16 Aug The Top Fortune 500 Women CEOs To Follow On Social Media

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 timely, such as an important press release, are a good place to start because the Featured section helps improve the visibility of your post. Just be sure to remove the post from this section when it makes sense to do so.
• Posts that show your activity in the industry, such as appearing at a big conference.
• Posts that showcase your thought leadership, such as promoting the new article you wrote.

Moving on to Karen’s posts, her content typically garners a lot of engagement, ranging from post reactions to comments and reshares. Her tone of voice is engaging and approachable, making her content feel authentic.

General Motors CEO: Mary Barra

Long-time readers of our Influential Executive blog will be familiar with Mary Barra, GM’s CEO. We’ve featured her a few times in the past, noting that her use of LinkedIn helps support business initiatives. Like Karen Lynch, Mary is also a Top Voice on Linkedin.

One trend you might have noticed across the LinkedIn profiles we shared so far is that both women share a lot of photos of themselves on their accounts. This is a strong strategy, which helps to strengthen their digital presence while also helping to humanize their company.

Our Influential Executive tip! For executives who struggle with sharing photos of themselves, whether it’s because they don’t know where to start or they’re shy, here are some tips:

• Consider opportunities to take photos, such as at a conference, at an interview, or at a company event, such as an end-of-the-year party. While executives can take photos of others, we have found that posts featuring executives themselves garner more engagement. If executive assistants or other employees are also at the event, one tip is to designate a person as the official photographer of the event.
• For executives who are a bit camera shy, consider posting group photos first, and remember: an executive’s post serves a strategic purpose. While it may seem a bit embarrassing to share photos of yourself on a public forum, remember that your digital presence can significantly contribute to your company’s branding and credibility.

Elevance Health CEO: Gail Boudreaux

The third and final woman CEO that we feature here is Gail Boudreaux, the CEO of Elevance Health. While all three of the women featured so far have updated their profile banner, we think Gail’s approach is simple, yet effective (and a good visual example for executives who may be thinking about what to use for their own profile banner).

Our Influential Executive tip! We always recommend that executives update their profile banner so that they’re not using the default LinkedIn banner. Here are some tips:

• Your banner should make a good first impression while also illustrating what’s important to you. On Karen’s profile, her banner focuses on creating connections. On Mary’s profile, her banner speaks to the power of GM’s employees. Gail’s profile is on the simpler side, but is effective at showcasing the company she leads.
• Remember that the LinkedIn profile banner may look slightly different on a computer than on a mobile device where the width of the page is shorter. Keep in mind that certain elements on a banner may be cut off, especially if they’re located on the far right or left side.

Moving to Gail’s LinkedIn feed, although she doesn’t post as often as the other two women on this list, the content she does share is strategic and engaging. We always recommend that executives post at least once per week. Oftentimes, executives may struggle with what to post, but working with their in-house marketing team or an external executive social media agency can help. These experts help develop a social media strategy that not only positions an executive on social media, but also aligns posts with specific business objectives, such as driving website traffic or lead generation.

One type of content that sets Gail apart is her LinkedIn articles. Unlike many other social media platforms, LinkedIn articles allow users to share long-form content, which is an effective way to build thought leadership content.

Read Our Fortune 500 Analysis!

In this article, we highlighted three women CEOs that you should follow on social media — but there are plenty of other women that we didn’t mention. Check out Fortune’s official list here.

You may have noticed that all three of the women we featured are active on LinkedIn. It’s no surprise that LinkedIn is the platform of choice for many CEOs — and the majority of our clients. The business-oriented platform puts CEOs and executives in front of their target audience.

If you’re interested in reading more about our Fortune 500 analysis, including our most recent study of the 2024 list, click the button below!

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