09 Jul Front Page Execs: A Month of Connectivity for Doug McMillon and Walmart
By now we know that influential executives garner higher overall engagements on social media than the brands they work for. On top of that, though, they can also be used to convey a company’s corporate social responsibility in a more authentic light.
Since becoming the CEO of Walmart 5 years ago, Doug McMillon’s social profile has become a platform to promote Walmart’s acts of social good, such as eliminating abuses through the supply chain. On his Facebook and Instagram profiles especially, he is no stranger to group pictures and heartwarming captions. In the month of June, Walmart was all about creating a community space between associates, shareholders, and the public. McMillon leveraged his social presence by participating in branded hashtags and telling touching stories in order to promote his company’s social good and positive community. If you’re interested, you can check out this blog post, where we outline how to build a customer-driven executive social strategy.
To commence Walmart’s unofficial community-bonding month, Walmart hosted their annual shareholders meeting to recognize and celebrate its associates from around the world. The hashtag #WalmartShares was used by McMillon on his favorite social media accounts for showing his personal side: Instagram and Facebook, on which he has a combined total of over 130,000 followers.
Doug’s caption reads, “When our global team of associates bring their energy and passion to Northwest Arkansas, we know Associates week has officially started. It’s going to be an awesome week! 🇦🇷 🇯🇵 🇨🇱 #walmartshares.”
A question and answer session was hosted by Doug himself. Shortly after, Doug posted a video to his social profiles speaking to the company’s future, and thanked associates for their service.
On June 18th and 19th, Walmart also hosted their 6th annual Open Call event, which was heavily promoted by McMillon once more. The event, hosted in Walmart’s home office in Bentonville, continues to offer “great networking opportunities, and give businesses of all sizes from across the nation a chance at the big break they’ve been looking for.” It is partly through this event that Walmart demonstrates their promise to support and create U.S.-made products and jobs.
McMillon shared this post detailing the event, with the hashtag #WalmartOpenCall:
On average, McMillon’s Facebook posts receive the most amount of engagements—averaging 1,000 likes per post, with double the amount of comments.
In contrast, Walmart’s official Instagram page consists of light-hearted promotional content, giveaway winners, and the occasional influencer-related campaign post, as seen in the examples below. However, during the month of June, the company’s page did not post about any of the Walmart’s internal events, such as associates week, the annual shareholder celebration, or the annual open call.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Doug Mcmillon understands that content coming from the account of an executive is extremely valuable in the public eye. From associates week leading up to the annual shareholder celebration and open call, Walmart has strategically used the affable social media presence of Doug McMillon to relay positive messages and announcements to the public that furthers the company’s own initiatives. McMillon brings a value that his predecessors could not: that is, in a technology-driven, hyperconnected world, he represents the friendly face of Walmart and has been successful in raising awareness in audiences from the associate end to the consumer end. For guidelines on how to brand your social media presence for success as an executive, you can check out our latest blog post here.