Should The Executives In Your Business Be On Social Media?

A few things have the power to be both the potential joy – as well as the bane – of an executive’s existence like social media. As we’ve seen before, a single tweet may cause share prices to plummet, while a truly empathetic YouTube apology has become a strategic facet of saving face in the midst of a PR disaster.

With almost two billion users worldwide, social media has become an invaluable – as well as inescapable – corporate tool for everything from brand building in addition to customer acquisition to crisis management. The question remains, however, if it is the top executives of companies who should be the mouthpiece of their company on social media.

Between having branded company accounts, getting a social marketing team as well as getting employees to create and share content too – these techniques will have a great impact on the organization. However, many organisations and corporate leaders forget to understand the value of executives on social media.

Naturally, many high-profile organisations leaders may be hesitant with the possible risks of harming corporate reputation or making an error when it comes to having an effective presence online. While it is important for executives to be careful with social media, it’s more valuable than ever that company leaders are creating, sharing, and having conversations online.

Building Brand Trust

It is more probably that customers will buy from a brand whose executives are on social media. Crafting a social presence which is engaging and informative can have a major positive impact on the brand. Actually, in a survey by Brandfrog, 77% of respondents were more likely – or much more likely – to purchase from a company whose values and mission are defined through CEO and executive leadership participation on social media.

For customers, it provides transparency about the company’s activities as well as its values. With high customer expectations for brands, customer trust is vital to a business. According to Sprout Social, 86% of people believe that transparency from businesses is more important than ever before.

Three Tips For Executives Entering The Social Media Conversation

1. Take a moment to listen before you take part in the conversation. What are individuals saying about your company? How are they saying it? Because individuals communicate more openly on social media – as opposed to what they would in a market research survey – this is a wonderful opportunity for you to gain insight into the real need and preferences of your customers and stakeholders.

2. Choose your social media platform carefully. What do you want to achieve? What type of engagement are you searching for? For instance, Facebook and LinkedIn are more social as opposed to media. They’re about creating relationships and keeping in touch. Twitter and YouTube are more media than social – they’re more about broadcasting messages.

3. Do it right – or don’t do it at all. Just because it’s free to post on social media doesn’t mean that it’s cheap and easy to do correctly. Without 100% efforts, customers be prone to frustration in response to lack of responsiveness or turned off if they sense inauthenticity.

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