No.
Nancy’s post (which was based on a Mashable article by the same headline) makes a good point that a CEO should get social media.
After all, says Nancy, the CEO is the face of his or her company. They should be able to use the tools that allow them to have relationships with the customers.
Still no.
Okay, “no, unless.”
Unless it’s a small company, where the CEO is doing a lot of the day-to-day work, they should. Basically, if you’re a CEO, and you still have to set up your own booth at a trade show, then you need to be able to use social media to converse with your customers.
You also need to know how to run payroll, fulfill shipping orders, edit your website, balance your books, and use the photocopier. (Handling the social media is the least of your worries.)
But if your company is large enough that you barely know the names of the people who work two levels below you, then no, you shouldn’t. You have people for that. As a CEO, you’re barely fluent in how to make the products or services you sell.
Manufacturing CEOs don’t know how to build their products, their floor managers do. Automotive CEOs don’t know how to design cars, their engineers do. Entertainment CEOs don’t know how to mix albums or edit movies, their producers and editors do.
(I doubt that any of them can work their phone system or make photocopies without yelling “Jaaaaa-nettttt!! Can you fix this stupid thing?! Damn technology, whatever happened to the good old days?”)
Frankly, I don’t want these people using social media. They have work to do. They should be running the company, not worrying over every detail in accounting, HR, and marketing. And social media.
More importantly, I have seen what happens when someone who barely understands how his or her administrative assistant sends an email decides they’re going to get involved in some of the deep-level marketing decisions. (It’s just not pretty.) When it comes to social media, it takes a lot of coaching just to get them to understand the technology. Understanding why they should do it is even harder.
But most importantly, CEOs are busy. Their time is worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars per hour. They make more money scratching their nose than I make in an entire day. I don’t think they should be actually operating the company Twitter account, writing a 500 word blog post about their latest product, or making status updates on Facebook (“I’m on a motherf—ing boat, y’all. No srsly, I’m taking the Bored of Directors (haha!) out on a deep-sea fishing trip. C-ya L8er, loosers!”).*
If they want to do their own Twitter account, or have time to blog while they’re traveling to and from exotic locales on the company jet (a la Sir Richard Branson), let them. But they’re the exception, not the rule.
However, you small business CEOs, this doesn’t let you off the hook. You absolutely need to know how to do this. You’re already the marketing, bookkeeping, and HR department. And as much as you think it’s going to add to your workload, this is a great way to grow your company, hire employees to take care of the marketing, bookkeeping, and human resources.
And then you can take your board of directors out on a deep-sea fishing boat. Just make sure you bring most of them back.
(*Yes, I know I spelled “losers” wrong. I did that for hyperbole and comedic effect.)
Photo credit: Stalin (Picasa)
About the Author: Erik Deckers
Erik is the VP of Operations & Creative Services for Pro Blog Service. He has been blogging since 1998, and has been a published writer for more than 22 years. He has written humor newspaper columns, business articles, radio and stage plays, and is currently working on a novel. He helped write Twitter Marketing for Dummies, and is writing two other books on social media and networking. Erik frequently speaks on blogging and social media.
Tags: CEO, corporations, Marketing, Social Media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks | View Comments
Monday, June 29th, 2009
When it comes to the economy, I think we’re missing the point.
The old system is broken. Let’s talk about that.
There are arguments about what to do to help ease the burden of the current recession. The Democrats got their big stimulus package, the Republicans want more tax cuts. It’s the same debate we’ve heard for the last 30 years. Yet, it seems to me that something much bigger is really happening right now. There is a change that is much bigger than stimulus spending or tax cuts. It’s the Internet.
The Internet has totally disrupted our traditional economy. It has wreaked havoc on traditional industries. Having worked in the travel industry back in the ’90s, the change started immediately with the introduction of the Internet. Travel Agencies started going out of business. Now one can argue it was the loss of commissions on sales of tickets that started it, but as soon as on-line agencies began to replace the corner travel agent, the final nail in the coffin was in place.
Travel is not the only industry where this disruption has occurred:
1. Newspapers – going out of business
2. Music Industry – total disruption of music distribution
3. YouTube – you can watch anything and everything and be entertained for free
4. Airlines – who wants to fly when you have webex or gotomeeting
5. Automobiles – who needs a $30,000 car when you can work from home now.
6. Retail – why fight traffic at the mall, when you can shop online?
7. News – traditional 1/2 hour news has never been the same
8. Microsoft – Open Source is killing their business
There is a lot more going on in the world economy. The stimulus packages and tax cuts are not the solution to our problems right now. I think first, we need to understand that we are going through a major change in the global economy that is being driven by the Internet. Traditional industries are under pressure because they want to continue to be faceless corporations in the age of information. Customers may know more about their products or services than they know about themselves because people are talking about them.
Take the case of the automotive industry. On the whole, the majority of Americans do not have much sympathy for US automakers. They have watched as the industry has not really done much over the past 30 years to change its ways. The unions are unwilling to change their behavior, and neither is management. They should ask themselves why their competitors have fewer labor-management problems.
The big nameless corporation is dying. The age of the Entrepreneur is here today. The Internet is driving this new age. People have to change their ambitions from getting jobs to creating jobs. Or, understanding that they have to take a more proactive role in their employment. The age of hiding behind your job is over. People need to understand we live in a global economy, not a local economy. Education needs to be part of the culture, not the pariah it has now become. Everyone needs to participate in education, not just teachers and students.
Throwing money to treat a mortal wound, or cutting taxes without cleaning the wound before it is treated, will not save us. We need real change. We need a radical approach. First, we need to recognize that we are entering a new economy. Let the old one die.
About the Author: Paul Lorinczi
Paul Lorinczi is the President of Professional Blog Service. The goal of the company is the help clients use Blogging and Social Media to expand their business online through planning, execution, and measurement.
Tags: corporations, economy, Internet, taxes
Posted in Opinion | View Comments
