18 Aug How Many Social Media Apps Should Executives Be On?

In our previous guides, we’ve explored how social media can be beneficial to executives who use these platforms strategically. For marketers looking to position their company’s CEO or other executive on social media, it’s not just a question of which platform to use, but how many.

Facebook, LinkedIn, X (previously Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads — the list of social media apps feels endless. Should your executive post content on just one platform? Two? Or perhaps even three?

In this article, we share our expert tips on how to choose between a single platform or multi-platform social media strategy for your company’s CEO or executive.

How far along is your executive social media strategy?

Is your company’s CEO or executive just starting out on social media, or are they familiar with these platforms and have posted content on them in the past?

If your executive is already established on one or a few social media platforms, it may make sense to continue with those since there’s already a history there. Marketers wouldn’t be starting from zero, and can pivot the content to more strategically position the executive. However, the drawback is that the existing social media platforms may not be the right ones on which to position your executive. For example, if the executive wants to position themselves as a thought leader by sharing long-form articles but only has an existing social media presence on Instagram, marketers will need to decide if adding LinkedIn is viable as it’s a platform that does offer article-writing features.

On the other hand, if your company’s executive is completely new to social media, marketers have more freedom to select how many platforms to position them on. It may be more difficult to gain traction early on if marketers are starting from scratch, but the benefit is that the executive’s presence can be tailored to the overall social media strategy from day one. Marketers that pivot an existing executive’s social media account run the risk of sounding less authentic if there’s a major tonal shift, for instance.

How much time do you realistically have?

Managing more than one social media platform can end up taking more time than expected, even if the content being posted to each one is similar.

One of the biggest pitfalls that marketers fall into is thinking that just because they’re handling the brand’s social media content, adding on their executive’s content won’t take too much longer. Keep in mind that an executive’s social media content should be very different from what’s posted on the brand’s page. It’s not a matter of taking a post from the company page and making it more “personal,” but rather, researching and creating new content that fits the executive’s tone and unique goals.

Having limited time is one of the most common reasons why marketers can’t start an executive social media presence. That’s why, in most cases, whether they’re looking to establish their executive on one or more platforms, marketers partner with a third-party agency. These digital marketing experts can support with content creation, communicate with your marketing team about upcoming events to align the executive’s posts, manage the posting and user comments, and other tasks.

Read our article here to learn about services that social media marketing agencies can help with.

What are the executive’s business and personal objectives?

Each social media platform has its own unique set of features and attracts different types of audiences. Some platforms cater to younger demographics, while others may attract more business professionals. Understanding an executive’s business and personal goals for their social media presence is one way to determine which platforms to use.

If, for example, executives want to focus on sharing photo and video-related content, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook may be effective platforms to use. If we layer more information on top — such as photo and video-related content that relates to company objectives targeting a B2B audience — then LinkedIn stands out among the rest.

Here are some questions to ask your marketing team and executive:

• What is the primary purpose for positioning your executive on social media? Is it to build brand awareness for the company? Is it to set up your executive as an industry thought leader?
• Are you targeting a B2B or B2C audience?
• What type of content will you be sharing most often? Will it be photos, videos, or text-based content?

A single-platform or multi-platform approach?

It may be tempting to establish your executive’s social media presence on all of the same platforms your brand is on. However, your executive’s business and personal objectives may not align with the company’s goals for social media.

Here are our quick tips:

• If you’re just starting out, conquer one or two platforms. Don’t spread your executive — or your marketing team — too thin. It may seem exciting to want to establish a strategic online presence across multiple social media platforms, but don’t bite off more than you can chew!
• Our research shows that LinkedIn remains one of the top social media platforms for executives. For many executives, their company objectives align with LinkedIn’s primarily B2B audience. That being said, LinkedIn doesn’t need to be your executive’s first social media platform if their objectives don’t align with what that platform can offer.
• Consider areas that you and your marketing team can handle in-house, and which components of your executive’s marketing strategy can be outsourced to a partner digital marketing agency.

If you have more questions, click the button below. Our digital marketing experts have worked with many marketing teams and executives in the past, helping to launch or transition their social media to a more strategic presence.

Book a consultation with a digital marketing expert!