all from technology companies – Michael Dell (Dell), Gregory Spierkel (Ingram Micro) and John Chambers (Cisco).
While there were slightly more Fortune 100 CEO users on Facebook than on LinkedIn, most of them had limited information on their page and few friends. More surprising is that no Fortune 100 CEO has a public blog that could be easily found.
“It’s 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,” said Sharon Barclay, editor at UberCEO.com.
“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 and raise their company’s visibility,” said Barclay.
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