07 Jun

Posted on June 7, 2019 in Executive Spotlight

Profile pictures are crucial to an executive’s social media presence. Not only do they serve as a form of digital identification for a brand or person, but they also serve as an unspoken first impression. For influential executives such as Rihanna, a simple change in her profile picture recently symbolized a progression in her image and career. With over 70 million Instagram followers and 90 million followers on Twitter, Robyn Rihanna Fenty has successfully used these two social media platforms to distinguish her two main brand identities: on Instagram, she brands herself as Rihanna, the pop icon, and on Twitter, she is Rihanna, the face of the Fenty fashion empire. Fans have witnessed the famous popstar’s ongoing success as she continued to take on diverse projects such as releasing the body-positive lingerie line Savage x Fenty, landing an acting role in...

14 May

Posted on May 14, 2019 in Articles, Guide

We all know content is king, and as the backbone of any social media presence, it’s also the primary driver of social media success. An effective social media presence requires a steady cadence of thoughtful and objective-driven owned content tailored to your unique audience. Any content that fails to resonate will also fail to impact your bottom line. In part two of our two-part B2C versus B2B blog series, we’re going to tackle the nuances of creating social media content for both B2B and B2C executives. While we think it can be valuable to read about best practices for both types of execs, feel free to skip ahead to your most relevant section! B2C Content For an executive in the B2C space, spreading awareness and fostering an engaged community is likely among your top priorities, and building trust among that audience is...

03 May

Posted on May 3, 2019 in Articles, Guide

It’s true: regardless of your industry, you and your company can benefit from an executive social media presence, potentially outperforming a branded presence by as much as 320%! Where your industry starts to matter, however, is in your approach. B2B companies and B2C companies have vastly different business models, and the social strategy and tactics employed for each must be customized for those differences. Regardless of which category you fall into, if you’re looking to launch an executive social media presence for yourself or for your company’s leaders, we’ve put together a two-part series covering things you should consider before you get started. In this installment, we’ll be discussing the platform, audience and measurement variations for a B2B versus B2C executive. Platform While every social media platform provides its own unique value, you don’t need to, nor should you, be on all...

23 Apr

Posted on April 23, 2019 in Front Page Execs

On April 15, 2019, the world watched with sadness as the Notre Dame Cathedral was engulfed in flames. People turned to social media for news updates as it happened, and then afterwards to form a community of support and discussion using the hashtag #NotreDameFire. In the midst of such an event, executives must carefully consider what to post on social media, if they decide to post anything at all, so as not to seem self-serving or that they are taking advantage of misfortune. Many CEOs and other executives chose not to post about the Notre Dame fire, which was not offensive to those affected, but also did not allow them to be demonstrative of their awareness of newsworthy events or of producing significant and timely content. Below are three different tweets that CEOs shared. In today’s Front Page Execs by...

16 Apr

Posted on April 16, 2019 in Articles, Guide

Not all social platforms are equal, and while some platforms like LinkedIn are ideal for showcasing owned content in the form of articles, no platform is quite as well-positioned for leaders to observe, join, and ultimately impact a wider narrative than Twitter. Twitter is a timely, trend-driven platform that is ideal for sharing newsworthy content and authentic perspectives. It can be leveraged not only to have a voice in relevant industry conversations but to also quickly communicate expertise and unique perspectives with followers. It is also a platform that encourages commenting, sharing and discussion. In this blog post, we’ve put together guidelines to help executives effectively leverage the platform for impactful thought leadership on Twitter. "While Twitter increased the character count maximum per tweet from 140 characters to 280 characters in 2017, the ideal length of a tweet has remained between...

09 Apr

Posted on April 9, 2019 in Executive Spotlight

Richard Branson says, “I don’t see any separation between work and play – it’s all just living, and I love sharing all of it,” and his LinkedIn profile clearly reflects that sentiment. Dr. Yes—as he is affectionately referred to at Virgin—is a self-proclaimed dyslexic thinker who loathes ties and believes in turning ideas into reality, as demonstrated time and again at Virgin. Branson’s professional LinkedIn profile effectively showcases each aspect of his identity, blending business, personal, and larger social topics to position himself as both a reliable source of information and an approachable person. Richard Branson is currently the number one rated LinkedInfluencer—an exclusive collective of 500+ of the world’s foremost thinkers—let’s shift our executive spotlight to Richard Branson and take a closer look at how he uses LinkedIn to position himself as a revolutionary thought leader. Visuals Richard Branson uses all...

02 Apr

Posted on April 2, 2019 in Articles, Guide

When it comes to creating an effective social media presence for business leaders and executives, LinkedIn is a great place to start. Because the platform is best-positioned for professional networking, most executives will already have, or can easily build, a base network of personal and professional connections, creating a strong, credible foundation for ultimately attracting prospective talent, customers and investors. Like anything, though, a poorly managed social presence may be more detrimental than having no presence at all. In this post, we’ve laid out some basic best-practice guidelines to help you get started and make the most out of your executive social media presence with an optimized LinkedIn profile. "Like anything, a poorly managed social presence may be more detrimental than having no presence at all." Optimized LinkedIn Profile Let’s start with the cornerstone of your LinkedIn program, your optimized LinkedIn profile. Leveraging...

26 Mar

Posted on March 26, 2019 in Front Page Execs

This month, influential executive Tim Cook, Apple CEO, made headlines once again when he briefly changed his name on his Twitter account. This is what it looked like: In this edition of Front Page Execs, we’ll take a look at the events leading up to the “Tim Apple” name change, as well as the ingenuity behind the move for this executive’s social media presence. On March 6, 2019, President Donald Trump mistakenly referred to Tim Cook as “Tim Apple” during a meeting of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board at the White House. Social media, of course, latched onto this accident, and “Tim Apple” began to trend on Twitter. Less than twenty-four hours later, Tim Cook rode that trending wave to the top when he changed his name to Tim Apple on the platform. Twitter users loved it. By capitalizing on the trend...

19 Mar

Posted on March 19, 2019 in Articles

November 18th, 2020 update: Did you know that most Fortune 500 CEOs are on social media in 2020? Visit our updated article here to learn more about which platform is the most popular among executives.   Back in 2015, CEO.com published its 2015 Social CEO Report, which included a widely quoted statistic pertaining to executive social media. That statistic was the fact that only 39% of Fortune 500 CEOs were on any social media platform, and 61% weren’t on any at all! We’ve seen these numbers quoted as recently as this year, so we thought it was time for an update. Our team at Influential Executive replicated the study in February of 2019 using the most recent Fortune 500 list, going through 500 executives one by one to search across platforms for public pages and evaluating the level of activity for each. The...