AuSAE - CEOs fail to embrace LinkedIn, Twitter

CEOs fail to embrace LinkedIn, Twitter

22 Mar 2015 8:36 AM | Louise Stokes

Australia's leading chief executive officers still don't understand the power and influence of social media according to the latest available numbers for two key social platforms, LinkedIn and Twitter. The failure of Australia's top CEOs to engage with social media raises questions about their understanding of one of the most powerful business-related paradigm shifts in the 21st century.

The fact that Australian business leaders are bypassing social media is clear from the results of a survey of the CEOs of the top 20 publicly listed companies and their relationships with LinkedIn and Twitter, conducted by The Australian Financial Review's Chanticleer. The two leading executives in terms of social-platform connections are Telstra CEO David Thodey and ANZ Banking Group CEO Mike Smith. Thodey was one of the first executives in Australia to appoint a chief social media officer. Mike Smith embraced social media after a trip to Silicon Valley in 2010.

Thodey is a LinkedIn influencer with 33,323 followers, while Smith is a LinkedIn influencer with 100,438 followers. Thodey is on Twitter and has about 4150 followers. Smith is on Twitter but his account is protected. Thodey has taken social media seriously for several years. He is a big user of the internal social media network called Yammer. Telstra has the largest Yammer community in the Asia-Pacific region and the 14th-largest globally, according to Yammer.

Eleven of the top 20 CEOs are not on LinkedIn and 13 of them are not on Twitter. However, several of the top 20 CEOs are doing better when using another measure of LinkedIn engagement, and that is the number of connections. The following CEOs have more than 500 connections on LinkedIn: BHP Billiton's Andre Mackenzie, Westpac Banking Corp's Brian Hartzer and Grant O'Brien at Woolworths. Insurance Australia Group CEO Mike Wilkins has one connection on LinkedIn, while Brambles CEO Tom Gorman has 26.

Some CEOs outside the top 20 are active on LinkedIn and Twitter, including Alan Joyce from Qantas Airways and Richard Goyder from Wesfarmers. But they are the exception to the rule. James Griffin, a director of KPMG and a specialist in social media, says the most common excuse from CEOs for not being on Twitter or becoming an influencer on LinkedIn is they see it as being narcissistic. "They don't want to put themselves forward as they fear it will look as though it is all about their own vanity," he says. "In some respects this shows that social media is not part of the way they tackle their day. But they are missing the opportunity to not only follow leading thought leaders and experts in different fields around the world but also engage with a variety of stakeholders."

Amanda Gome, who is head of digital and social media at ANZ, says Smith has made it clear he wants ANZ to be the leading social bank in the region. Social is an important tool for engaging with customers. "This is not about having 100 likes on Facebook," she says. "It is about the business value, the value to our customers from doing this." ANZ has recently stepped up its use of social media to promote women within the organisation and give them a platform for sharing their expertise with customers and potential customers.

Twitter and LinkedIn are increasingly being seen as part of a "New Power" in business and government, which was recently defined in an article in Harvard Business Review by Australian Jeremy Heimans, the co-founder of social media group Purpose and one of the founders of GetUp!, and Henry Timms, executive director of 92nd Street Y, a community centre in New York. Their article, published in December 2014 described the attributes of new power and old power. "Old powerworks like a currency. It is held by few. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful have a substantial store of it to spend. It is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. It downloads, and it captures," wrote Heimans and Timms.

"New poweroperates differently,like a current. It is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It uploads, and it distributes. Like water or electricity, it's most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it but to channel it." The attributes of new power include social media because it includes collaboration, crowd wisdom and sharing.

Article written by Tony Boyd and sourced directly from:

http://www.afr.com/p/business/chanticleer/ceos_fail_to_embrace_linkedin_twitter_CnLqtqRIsbguxUC6vAqm2M

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