The Top Entertainment Industry Executives to follow on social media

19 Feb The Top Entertainment Industry Executives to Follow on Social Media

Posted on February 19, 2021 in Articles, Top Execs by

During 2020, virtual entertainment options boomed, with audiences relying more on films, shows, online videos, and gaming due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And due to the closures and restrictions of movie theatres, the streaming services market grew by 37%, with primary growth in Disney+, Netflix, and HBO Max. 

In this article, we analyzed three industry executives who used social media as a way to connect with users, stand out amongst their competitors, and as a social listening tool to gain valuable insight on audiences’ thoughts, critiques, opinions, and sentiments. 

 

Reed Hastings, co-CEO of Netflix

 

With 85.6K followers on Twitter, the co-CEO of the popular streaming service makes frequent use of his social media platform. Hastings primarily shares third-party links and user-generated content (UGC). This content often directly refers to Netflix and its content (such as articles and reviews) or is generally related to the entertainment industry. 

For example, Hastings retweeted a comedian’s impressions of characters from Netflix’s original series, The Crown, and praised the video with his own comment reading “extraordinary.” Executives who spotlight fan content can use their platform to garner further exposure and opportunities for creators, and also show how engaged they are with their audiences and attentive to their opinions. 

In this next post, Hastings retweeted a video from Netflix’s page where he discusses his leadership style and the company’s innovative work culture. Executives can pin posts like this on their profiles, as this is an eye-catching and effective way to showcase personal and professional values to users.  

 

 

When Hastings posts original tweets or comments on retweets, he often keeps it short and sweet, such as the post below which highlights his own charitable efforts. Executives don’t always need to write lengthy copy for social media posts; in fact, short comments can come across more authentically, as long as their sentiment and value are clearly being relayed. 

 

 

Whether Hastings is retweeting from industry veterans like Shonda Rhimes or resharing posts from Netflix viewers, he positions himself as a receptive and attentive executive in the entertainment sector.

Follow Reed Hastings for more Netflix and industry-related UGC. 

 

Bob Bakish, CEO of ViacomCBS

 

For those who don’t know much about ViacomCBS, this massive company owns Paramount Pictures Corporation, CBS Entertainment Group, and MTV Entertainment Group. 

With 29.8K followers on LinkedIn, CEO Bob Bakish uses his social platform to highlight company initiatives and industry innovations. He frequently shares milestones both on the smaller scale employee level, such as appreciation posts, to company level news, such as accomplishments that ViacomCBS contributes to the industry as a whole. This type of content helps to establish his company’s credibility and stand out amongst competitors. In the post below, he highlights the recent innovation of “addressable advertising,” or ads that are targeted at the household TV level, which was accomplished by ViacomCBC, DISH Network, and Adcuratio Media. 

 

 

Next, in the post below, Bakish announced ViacomCBS’ latest streaming service called Paramount+, which calls attention to the entertainment world’s booming market for these services. Executives need to show they are up to date with popular industry trends and highlight any of their company’s competitive strategies. Social media is an effective channel for all of these aspects. Bakish also frequently uses industry-related hashtags such as #streaming and #entertainmentindustry; using hashtags like these helps to improve his profile’s discoverability and contribute to establishing him as a leader in this field. 

 

 

Follow Bob Bakish for more industry updates and ViacomCBS’ role in the entertainment world. 

 

Jason Kilar, CEO of WarnerMedia

 

WarnerMedia is a subsidiary of AT&T and is the parent company of HBO, Warner Bros., and Turner Broadcasting. With 20.6K followers on Twitter, Jason Kilar takes on a casual yet informative tone in his posts. He often promotes the company’s upcoming shows and films, such as trailers or stills. However, rather than simply resharing this promotional material, Kilar’s content offers a lot of personal insights: 

 

 

He also makes frequent use of posting third-party links, company-related articles, and relevant user-generated content. Additionally, posts like his behind-the-scenes thread (shown below) offer users a fun and insightful glimpse of his company and industry. Executives should consider how they can use behind-the-scenes (or BTS) posts on social media since this is an authentic way to show customers another side of your business. 

 

 

Kilar also injects an element of social awareness to his posts, broaching topics like diversity and inclusion. For example, in this thread, he highlights numerous HBO shows, films, and documentaries that celebrate Black culture: 

 

 

Kilar also uses Twitter to pay attention to his company’s competitors. In this post, he compares an HBO documentary to Netflix’s hit show Tiger King. Given that the entertainment industry is one that is full of fierce and fast competition, directly mentioning a competitor’s content might be an odd strategy. However, given the sheer popularity of Tiger King and the fact that many social media users will understand his reference, he has used this comparison strategically to elevate his own company’s content.

Kilar’s Twitter page showcases a level of industry and competitor awareness, and he works to build up his own company’s reputation through positive and insight-driven promotional posts.

Follow Jason Kilar for more updates about upcoming WarnerMedia content. 

 

Common Trends Among Executives in the Entertainment Industry 

 

Audiences want to see the faces behind brands, as this helps to humanize a company. This is something that all three executives achieve with their personal presence, particularly by showing their attentiveness to industry news and innovations. Particularly for bigger corporations who are parent brands of other well-known companies, these executives can build brand awareness of their own companies by including these names in their social media content. 

We were surprised that a number of major players in the entertainment industry are not taking advantage of a strategic social media presence, including Bob Chapek (CEO of Disney), Mike Hopkins (CEO of Amazon, which owns Prime Video), Jeff Shell (CEO of NBCUniversal), and Netflix’s other co-CEO, Ted Sarandos. 

Among the entertainment executives who are present on social media, common trends include sharing third-party articles and reviews of their company’s content, user-generated content, and industry innovations that they or others are doing. Platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn can be used as social listening tools where executives can keep up with timely industry-related news and search for relevant keywords, hashtags, and company mentions, which we believe the executives featured in this article are doing effectively. 

If you or your leadership team don’t have a social media presence yet, now is the time to get started. Learn how you can take advantage of all the features we discussed in this article by setting up a consultation with one of our digital marketing experts! 

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