ARE YOU THERE, MR CEO?

Progressive branding today is virtually incomplete without the exploitation of social networking sites by the head of the management teams or more specifically, the CEO. Social media’s evolution in corporate world is rapid and lasting. It is the common man’s nomenclature that CEOs are imbibing; be it for recruiting, scouting, public engagement, or social CRM. The remarkable posts, intelligence, wisdom, and interaction with the consumers can find a brand streets ahead of the left outs. Not only consumers, even the employees productivity can be enhanced manifold by using collaboration tools like blogs and wikis by welding the team with organisational knowledge sharing. The value of knowing other people’s opinions, thoughts and ideas strengthen the network, which is possible only through interaction through social sites.

The CEOs are fast realising the blip of not adhering to social media and have started using it from the top of the pyramid. The online marketing has become a trend with a Google research indicating that an average consumer source at least 10 different information tags before a purchase decision. In another survey conducted by Doremus and Financial Times, 60 per cent of the executives engage in all sorts of blogs, online advertisements and interactions (like LinkedIn) to make their buying decisions.

The maverick Richard Branson for example, writes in first person in his profiles of Facebook, Twitter or Google+, where he narrates not only his business but also his travel experiences, his lifestyle and whatever he wants to share. The CEO Drew Patterson of Jetsetter, a consumer savvy travel startup experience about 40 sales each week through their website, offering hotels, villas and adventure experiences to its members. They maintain the most cordial relationship with prospective and existing members and interact with them regularly that centers from travel plans to honeymoon destinations. Finally, one of the strongest online marketing companies in the world, called Kate Spade New York, led by its CEO Craig Leavett is achieving triple digit growth this year through social networking sites.

There is no doubt that social networking sites are fast becoming a major differentiator for all sorts of companies. All sorts of business are increasingly compelled to use social media in their fixtures. Customer support will be requiring it to receive the complaints by using tools like CoTweet, sales department will be requiring gauging the business environment, marketing department will find it invaluable for backward integration and distribution department will use it to handle down line channels… et al. lt would be silly for any CEO to ignore 1.43 billion active users accross various social networking platforms. Its time to make sure, Mr. CEO, you are there.