64% of the world biggest companies’ CEOs aren’t social online – study

Weber Shandwick released a study that shows 64% of the world’s largest companies CEOs are not social online. On the other hand, the social CEOs have higher reputation status, use multi-channels and are mainly US-based.

“Socializing your CEO: From (Un)Social to Social” examines the publicly visible communication activities of CEOs in the world’s top 50 companies and the way they engage online with external stakeholders.

93% of CEOs used the traditional external communication, being quoted in the major global news and business publications, while 40% participated as speakers at events dedicated to non-investor audiences.

Online, most of the CEOs doesn’t communicate much, most online visibility for them being limited to what is said about them on Wikipedia, while 36% are present on their companies websites and in other social media channels – messages on company websites, video/podcasts on company websites or company YouTube channels, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or affiliated blogs.

According to the study, social CEOs lead companies with higher reputation status and the most admired of them have greater online visibility profiles. Also, they use multi-channel when they communicate online, 72% using more than one channel.

Regionally, social CEOs are more likely to represent American companies. This way, 60% of the American companies’ CEOs are engaging online, compared to only 12% in EMEA and even less in Asia Pacific and Latin America.

When is about channels to use, CEOs that go social use non-shareholder letters or messages on their companies websites (28%), video or podcasts on the sites or company’s YouTube channel. Less than 10% of the CEOs subjected to the study used Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or external blogs.

To realize the study,Weber Shandwick researched the publicly visible activities of CEOs in the world’s largest 50 companies. Sixty CEOs from 50 companies were examined: 20 in the U.S., 27 in Europe, 9 in APAC and 4 in Latin America.

Weber Shandwick is a leading global public relations agency with offices in 73 countries around the world.  Weber Shandwick provides strategy and execution across practices such as consumer marketing, healthcare, technology, public affairs, financial services, corporate and crisis management. Its specialized services include digital/social media, advocacy advertising, market research, and corporate responsibility.