Less than 30% of Fortune 500 CEOs have at least one profile on social networks, according to a report just released by Domo and CEO.com (via Reuters). So while 62% of Fortune 500 companies have a presence on Twitter, and 58% are on Facebook, the leaders of these companies are far behind in terms of social network use.
The report looks at the online presence of top executives of the Fortune 500 companies vs. that of the general public, revealing that the vast majority of Fortune 500 CEOs have no social profile.
Out of the 30% that do have social profiles:
- 5 of the 19 CEOs on Twitter have never tweeted, and other accounts are “underutilized”
- 25 of the 38 CEOs on Facebook have less than 100 friends
- only four CEOs are on Google+ (including Larry Page)
- not a single Fortune 500 CEO is on Pinterest
LinkedIn is the only social network where Fortune 500 CEOs are more active than the general public (not surprising, given that its known as the “professional” social network). However, out of the 129 Fortune 500 CEOs with LinkedIn profiles, 36 of them have only 1 or 0 connections, and over 30 of these accounts are not updated with current companies or titles.
There are also a few social networking “stars” among the Fortune 500 CEOs (via Reuters):
- Rupert Murdoch is the most-followed CEO on Twitter with 285,000 followers (followed by Meg Whitman with 240,000)
- Michael Rapino of Live Nation has the most Facebook friends – over 2,000
- Warren Buffett has the 3rd highest Klout score (behind Rupert Murdoch and Michael Dell) although he only tweeted once from his official account, back in February of 2009
- only one CEO maintains his own blog: John Mackey of Whole Foods
Does it matter? Do CEOs need to be socially savvy (via personal profiles) in order to steer their business down the right course on social platforms?
