Posts Tagged ‘Social CEO’

 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 learn something new everyday.  Lately it has to do with Social CEOs because we just released our new study and we are being asked about it and how CEOs should get started. The president and CEO of BestBuyCanada, Mike Platt, Tweets (@BBYCanadaMike) and he has the coolest video replies for customers. They are just so friendly. I thought it was fun. Check this out.

Tomorrow is another day, another lesson.

  Weber Shandwick regularly hosts Twitter Dialogues (#SocialID) and this past Friday was on our new research on Socializing Your CEO.  See my last few posts as well.  I was asked to join my colleague Natalie Petrouhoff who we refer to as Dr Natalie (@drnatalie) to tweet about the merits and obstacles to CEOs communicating online as well as offline. It was an animated discussion and certainly kept me on my toes (or fingers on the keys?) for the full hour.

The topic of other executives using social media arose. This signaled to me that the people joining the dialogue were quite sophisticated about communications. Of course, executives besides the CEO should be communicating because they are often more believable than those at the top. Companies should be seriously considering how they can communicate using their employees, from bottom to top (although I recognize that this does not always work in some cultures or heavily regulated industries).  I wholeheartedly believe that if a company has a chief sustainability officer or marketing officer or any other C-level title, they should strategize how to echo, share and engage others about what they do on behalf of their companies.

Another insightful comment was that Twitter could help CEOs learn message discipline….keeping their communications in 140 characters. Good point.

The discussion was wide-ranging.  A favorite moment was when the CEO of ING Direct in Canada joined.  Thanks to Peter Aceto for braving the new medium (@CEO_INGDIRECT).  One of his tweets is a classic…..

6:38 pm CEO_INGDIRECT: #SocialID Twitter is a form of customer service, spelled out in a series of 140-character messages.

To all those who joined, appreciate your time and comments. Brave on.

While I am still on the subject of Social CEOs, please check out my post on the HBR blog. You will find the point of view interesting and I am a compulsive answer-er.

It is surprising to me how quickly people assume that I am advocating for big time CEOs to tweet. I guess when you hear the words “Socializing Your CEO,” people immediately think that is what I am advising. Far from it. My recommendation is to start with the fundamentals — a video, a podcast, a speech online. Use your corporate YouTube channel. Check with legal counsel. Ask around. Check out your competitors and other industries.

Speaking of YouTube, one of the more heartening findings was that in 2007, we found that 34% of the CEOs we researched had a corporate YouTube channel. Two years later, the figure was 56%. Additionally, in 2007, only 2% of the CEOs were featured on their corporate YouTube channels vs. a respectable 12% two years later. Happily, movement in the right direction. We point out that a company-controlled site is an easy, straightforward and simple way to add some personality and humanity to the CEO role and tell the company story in a compelling way. YouTube might just be a Social CEO’s new best friend. Of course, some detractor could copy the video and redo in a negative way but that can happen whether a CEO is Social or not. This is 2010 afterall.