For executives who have established an online social media presence, frequent posting can be an effective way to connect with their audience. But what happens when you want to elevate that presence into something more strategic, goal-oriented, and impactful for your business? In this article, we explore how an executive social media program can enhance an active social media presence while addressing key challenges like maintaining a consistent tone, avoiding overlap, and ensuring content adds strategic value.   Understanding the Executive’s Tone of Voice Challenge: One concern an executive may have is that if two parties are creating content for one social media account — the individual and the in-house marketer or executive social media agency they’re partnering with — the posts may lack cohesiveness and come across as being written by two distinct voices. Solution: While this is certainly a valid concern, different executive marketing agencies...

An article in The Financial Times shared key LinkedIn findings, showcasing how the platform has become a powerful and strategic tool for CEOs and C-suite executives. Over the past few years, the number of executives using LinkedIn has risen — but why is this the case? What makes LinkedIn one of the most attractive social media channels for executives? And how can marketers leverage social media for their company executives?   New Research Highlights the Importance of Executive Social Media Before we dive into executive social media, let’s review the top findings from LinkedIn’s research: Over the past five years, the number of U.S. C-suite executives on LinkedIn has increased by 35%. Globally, the platform has seen a 23% increase in content shared by chief executives. Posts by C-suite executives get around 4x more engagement than content shared by other LinkedIn users. After publishing...

By now, many of you may have seen how some LinkedIn posts look a bit different than what you’re used to. But what changed on LinkedIn — and why? And for executives or marketers managing their company executive’s personal social media accounts, how will this update impact your content moving forward?   How and Why Did LinkedIn Change Its Organic Post Preview? First, let’s discuss what the change was. Previously, when you shared a link in a post, it looked like this in a social media feed: After LinkedIn’s update, organic posts now look like this: The section you see in gray below the post text — the “autopopulated link card” or “link preview” — is now much smaller. The image has been scaled down significantly and is on the left side of the article title. While organic posts shared in your LinkedIn feed may look like...

Hot off the heels of the new Fortune 500 list for 2024, we’re back with another article recapping our executive social media analysis! For all 500 companies on the list, we looked into whether their CEO was on social media. Here are the top findings from our research!   Executive Social Media Trend Among Fortune 500 CEOs   74% of CEOs on the 2024 Fortune 500 list are on at least one social media platform. Almost three quarters of Fortune 500 CEOs are on at least one social media platform. This is a slight increase over last year’s figure of 73%. We believe this mid-70s range could represent a peak, with expectations of minimal fluctuations in the coming years.  Part of this is due to the nature of the Fortune 500 list. Consider the companies that typically make the list year after year — Walmart, Amazon, Berkshire...

The Fortune 500 list includes the largest companies in the U.S. These days, it’s a given that major brands have a strong social media presence. What about their CEOs? Are they on social media as well? If you missed it, we shared our latest findings on Fortune 500 CEOs on social media. Be sure to check it out here, How Many Fortune 500 CEOs are on Social Media in 2023? In the infographic below, we summarize our top findings! Do any of the results surprise you? Infographic: Fortune 500 CEOs Social Media Statistics Key Takeaways For Executive Social Media Executive Social Media Takeaway #1: Executive social media matters. Almost three-quarters of Fortune 500 CEOs in 2023 were on social media, signaling that executive social media is no longer just an optional side project, but a necessity for a company’s digital marketing program. CEOs can strategically use...

Over the years, we’ve seen a growing number of CEOs leveraging social media to support their strategic business objectives. Way back in 2015, an article on CEO.com found that only 39% of Fortune 500 CEOs were on any social media platform. In 2019, we decided to take a closer look at the Fortune 500, which is an annual list of the largest U.S. companies ranked by their total revenues. Our study found that 54% of Fortune 500 executives have at least some social media presence — a drastic shift in just four years! In 2020, our updated study found that 62% of Fortune 500 CEOs were on social media, and our 2022 study saw 70% of executives were on social media. We’re back with another analysis of the Fortune 500 list from 2023! What executive social media trends are we seeing? Keep reading...

The growing momentum of executive social media means LinkedIn’s thought leader ads are a useful addition to the platform. This feature allows marketers to sponsor or “boost” organic posts from their employees, such as their CEO or other executives. A complementary piece to your overall digital marketing program, LinkedIn’s thought leader ads can help drive brand awareness, build credibility, and strategically position your executives on LinkedIn. In this article, we share our tips on how to craft the perfect LinkedIn post to sponsor as a thought leader ad!   Before You Start, Identify Your Goal! The first thing marketers should keep in mind is that you don’t want to sponsor just any post from your executive. If you’re investing in thought leader ads, start with a goal in mind. Thought leader ads take an organic post and push it out to your target audience...

Long-form content can be an effective complementary piece to an executive’s strategic social media presence. With many CEOs and other business leaders using LinkedIn as their primary social media platform, one feature to consider making use of is LinkedIn’s increasingly popular “newsletters.” In this article, we provide a brief overview of what LinkedIn newsletters are, share our top tips to keep in mind, the benefits of your executive having a newsletter, and ideas on what to write about.   What is LinkedIn’s “Newsletter” Feature? Compared to many of the other top social media sites, LinkedIn is truly the home for long-form content. Not only do social media posts feature relatively lengthy character limits compared to a platform like X, but the company’s newsletter feature is also an excellent way to share long-form content on a regular basis. Both individual users and company pages can create...

In our previous article, we shared how executives in the healthcare industry can navigate industry regulations while still using social media effectively. In this article, we turn our attention to another industry with just as strict compliance rules: finance. Whether an executive is in the private equity space, banking, investments, or another finance-related sector, just like healthcare executives, finance executives must be careful about what they share online through social media. However, there are ways to effectively establish a social media presence to support company objectives. Keep reading to learn more about content that finance executives should stay away from, content ideas they can post, and how using social media in the highly-regulated financial industry is more accessible than you think.   Financial Compliance and Regulations Certain industries have regulatory bodies that oversee what type of information can or cannot be shared on social media...

While many businesses today are on social media, executives on social media can help their company reach key business objectives through their own strategic online presence. Marketers can use a variety of different platform tools in order to effectively promote their executives and position them in front of an even larger audience. Read our nine tips on how your company’s social media accounts can improve executive visibility.    How To Improve Executive Visibility On LinkedIn Many companies have established their presence on LinkedIn, but the same can be said for executives as well. Our findings show that out of the 352 Fortune 500 CEOs on social media, 97% of them have a LinkedIn account. Here’s how marketers can leverage their company’s LinkedIn content to improve executive visibility and positioning.   Reshare an executive’s post  Many social media sites — LinkedIn included — offer a variety of...