Last April I had the pleasure of listening to Jason Calacanis, CEO and founder of Mahalo, speak at the Milken Global Conference about Social Networking in the Political World. While much of what was said during the panel has departed my brain, one thing that Jason said really stuck with me. Essentially Calacanis threw down the gauntlet and stated that any CEO in this day in age that doesn’t blog and use Twitter should be fired. While Jason backed off this statement a little in a subsequent interview I did with him, he maintained his stance of execs at all sized companies needing to be good communicators.
Given the proliferation of tools and channels that we now have available, executives really have no excuse not to be good communicators. In fact, I firmly believe that companies who don’t have at least some executive champions who are engaging with their employees, customers, and the media via Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube are going to go the way of the dinosaur. This may sound extreme but if you look at some of the largest and most successful companies in America like Procter & Gamble and Cisco, their CEOs (although they are not tweeting/blogging) are forcing their respective cultures to be more open and collaborative. In P&G’s case, CEO A.G. Lafley mandated that 50% of their new product ideas come from outside the company by 2010. John Chambers of Cisco has completely flattened his organization and looks to his hundreds of direct reports to be great collaborators.
Why aren’t more execs twittering? Here are a few excuses I’ve heard:
- I’m not really up to speed on all these social tools. I don’t want to say something stupid.
- I don’t have time.
- We have a head of social media/director of online community. They communicate with the public.
You know what I say? Wrong, wrong and wrong. You know why? Because there are already some big name execs that are using Twitter and they are doing a damn fine job. In fact, one of the things that inspired this guest post is the fact that the CEO of Communispace, Diane Hessan, is doing a marvelous job “joining the conversation” on Twitter. She moves gracefully between personal and professional banter and works hard to embrace her community of customers, employees, and other community movers and shakers.
If you want to learn by example, here’s a sample of some other execs that are doing a great job using Twitter to engage their key stakeholders:
- Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO – @Zappos
- Barry Judge, Best Buy CMO – @BestBuyCMO
- Jeffrey Hayzlett, Kodak CMO – @JeffreyHayzlett
- Padmasree Warrior, Cisco CTO – @Padmasree
- Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media CEO – @TimOReilly
Honorable Mention*
Scott Monty, Ford social media lead – @ScottMonty
*Scott’s not an official “exec” at Ford but is doing a bang-up job at a huge company.
If you’re an executive and you’re reading this post, get off your behind and sign-up for an account now. If you’re not sure how to conduct yourself, my friend, Tim Walker, at Hoover’s has put together a bang-up primer on how to get started with Twitter. You can also read my recent post on how to think about Twitter if you’re a corporation. If you’re not an exec, the same rules apply. Except that you may need to get buy-in from your manager. If they won’t let you tweet, you might start thinking about joining a different group (or even company) that will give you the freedom to join the conversation.
Diane/Debi/Leslie/Charlotte – thanks so much for inviting me to post on your most excellent blog. I really like what you all are talking about.
Best,
Aaron | @aaronstrout
This may sound like an odd question, but what are some of the best ceo blog and what are they blogging about. Is it about being a ceo? what is happening with the company? or just gen random everyday blog entries?
It still seems like we have a long way to go before we get acceptance in the C-suite. They are a skeptical bunch. In this crummy economy, pragmatic CXOs will want firmer ROI stories from a wider range of industries before jumping in.
Aaron –
Respectfully disagree with you here. The C-suite shouldn’t be thinking about Twitter, but instead about why they don’t have stronger customer relationships and what to do about it.
The answer to the latter may — or may not — involve Twitter.
Considering that so many companies have failed to make email a tool to communicate in a relevant, authentic way, what makes them (or you) think that communicating through Twitter will be any different?
Another concept I’d like you to consider: right-channeling. The idea that there’s a “right”channel for any message or interaction. Twitter can’t possibly be the right channel for every message. Execs in the c-suite should be thinking about ensuring that their company communicates in the right channel. Again, that may — or may not — involve Twitter.
The c-suite needs to be thinking about strategy — other people in the organization can figure out which tools are best to implement the strategy. But when sr. execs start getting too involved in the weeds (tools), strategy often gets lost or overlooked.
-Jeff, your question is actually a great one. The simple answer is, I don’t know a ton of CEO’s that blog (or at least ones that blog that are doing a good job). A few that do blog that are doing a decent job are:
* Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media – radar.oreilly.com/tim
* Rex Hammond (@R on Twitter) – http://www.rexblog.com
* GM Fastlane blogs (CEO & vice chairman) – fastlane.gmblogs.com
* Ev Williams, Twitter – evhead.com
* Tony Hsieh, Zappos – blogs.zappos.com/blogs/ceo-and-coo-blog
-Frank, sadly, you are correct
-Ron, first, let me thank you for respectfully disagreeing. That always makes the conversation more fun. Second, I like the fact that you’ve ratcheted this up a level i.e. a focus on “right-channeling” vs. a “single channel/tool” approach. Ever since you and I started talking about this concept back in our Fidelity/Forrester days, I’ve always been a huge fan of right-channeling.
With that said, I will stand firm on my belief that because Twitter is such a relatively easy, accessible, and increasingly popular tool, the C-suite should be using it WHILE taking full advantage of the channels their customers prefer. The reason I say this is that there are other key stake holders like the press, business partners, thought leaders (and even investors) that are on Twitter. Why not create a constant partial presence (a term I stole from Ross Mayfield, founder of Social Text)?
Best,
Aaron | @aaronstrout
Hey Aaron thanks for the response. I think channeling is the issue I am dwelling on. Our CEO will have great things to say, but it may belong on a different channel.
I understand the roi issue, but you should ask the heads if they buy products based on the methods they are marketing to. meaning do they ever look in a phone book, research other places than google for product searches. How often does a commercial move people to buy something?
@jacksonj