27 Sep

Over the years, executive social media has grown to become a key piece in a company’s digital marketing program. Positioning a CEO or other executive on social media can help drive business objectives, such as brand awareness and website traffic, while building credibility and strengthening ties to key stakeholders. That being said, it’s not always clear whether executive social media is the right move for your business. This guide will help you determine whether you should strategically leverage your executive’s online presence to help you achieve your marketing goals.   Does your company have an established social media presence? If you said yes… Then executive social media makes sense. If your company already has an active presence on platforms like LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), or Instagram, building out a social media program to position your CEO or other executive can be an excellent complementary piece...

16:00 / Guide
16 Sep

This year, we saw a new high for the number of Fortune 500 CEOs on social media. In case you missed it, check out our 2024 update in our article, How Many Fortune 500 CEOs Are On Social Media In 2024? The infographic below recaps some of the top findings from our recent research. Infographic: Fortune 500 CEOs 2024 Social Media Statistic     Key Takeaways For Executive Social Media Executive Social Media Takeaway #1: More Fortune 500 CEOs are on social media than ever before. While the percentage hasn’t drastically changed since 2023 (74% in 2024 versus 73% in 2023), we did see a new high for the number of CEOs on at least one social media channel. Although the increase might seem modest, it’s reflective of the continuous adoption of social media among senior leaders. There’s a growing recognition of social media’s role in positioning...

13:31 / Executive Expertise
16 Aug

On this year’s Fortune 500 list, 52 of the CEOs were women. Below, we highlight three who are using their social media profiles strategically to build their executive presence and company brand.   CVS Health CEO: Karen Lynch While Karen Lynch does have a profile on X (formerly Twitter), she’s more active on LinkedIn, where she has a verified account and was selected as a Top Voice. Boasting almost 300,000 followers, she’s not only active in sharing engaging content, but she also has a highly optimized profile page. The image above shows how Karen has made excellent use of the Featured section, an area on a LinkedIn profile that highlights selected posts. Our Influential Executive tip! We recommend all content creators on LinkedIn make use of a Featured section, but how do you know which posts to highlight? Here are some suggestions: Posts that are...

15:21 / Top Execs
02 Aug

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...

14:46 / Executive Expertise
19 Jul

The professional services (PS) industry is broad, ranging from legal and accounting to IT and consulting. In this article, we share some of the common social media policies to look out for and content ideas that PS executives can post online.   Professional Services Policies and Regulations While some executives in the PS industries don’t need to contend with the strict compliance requirements like executives in the financial or healthcare spaces, there are still a variety of key regulations and policies that executives should be aware of when using social media for strategic business purposes. Some of the important policies and regulations, as well as major governing bodies, in the professional services industry include: The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct American Bar Association (ABA) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Federal Trade Commission...

14:05 / Executive Expertise
21 Jun

For those who have been following along, congratulations — we've reached the final part of our series! If you're catching up, check out part 1 where we cover the passionate/enthusiastic, authoritative/informative, and edgy/provocative executive personas, and part 2 where we discuss executives with the curious/inspiring, friendly/casual, and serious/trustworthy personas. Below, learn about the conservative/formal, humorous/cheerful, approachable/caring, and daring/grandiose executive personas you’ll come across on social media. Keep reading to the end where we share our expert tips on how to establish your executive social media presence.   Conservative and Formal This tone is often used by executives who want to use their social media presence primarily to support business objectives—and have absolutely no interest in sharing anything personal online. This persona often overlaps with the serious/trustworthy and authoritative/informative personas. These executives rarely (if ever) share content that may be considered controversial, preferring to share...

13:43 / Executive Expertise
07 Jun

Executive personas play a large role in how their social media content is perceived. Several different factors contribute to the overall "persona," ranging from the executive's own personality, the content they want to share, and the business objectives they want to achieve with their social media presence. In our mini-series, we cover some of the most common executive personas you may come across on social media. If you're just joining us, check out part 1 in our series where we share our insights on executives with the passionate/enthusiastic, authoritative/informative, and edgy/provocative personas. Keep reading below to learn about the curious/inspiring, friendly/casual, and serious/trustworthy personas!   Curious and Inspiring The first persona we'll discuss is the executive who is curious and inspiring. Executives in industries that experience a lot of innovation and change often portray this tone, which overlaps with the daring/grandiose tone that will be...

14:21 / Executive Expertise
24 May

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...

14:03 / Executive Expertise
01 Feb

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...

16:16 / Guide
09 Nov

Many social media platforms give users the ability to promote or sponsor a post. Whatever the terminology you want to use, the process and purpose are similar: put some ad dollars behind an organic post and push it to a more targeted audience that may not see the post organically. It’s not quite the same as other paid ad campaigns since a promoted post starts out as organic content, but once you’ve boosted your post, you can expect to see more impressions and engagement as it gets shared with a wider audience. This feature is available on LinkedIn and is called “boosting” (read more about boosting a post here). Marketers can select an organic post shared on their company page, set a budget, and boost it to a defined audience. However, while marketers can boost posts on a company’s LinkedIn page, there was...

16:46 / Guide