Why It Doesn’t Matter that CEOs Aren’t Using Social Media

Ah, a July heat wave and the livin’ is easy, unless you write about technology, in which case it’s that boring old period between the second quarter results and the fun new toys for Christmas. What to do? Say, let’s do some Ritual Shaming and dress it up with a few hysterical headlines. That’ll make things interesting!

We don’t need to get too hung up about the source of the “research”. It really doesn’t matter that the two sponsors are actually the same organization and their business is all about the solution the research suggests will save the day. We’re B2B adults here and you won’t find me trash-talking sponsored research. But there really oughta be a law about hysterical headlines.

Before the rant begins, let’s fill you in on why I’m a little hot and bothered (and it has nothing to do with the lack of AC in my house). This week’s Ritual Shaming victim is our old friend, the CEO. In this instance, it’s the archetypical Old-White-Dinosaur-Luddite-Who-Just-Won’t-Be-My-Facebook-Friend.

The Shamers are a software company that wants to sell business dashboards to CEOs. So the company went out and counted how many Fortune 500 CEOs have their own Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest accounts. And guess what? Seventy percent of them do not. Holy cow! What can this mean? Here is what Technorati thinks it means:

Executives Don’t Give a Damn About Social Media 

I think Technorati should know better than to extrapolate that kind of hysteria from a study like this. No place in the study says CEOs don’t care. The study is quantitative and no CEOs were apparently harmed (or questioned) in the making of the data. I don’t participate in high-altitude Morris Dancing, but never let it be said that I don’t give a damn about it!

Forbes, which should also know better, republished the company’s blog entry under this headline

CEOs Afraid of Going Social Are Doing Shareholders a Massive Disservice 

Really? How does the author know that CEOs are afraid of going social? His research never concluded that. He concluded that. And he based its counter-argument on an apparent sample of one (himself). And why, exactly, is a non-social (anti-social?) CEO doing something massively bad to shareholders?

In fact, in this age of activist and just plain crazy shareholders, and increased regulatory scrutiny, why on earth would a CEO choose Twitter as a medium with which to communicate? Is the expectation that our executives should be sending Farmville chickens to analysts? Should she make a LinkedIn connection to all of the members of Congress? Maybe he should throw a photo of his new stapler on Pinterest? Would that serve shareholders?

Maybe CEOs aren’t afraid of social media; maybe they’re afraid of lawsuits, time wasted arguing with crazy people, relentless sales pitches, the possibility of something inappropriate ending up on their walls and mundane stuff like soft economies, labour shortages, encroaching competitors, changing regulations, global warming and red elastic bands.

For CEOs of start-ups, or of social media companies, there are advantages to using social media, but for the chief executive of a Fortune 500 company, it looks like a lot of downside to me.

And here’s another thought: Maybe the CEOs are all over social media. Maybe they have wonderful Facebook pages with pics of the dog and fun stories about the kids and links to crazy bloopers. And perhaps, because as a CEO of a Fortune 500, one is subject to a certain amount of stalking, they post under a different name to protect their privacy and that of their families. Maybe CEOs are Tweeting like mad under pseudonyms to their friends and coworkers. This seems more likely than 500 pretty smart people not giving a damn about social or being terrified of their own gravatars.

Let’s take a moment here and remember the five reasons why it is that C-Suite people should probably stay well clear of social media:
1. They aren’t always all that customer friendly
2. They are always more than a little busy
3. They don’t really have to care
4. Not all of them can write
5. Not all of them have much to say

I also take exception to the notion that CEOs who don’t use social are not leading customer and employee engagement properly. Just because the CEO isn’t asking the world to “Like” the company’s latest debt issue on Facebook, doesn’t mean there isn’t a whole lot of social going on elsewhere and that they aren’t the ones pushing it.

Bizmarketer is Elizabeth Williams
Follow me on Twitter @bizmkter
or email escwilliams@gmail.com