Social CEO

A week or so ago, I started a new Twitter account on social media for CEOs -- @social4ceos . As you know, I'm interested in how CEOs are adopting social media at all stages of their tenure -- in the first 100 days, year one, year two and so on.  At Weber Shandwick, we did an audit on Fortune 500 CEOs and their participation in social media... Socializing Your CEO  and we are working towards the sequel. Just wanted to let you know that I will be providing information a la Twitter on the topic of Social CEOs to help steer CEOs and their executives towards the social side of the wired hemisphere.

While I am on the subject of Social CEOs (see my last post), I wanted to mention a study that was released by BRANDfog, a firm that helps executives get social.  Survey respondents report that more than 80% of respondents believe that CEOs who engage on social media are better equipped than their peers to lead companies in a Web 2.0 world. What’s more, 93% of respondents believe that CEO engagement on social media helps communicate company values, and grow and evolve corporate leadership in times of crisis.  Similarly, 82 percent of survey respondents said they were more likely to trust a company whose CEO and leadership team engage in social media. Since reputation is all about trust, it sounds like the demand is there....we've just got to supply it with examples and role models.

I am fascinated by CEOs who use social media. At Weber Shandwick, we took a look at the sociability of CEOs.  A recent survey (Summer 2011, not so recent) by NYSE Euronext among 317 listed company CEOs, 119 CEOs of emerging companies and 205 MBA students found that most CEOs recognize the impact that social media will have on their companies -- 79% think it will be significant and 91% of nonlisted ones and MBAs think it will be significant.  However few of the listed company CEOs -- 31% -- are actively using it, compared to 55% of emerging company CEOs.   This compares with the 36% we found of Fortune 50 CEOs worldwide who are engaged in social media. The survey also found that CEOs of listed companies believe that maintaining and strengthening their company's reputation is the most important activity for them this year. Those in non-listed companies say not only is supporting reputation important but extending the brand into other product categories and expanding into other geographies are high on the list. Wonder if by 2050, 50% of Fortune 500 CEOs will be users of SM. I bet so in some shape or form.

I have always wanted to do this research. I was glad to see that someone else did it -- how CEOs spend their time. Over the many years that I have been involved in understanding and studying CEOs, I have been asked for whatever information I have on how CEOs spend their day and particularly how they gather information. Many of our clients want to better understand where they are and what they do all day. In addition, I have always maintained that employees wonder too. If you asked employees, what their CEO does all day, most would not have the foggiest idea. Many people, in fact, think that CEOs spend their days counting money. So the research by a team of academics from the London School of Economics and Harvard Business School set out to answer the question of what the boss is doing most of the time. Some of the findings are discussed in today's WSJ. The Executive Time Project, as it is dubbed, found that this is how the average CEO's 55 hour work week breaks out. Interestingly, they had CEOs' assistants fill out the diaries to gather the information.

• 18 hours in meetings
• 20 hours in miscellaneous (travel, exercise, personal appointments, etc)
• 6 hours working alone
• 5 hours in business meals
• 2 hours in public events
• 2 hours on conference calls
• 2 hours on phone calls

That equates to the following over a year (figuring 50 weeks with 2 weeks off for vacation):

• 900 hours in meetings per year
• 1,000 hours in miscellaneous (travel, exercise, personal appointments, etc)
• 300 hours working alone
• 250 hours in business meals
• 100 hours in public events
• 100 hours on conference calls
• 100 hours on phone calls

Obviously, they spend a LOT of time in meetings and probably traveling. Again, some of the questions I would like answered has to do with how much time these captains of industry spend using social media or monitoring what is being said about their companies online. Although there is mention in the article about a CEO who also uses his time texting, instant messaging and video chatting, the time spent being "social" was not broken out.  How many are Social CEOs? Will have to investigate if they were able to isolate that piece of information but doubt it.

Today I was reading this article on there being no women on Facebook's board.  Only seven men. And many of Facebook's users are apparently women. Although I had heard this before, it was quite stunning to me considering their impending IPO. And I was also reading an article on young CEOs in the WSJ at the start of the week and noticed that the featured CEOs were all men.   Perhaps I am missing something but where are all the women or at least a few women of them or at least one? Is it me or is anyone else concerned about this? If you want to learn why women are important to business success and reputation, take a look at the special report from The Economist.....amen.

Chris Perry (@cperry248) who is our digital communications president, wrote this really good post on Forbes about social CEOs. I am taking the liberty of repeating his 5 must-dos for CEOs wanting to get social or even considering it. I would probably add one more and that is to find yourself a buddy who can read your Tweets as a sounding board when you first get started. I think that that second opinions can save oneself from having a red face and worth the try until you feel comfortable enough to try it alone.  And maybe it's worth having a buddy just as good practice when it comes to Tweeting or even Facebook.  They might not be good golfing buddies but hey, this is a new age. Take his advice. It is seriously good. Here they are.....straight from Chris. Realize you shine bright in social mediums. Social media participation is a public appearance where everything is on the record. Assume that comments will be picked up by the press as well as examined closely by your customers, staff and others watching your company. Speak and act accordingly. Recognize your role as Chief Narrator. Social platforms like Twitter aren’t a sounding board for a CEOs innermost thoughts; they’re an extension of other modes of communication you use as the lead executive of your organization. There’s great opportunity to share thoughts on your company or industry issues that get amplified through networks that reach employees, investors, customers and the press. As with existing communications efforts have a plan in place as you engage. Anticipate social remarks being a part of a permanent public record. Avoid posting or tweeting on topics that you would never discuss aloud in a public forum. Badmouthing competitors, going too deep into personal affairs or speaking about divisive issues is not the way to go. Don’t be gun-shy when engaging online, but anticipate that what you say will generate the same reaction as if it were published in the press. Don’t court controversy if you can’t take the heat. Opinions on relevant industry issues and current events that affect your business are fine. But steer clear of statements that might be controversial – unless you want to be at the center of the storm. Off the cuff remarks can have a massive ripple effect to be managed your staff, PR team and others tied to the issue after the fact. Pause for a moment in private before you go public. Despite the inherent risks embrace your humanity. Words of caution don’t mean you can’t let your personality shine through. In fact, this is one of the best ways CEOs can engage on a deeper, more human level with stakeholders. Personal insights into what it’s like to lead an organization show authenticity. Just remember that there are limits to what’s appropriate to share.   Any leader looking to engage through social media can harness the power, or suffer from the peril, of the medium. While it provides a forum for new interaction, new communications policies have similarities to traditional media guidelines. Keeping that in mind will help you participate in ways that adds value, not headaches, to your organization.    

The new year is fast coming up. I put together my thoughts on reputation trends to expect in 2012. It is on the HuffingtonPost site.  Take a look and let me know what you think. Happy pre-Xmas day.

I just read this wonderful interview with Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies. He has written a book titled Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Mnanagement Upside Down.  And that he does. The reputation of employees seems to be gaining more steam lately. More CEOs are asking how to engage employees better and more creatively and harness their advocacy. Nayar's strategies and tactics are compelling -- not only are detailed financial performance delivered directly to employee desktops but all (ALL) employee appraisals or performance reviews are posted on HCL's internal website for all to see. And get this, this includes the CEO's review. His theory is that he too can learn from direct feedback. The CEO seems very plugged into the employee component of the value equation. Here are a few things that really stood out to me. He must have a fine reputation among his employees to bear his soul so publicly and turn everything on its head. There are other good examples in the article so I recommend you read it. And here's to all those dancing CEO bloggers out there!

"We also looked for symbolic ways to be a model of openness. One thing I did was publicly dance in front of all my employees. This was to remove the halo that a CEO has around his head. Meaningful conversation happens after you have set the stage in this way, after you make clear that you are as open as anyone else — crazy but effective. I started writing a blog called “You and I,” in which I encouraged employees to ask me questions in the open. The only rule I made was that when you ask the question, it must have your name attached. All 60,000 employees should see your question and my answer. At first, I was depressed by the result, because I mostly received negative questions that made HCL look bad. People said things like, “Vineet, I don’t accept what you’re saying.” Or, “You lack vision; you haven’t articulated what the company’s size and scale will be in 2010.” So I held an open house with a group of employees. “I’m feeling pretty bad,” I said. “Nobody is saying what is positive about our company. Do you think I’ve unlocked a genie that is spreading demotivation?” Their answer was interesting. They said it is good to wash dirty linen in public, in this case on the blog, because it builds trust. There are no rumors. We discuss everything openly and honestly. We don’t always have solutions to problems, but at least we expose them. Out of that, I began to share the financial numbers and give my perspectives, and the tenor of the blog comments began to change."

As I mentioned in my WSJ Europe post on tips on defending your digital reputation, video has taken off and is an excellent means of communications and telling your business narrative for CEOs. Especially for getting CEOs comfortable with social media in general. As I quoted in the article, 75% of Internet traffic will be video this year. In our research on Socializing Your CEO, we talk about the benefits of using video for your CEO, particularly the ones who are wary of too much attention and visibility. Therefore I nodded to myself when I read about the major expansion of the WSJ's video unit. Now it is producing 3 1/2 hours of live daily programming. I did not realize that the Journal produces more live video than other newspapers in the US. I think we will be seeing a WSJ business network soon that rivals CNBC (who they partner with) and Fox (their parent company's network).  Will be interesting to watch and as I said, a good opportunity for CEOs as well. How much trouble can you get in three minutes live?

    Twitterologies. Is there such a word? I doubt it.  The CEO of Vodacom, Pieter Uys, apologized for outages via Twitter (@uyspj). Despite the inconvenience to Vodacom subscribers, the CEO is getting good marks for his simple apology. While it was happening, Uys was tweeting to customers about what he could do for them and kept in continuous contact. He tweeted the following:

"I do care for every one of our customers. What happened today was not acceptable. I'll work hard to make you smile again." "Words can't express how sorry I am about today's problem. Flat out working at making sure all is 100%. Pieter." "At the network switch with the engineers. All looks OK now. If you still have a problem, please switch phone off and on."

Fairly simple way to tell your customers you care. And that you are there. Helps to keep your company reputation intact.