I’m quite fortunate to be part of the team at CEO Connection, working closely with our CEO members on a daily basis as Chief Relationship Officer. One of the things I value most about my role is the opportunity to meet with small, intimate groups of these executives five times a year in different locales around the world.
At these CEO Connection meetings they have a chance to truly reflect on – and be open and honest about – challenges they’re facing and mistakes they’ve made. And they share experiences and insights that enable them to leave with renewed, energized vision and strategies.
At our most recent event in New York City last week we spent a good deal of time discussing social media. I thought you might find some of these CEO comments about social media to be both insightful and perhaps surprising.
To give you a general background, these quotes are from smart, experienced CEOs who represent a variety of companies across industries that boast average revenues of $1.6 billion. Roughly 40% of those in the room were women:
1. “Everyone in my company thinks they’re a social media maven.” (B2C Company)
2. “My biggest concern with participating in social media is that we’ll somehow provoke a crisis.” (B2C Company with overwhelming majority agreeing)
3. “Connecting and creating relationships with customers is nice, but how does that translate to reach?” (Manufacturing company)
4. “We’re definitely increasing our social media budget more than any other media category.” (General agreement)
5. “I recently started tweeting and my employees love it; they can’t get enough of it. I tweet about the meetings I’m in and general observations, which seems basic, but they better understand what I do.” (B2C Technology company)
6. “By not tweeting you’re tweeting. You’re sending a message.” (Business services company)
7. “We’re not in control of the conversation, so we need to monitor it and adjust our strategy accordingly.” (B2B Company)
8. “I recently started blogging and every time I meet with employees they implore me not to stop. They really love it.” (B2B Company)
9. “Our employees’ wives love our facebook page and are our most active group on it. They’re our advocates.” (Mining Company)
10. “We advise our employees that when they’re using social media they should use social grace – and we trust them to do so.” (B2B Company)
What resonates with you most about these quotes? Do they surprise you at all? Encourage you in any way? Let’s talk in the comments!
Need help defining a business vision, purpose and mission and the strategies to support them? Hire me for Visionary Leadership programs, and work with me by emailing me at Lisa@CLevelStrategies.com.
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15 Response Comments
I really like #6 & #7. Six makes perfect sense- if you are not using social media, you’re still sending a message. Maybe its that you don’t want to interact with customers? Maybe they agree with #2 and are afraid? Either way, people will perceive their own message of them not participating. We can’t avoid social media.
Seven is great. Social media does put you in charge of the conversation. You can help alter peoples negative views of your company or brand, help increase positive attributes, share information, and most importantly – you can listen and learn. Engaging directly with consumers is an incredible opportunity that social media provides.
Hi Sara,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and I agree with your point about #6 that people will create their own message in their minds based on lack of participation. Glad you love #7 and to know that these are resonating! As always, I genuinely appreciate you being here & your support – all the best to you!
I agree with every comment and think that some, even though I agree, are the wrong strategy. Let me first say that I have gained tremendously by using social media. I have met very important people who have used my work and given me great advice. I have used LinkedIn, Twitter, and now Facebook to great advantage.
1,2,and 3 are cautions and they are important. I follow journalists from a very large media company who Tweet. However, they are often profane. I think it reflects badly on the company and them.
The bad part about being cautious, as reflected in 4,5,6,7 are that you could be missing out on something important and something that is the next big thing. As a company in the marketplace, you don’t want to do that. It could leave you looking old.
If you are worried about employees misusing social media, then what else are you worried about them doing? Maybe you have the wrong employees in place if that is the situation. Maybe that is a bit harsh, but with proper controls in place, maybe it is the right thing to do. But for management to ignore it seems wrong.
5,8,9,10 get it. Why not use a new tool if it is to your advantage? Then again, their are managements who con’t talk to and communicate with their employees. The style of open communications and an implication of shared problem solving are so important.
Using social media can help management communicate with their employees, help employee retention, improve business relations, improve planning, find new customers, and help public relations.
Henry,
What a beautiful summary of the implications of all of these comments. You bring up such great points in regard to the caution you are perceiving – and for us to understand the depth of their concerns is critical to helping them move past them. And I love your point about trust – if you’re concerned about your employees using social media, what does it mean for trust as a larger issue? Thanks so much for diving into all of these quotes to find the deeper meaning – I really appreciate it.
Lisa,
In presos I tell the world that a “Social Media Fire can only be put out with Social Media Water”
The case study is my videoapology to @interactiveamy when she Tweeted about poor service.
#RamonWOW
@Ramon_Deleon
Ramon,
Nice addition, and a great point. Thank you for sharing!
Lisa such wonderful and insightful quotes, I am sure it was a delight to talk to these smart CEOs. I was drawn to #2: “My biggest concern with participating in social media is that we’ll somehow provoke a crisis.”
Most of the time a Social Media Crisis isn’t triggered by something a company does, but how they REACT to upset customers. Love at what’s happened over the last 24 hours with @RaguSauce tweet-spamming dads with their videos basically saying that dads can’t cook. Several dads, including C.C. Chapman, were very upset by this, and even blogged about it. This was yesterday, but Ragu didn’t even tweet a response to any of the upset dads till a couple of hours ago. In the meantime, the fact that Ragu was NOT responding made it worse, and the dads more upset.
I think I feel a blog post coming on 😉 Thanks for giving me something to think about, as you always do Lisa!
Thanks, Mack and yes, it was such a pleasure to spend time listening to their perspective. I have been following the Ragu situation since seeing C.C. tweet last night, and it’s a great example as you mention. What’s interesting and important to note is that the CEOs spent more time focused on a concern that their EMPLOYEES would say something in social media that would cause a crisis. For example, the Red Cross slizzard situation. The other focus was on how to encourage employees to participate in social media in general. One company proactively encourages it; others are afraid employees that get upset at their boss or who are under stress in their lives may take their stress out on the company in a public way.
The biggest take-away for me during that part of the conversation was that they have to move past the fear, and address these “defensive” concerns completely, before they’re really able to move psychologically to being proactive and thinking about engagement and conversation. As marketers we may have moved on to promoting engagement and conversation and community-building with customers, but the executives who are fully liable for the actions and reflections on their company may still need help with this first piece.
Can’t wait to read the blog post you’re probably writing as I type… 😉
One day, digital engagement policies and enterprise wide acceptance will be commonplace. Let’s help the multitudes of companies that still need a hand.
Well said. 🙂
These are great quotes, Lisa. I hear a number of them echoed in my work with CEOs as well.
The two that jump out at me are #5 and #8. When CEOs effectively engage in social media, they inspire those around them – the employees they are leading. Most CEOs are remarkable in many ways. They have accumulated wisdom, insight and some goods stories along the way and most aren’t shy about sharing.
This makes for extremely valuable personal brand content that can help them do what they’re paid to do: inspire confidence and lead effectively.
There are lots of things about social media to be wary of, to be sure. But my message to CEOs is not to let those worries become excuses preventing them from leveraging the power of this space.
Great post. Thanks!
Eloquently said, Jay! And I agree with you in that so many of them are truly remarkable and genuinely care about and enjoy working with their employees. Social media gives them new ways to connect with many more of them, and, as you said, to inspire as they do this. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!