No Tweet from the “C” Suite

Should the CEO Tweet? This is a hot topic of discussion among senior execs with strong opinions both in favor and against. But in practice, very few CEOs of large corporations are actively using Twitter. Findings of a study on use of Social Media tools by CEOs of Fortune 100 companies are shocking. It was found that among Fortune’s top 100 CEOs:

* Only 2 CEOs have twitter account
* Mere 13 have LinkedIn profile
* 81% do not have a Facebook page
* Only 2 Fortune 100 CEOs have more than 10 friends on Facebook
* Not one Fortune 100 CEO has a blog
Fortune 100 CEOs Are Social Media Slackers

Shouldn’t CEOs leverage growing reach and effectiveness of Social Media channels to reach out to their Customers, Employees and other stake holders?

In my opinion, they should. Of course, they need to be careful in what they write on their Facebook page or on Twitter. But they SHOULD use social media channels with necessary inputs from their PR, Media Relations and Legal departments. Social Media is all about bringing the “human touch” and CEOs being public face of corporations can use Twitter very effectively for this. For example, CEOs can tweet about what their company has done to help those affected by recent earthquake in Haiti. This can help generate a lot of goodwill for their corporate brand.

Zappos CEO is quoted as saying “if you don’t trust your employees to tweet freely, it’s an employee or leadership issue, not an employee Twitter policy issue”.

So true! Hope more CEOs and senior executives start actively using Social Media channels like Facebook and Twitter and allow their employees to do the same in a constructive way that will benefit everyone!

What do you think? Should CEOs and other senior executives use Twitter and Facebook? And should they allow employees in their company to use Social Media freely?

Busted Bubble

Back to the Future

Getting Past Viral

By Ivan Askwith

Agencies and clients alike often talk about “viral marketing” as if it’s something we choose to create. We describe viral as if it’s an inherent quality we can design into our campaigns, or a deliberate strategy we can execute on. But for the handful of “viral campaigns” that explode into cultural phenomena each year, hundreds of other efforts have little or no impact at all. In spite of this, we often continue to insist that we know how to “make things viral,” while also reassuring ourselves that some efforts “just catch on better than others.”

Unless we want to spend another year burning time and resources in the pursuit of that belief, it’s time to accept a difficult truth: viral isn’t a quality that we, as marketers, have the power to bestow. In fact, viral isn’t an inherent trait that advertising can have at all. Viral isn’t what a marketing campaign is, but how that campaign spreads. And when a campaign does achieve viral propagation, it’s not simply a function of what we do as designers and planners. Instead, it’s a function of deliberate choices that each consumer makes about what is worth sharing and why.