Social CEO

If you regularly read my blog and know our work on Socializing Your CEO, you know that I follow social CEOs or other executives. Well, this story was not what I was thinking about when we first starting calling for more CEOs to use online technology.

An article on how CIOs need to get a seat at the table and boost their reputational status within the organization appeared in the WSJ this week. I read it on a plane but left myself a message to post about it  (are CIOs really second-class citizens in the C-suite?).  I am always interested in who is sitting at the table with the CEO and have over the years been particularly interested in the role of CCOs -- Chief Communications Officers -- and how they are increasingly sitting at that table as crises soar and reputations tumble. So naturally, this drew my attention.   As I went to find the article online, I stumbled upon another WSJ blog post about the article which had this quote or two from Brian Halligan, chief executive of Hubspot, who spoke at a panel by MIT's CIO Symposium on the role of the CIO:

 "Mr. Halligan also said CIOs are the logical choice to help chief executives master new communication tools like blogging, Facebook and Twitter. Many chief executives are either uncomfortable using those media, or hire professionals to stand in for them: Either way, their audiences can sense the lack of spontaneity. CIOs can help their CEOs “have a more authentic relationship with the market and vendors,” he said.

Since I have been carefully monitoring how CEOs become more social, I admit that I had not thought about this in the same way. In my world of communications, I think that CCOs are the natural teacher for showing CEOs how to use social media and video to communicate deep within the organization and to customers and other important stakeholders. I liked Halligan's statement about how being more social might change perceptions of CEOs as stodgy, risk-adverse and uncommunicative. He is probably right. Related to this topic, it is probably not a good idea to hire professionals to stand in for CEOs although I don't doubt that it is done. CEO voices are hard to imitate and employees should be fairly adept at noticing counterfeit CEO-speak. So I would advise that if you are getting your CEO to blog (it does not have to be too often as we advise in our research) to get to know people and let them get to know the CEO, get them to do it themselves.

 My colleague in Asia just sent me a link to the blog of the Prime Minister of Japan. Mr. Naoto Kan's blog had been ongoing but after the triple disaster of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant problems, he stopped blogging for good reason.  He has now just begun. Since I am always interested in how leaders communicate and how CEOs or other leaders are using social media, this was a good find. The theme of his blog is Looking Squarely at the Future (a good title)  and the blog says that he does all his blogging himself.  There is an English version which is translated from the Japanese. There are also videos of the Prime Minister on TV or at different events so it is a true multi-media platform. I definitely intend to follow it because hearing from the Prime Minister as he leads his country through this cataclysmic time will be worth my time. Below is from Mr. Kan's April 13th post:

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, I have held back from sending out my thoughts through my blog. This was to avoid confusion amidst the ongoing flurry of large amounts of information, while I dedicated myself entirely to responses to the disaster.  With a tense situation continuing even now, a month since the disaster toward the future while I will continue to devote my energies to responses to the earthquake disaster and the nuclear accidents, I will resume blogging little by little.

Thought this was a good example of a social CEO -- building reputation at the top through social media. Love the fact that he is holding these teleconference chats with season-ticket holders. I do not know much about football but he has the right idea.

"Giants' Fans Next On Goodell's Call ListIt's been a few years since Roger Goodell was an NFL intern answering fan mail, but the league says the idea behind the commissioner's chats with season-ticket holders is the same: communication. Goodell will host an interactive teleconference for Giants' season-ticket holders Wednesday, the fourth such call he's held in the past two weeks. As the NFL lockout drags into its second month, the league office is responding to requests by individual teams (the Dolphins, Browns and Chargers have already enlisted the commissioner; the 49ers and Broncos have their calls to come) to make Goodell available. 'The commissioner enjoys communicating with fans," league spokesman Greg Aiello said. "He wants to know what is on their minds.'"

I was delighted to see this forecast for 2011 in The Economist about CEOs. The article, Words Fail Them, strikes a chord with me as I look ahead too. As I mentioned in my last post, I made some predictions about Reputation Trends for 2011 on Huffington Post.  One of the eight trends was the Ascendancy of Social CEOs. In our research on Social CEOs, we advised that CEOs consider video as a primary tool for communications. The Economist article agreed that video was critical to this new age of communications but was much bolder than I was:

• Email as a mass communications tool for corporate messages will be finished. Video will be recognized as more effective for reaching internal and external stakeholders.
• Video is expected to be more than 75% of Internet traffic by 2012. The Economist believes that over the next 12 months, companies will be driving video usage and leading it.
• A different kind of person will ascend to the corner office who can take advantage of video's simplicity and immediacy. That's an interesting prediction! A little too close to the CEO celebrity argument that died a sudden death a few years back.  The Economist said: "Charisma will be back in:  all successful business chiefs will have to be storytellers and performers. Just as political leaders have long had to be dynamite on TV to stand much hope of election or survival, so too will corporate leaders. They must be able to sell not only their vision of their companies but their vision of themselves."
• The Economist then made this rather shocking prediction which I don't buy: "With this shift will come a change in management style. Numbers and facts will be supplanted by appeals to emotion to make employees and customers do what they are told. The businessperson’s emotion may be no more genuine than the politician’s, but successful bosses will get good at faking it."  Obviously you can't fake leadership and performance through video, as good a tool as it may be. I agree that CEOs will need to master video and master it fast but they cannot pretend to be what they are not and cannot say that which is not true.

I agree wholeheartedly that video will move up the communications chain with lightning speed but authenticity and transparency will still matter when it comes to reputation....no matter who is speaking.

As the new year approaches, I decided to assemble my thoughts on what's ahead in the world of reputation for 2011. I posted eight trends on HuffingtonPost that I see emerging and taking hold over the next 12 months. You will have to check out the post to see what I said about each (my way of saying please check it out). Here they are. 1. Hijacked Reputations 2. Reputation Recoverers Anonymous 3. Reputation Warfare 4. Online Reputation Revisionism 5. Ascendancy of Social CEOs 6. Reputation Blacklisting 7. Reputation Risk Insurance 8. The Corporate Brand Rises The original title of the post is Ask the Magic-8 Ball: Reputation Trends for 2011.  HuffingtonPost shortened it to make it more clear (they are right). However, the Magic 8-Ball is a toy that I used to play with when I was little and which is still around. Here is what Wikipedia says about the toy:

The Magic 8 Ball is  a toy used for fortune-telling or seeking advice, manufactured by Mattel. The Magic 8 Ball is a hollow plastic sphere resembling an oversized, black and white 8 ball.  Inside is a cylindrical reservoir containing a white, plastic, icosahedral  floating in alcohol with dissolved dark blue dye. The die is hollow, with openings in each face, allowing the die to fill with fluid, giving the plastic die minimal buoyancy. Each of the 20 faces of the die has an affirmative, negative, or non-committal statement printed on it in raised letters. There is a transparent window on the bottom of the Magic 8 Ball through which these messages can be read.

Ask The Magic 8-Ball is the perfect ending to a difficult year threatened by a poor economy and many unsettled issues that still afflict populations around the world. The question for the Magic 8-Ball is "Will 2011 Be Better than 2010?"  Pick one of  the 20 standard answers below that appear on the Magic 8-Ball for what's ahead. I picked the fifth one -- Outlook GOOD. Happy New Year!

? As I see it, yes

? It is certain

? It is decidedly so

? Most likely

? Outlook good

? Signs point to yes

? Without a doubt

? Yes

? Yes – definitely

? You may rely on it

? Reply hazy, try again

? Ask again later

? Better not tell you now

? Cannot predict now

? Concentrate and ask again

? Don't count on it

? My reply is no

? My sources say no

? Outlook not so good

? Very doubtful

I've been very busy so have not had a chance to mention two studies related to reputation that are worth reviewing. The first one is about industry reputation which continues to intrigue me. The Harris Interactive Poll found that the most credible industries among 2,152 adult Americans are supermarkets, hospitals, banks and electric and gas utilities. They have been doing this research since 2003. Not too surprisingly but disturbing nevertheless was that when asked this question about 17 industries, a large 48% said "none of these" industries are trustworthy. This was the highest number of people saying this since 2003.  Overall, no one industry is doing particularly well and this speaks to the overall downturn in perceptions of business over the decade.

TABLE 1 INDUSTRIES THAT ARE GENERALLY HONEST AND TRUSTWORTHY - TREND "Which of these industries do you think are generally honest and trustworthy – so that you normally believe a statement by a company in that industry?" Base: All U.S. adults
									CHANGES
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2000- 2010	2003- 2010
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Supermarkets	40	42	39	34	32	30	36	29	-7	-11
Hospitals	34	35	34	28	28	31	28	29	+1	-5
Banks	35	40	34	31	30	21	12	20	+8	-15
Electric and gas utilities	n/a	n/a	14	14	15	16	16	19	+3	n/a
Computer hardware companies	27	29	27	20	18	17	23	16	-7	-11
Computer software companies	22	25	22	23	17	16	20	15	-5	-7
Airlines	20	22	17	16	11	11	10	12	+2	-8
Online retailers	n/a	n/a	16	11	10	10	16	12	-4	n/a
Packaged food companies	23	23	21	14	12	13	16	11	-5	-12
Pharmaceutical and drug companies	13	14	9	7	11	10	9	11	+2	-2
Life insurance companies	11	15	10	11	10	9	10	10	-	-1
Car manufacturers	14	18	13	9	11	10	8	8	-	-6
Health insurance companies	7	9	9	7	7	7	7	8	+1	+1
Managed care companies such as HMOs	4	5	5	4	5	5	5	7	+2	+3
Telephone/Telecommunication companies	12	13	11	10	10	9	10	7	-3	-5
Oil Companies	4	4	3	3	3	4	5	4	-1	-
Tobacco companies	3	4	4	2	3	2	3	2	-1	-1
None of these	37	32	37	40	44	44	44	48	+4	11
Note: Multiple-response question;  n/a = industry not asked about that year

The second survey that should be on your radar is research by Nora Ganim Barnes. She has been diligently surveying Fortune 500 companies with regard to their social media usage.  Social reputation is a growing component of reputation which is why I am writing about this. This is the third survey that she has done on this topic at the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Here are some of her key findings for 2010 (conducted in August/September 2010) which are great to track over time. 1. One quarter (23%) of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog with a recent post over the past 12 months. Two years ago, only 16% had blogs so this is a healthy increase. 2.  When it comes to industries, the industries with the most blogs are computer software, peripherals and office equipment. This includes companies such as HP, Microsoft, Apple. There have been increases in blogs in the specialty retail industry (Best Buy as an example) and telecommunications as well (Verizon, AT&T). 3. About one third (32%) of top 100 ranked Fortune 500 companies had a blog, a slight dip from 38% in 2008.  4. A whopping 90% of  Fortune 500 blogs take comments, have RSS feeds and take subscriptions. That is good news to see that these blogs are interactive and not one-way. 5.  They looked at corporate Twitter accounts (had to have tweeted in the past 30 days) and 60% had Twitter accounts, a jump up from 35% in 2009. Nine of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies had accounts and consistently posted.  Specialty retail companies were the most likely to have Twitter accounts. Since they are so consumer-facing, makes sense. 6. A fairly large 56% of the Fortune 500 companies are on Facebook. Not bad but not up to the level it should be and will be over time. Industry reputations are still failing but social media seems to be exploding (Twitter and Facebook) among the top companies in the US.  We are witnessing the Great American Reach Out. Industry reputations could begin the climb upwards if there was greater adoption of interactivity. No doubt industries will take this seriously and jump onboard. CEOs as well will become more socialized in the years ahead.

Since we at Weber Shandwick did that analysis on socializing CEOs Buy Doxycycline cap. Without Prescription, and how to turn CEOs from (UN)social to social, I've been fascinated by the increasing examples that are popping up. In the December issue of HBR, Fort Worth, Texas. Denver, Colorado, Doxycycline cap. samples, there is a very good piece on Best Buy CEO's Brian Dunn and his experience in the digital space. The article starts out with an attention-getting example of how someone hijacked his Twitter handle and wrote "I've been having a lot of great sex lately, Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee. Portland, Oregon, Doxycycline cap. for sale, and here's why." The link attached to it was for a Viaga-like pill. (Lesson Learned: Regularly change your password)

Dunn explains his sticking with social media and the many benefits, Austin, Texas, Memphis, Tennessee. Farmacia Doxycycline cap. baratos, Doxycycline cap. online kaufen, Here are a few reasons he enjoys being a social CEO.

• Provides the opportunity to interact directly with customers and employees


• Provides insights into trends and news


• It is not just a trend or fad that will fade away


• Lets people know what the CEO is thinking about (from store visits or customers he meets)

Then he says it all: "I like how posting about these things allows us all to be humanized a little bit."  Being social, Jacksonville, Florida, Columbus, Ohio, Buy cheap Doxycycline cap., even for a limited amount of time or on one platform such as Facebook, gives CEOs or other executives some personality and humanity, rx free Doxycycline cap.. Order Doxycycline cap. no prescription, Like everything new, it is easier to find reasons not to, online buying Doxycycline cap. hcl. Order Doxycycline cap. from mexican pharmacy, But there are many reasons to join the digital conversation, if only to  insure that you and your company are in the conversation and where your customers are hanging out, buy Doxycycline cap. without prescription. Baltimore, Maryland. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I agree it is not for every CEO but wade in and give it a try. 650mg, 800mg, 875mg, 900mg. 1000mg, 2000mg. Doxycycline cap. trusted pharmacy. New York. Los Angeles, California. Purchase Doxycycline cap. online. Kjøpe Doxycycline cap. online, bestill Doxycycline cap. online. Doxycycline cap. price. Where can i buy Doxycycline cap. online. Where can i find Doxycycline cap. online. Canada, mexico, india. Where can i order Doxycycline cap. without prescription. Online buy Doxycycline cap. without a prescription. Doxycycline cap. in cats, dogs, children, man, woman, men, women. Buy Doxycycline cap. from canada. Japan, craiglist, ebay, overseas, paypal. Order Doxycycline cap. online c.o.d. Detroit, Michigan, San Jose, California. Doxycycline cap. over the counter. 5mg, 50mg, 75mg, 100mg. Buy no prescription Doxycycline cap. online. Buy Doxycycline cap. online no prescription. Buy Doxycycline cap. from mexico. Acheter en ligne Doxycycline cap., acheter Doxycycline cap. bon marché. Købe Doxycycline cap. online, αγοράζουν online Doxycycline cap.. Comprar en línea Doxycycline cap., comprar Doxycycline cap. baratos. Doxycycline cap. withdrawal, snort, alcohol iteraction. Order Doxycycline cap. online overnight delivery no prescription. Doxycycline cap. coupon. Köpa Doxycycline cap. online, Osta Doxycycline cap. online, Jotta Doxycycline cap. verkossa. Buy Doxycycline cap. online cod. Indianapolis, Indiana, San Francisco, California. 125mg, 150mg, 200mg, 250mg. Reasons to buy Doxycycline cap. online. Doxycycline cap. samples. Fort Worth, Texas. Denver, Colorado. Order Doxycycline cap. from mexican pharmacy. 125mg, 150mg, 200mg, 250mg. Order Doxycycline cap. no prescription. Detroit, Michigan, San Jose, California. Purchase Doxycycline cap. online no prescription. Acheter en ligne Doxycycline cap., acheter Doxycycline cap. bon marché. Boston, Massachusetts. Charlotte, Carolina. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Phoenix, Arizona. Doxycycline cap. withdrawal, snort, alcohol iteraction. Indianapolis, Indiana, San Francisco, California. Buy Doxycycline cap. no prescription. El Paso, Texas. Washington, D.C. Seattle, Washington. Doxycycline cap. price. Chicago, Illinois. Houston, Texas. Buy generic Doxycycline cap.. Purchase Doxycycline cap. online.

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