Where the in-crowd is networking
Forget meet and greet.
Now it's connect and tweet.
According to a new study, LinkedIn and Twitter are emerging as the top social channels for many business leaders.
The 2013 CEO.com Social CEO Report found that 5.6 per cent of Fortune 500 CEOs are now on Twitter compared to just 3.6 per cent last year, and 27.9 per cent are connecting on LinkedIn, up from 25.9 per cent in 2012.
Josh James, founder of CEO.com and Domo, says, "The rise of Twitter, in particular, really points to the need for speed among CEOs.
"Business leaders desire information that is quick, succinct and easily digestible. Twitter, more than any other social network, delivers on that."
Times are changing for busy business people. Technology was suppose to make lives easier. But now people are working from their Iphones, Blackberries and other smartphones with a constant exchange of information and ideas.
Approximately 500 million people worldwide use Twitter and about 225 million connect on LinkedIn.
The study also found that LinkedIn is more popular with CEOs than the general public.
Facebook, on the otherhand, has about one billion active users.
There are currently 28 Fortune 500 CEOs on Twitter with a combined total of 2,126,564 followers.
And they didn't earn their followers by just tweeting what they're eating.
Some CEOs earned their followers through a steady series of tweets while others let their star power do the talking.
For example, the day billionaire Warren Buffett joined Twitter, he gained about 1,000 new followers every minute.
Sometimes it's not who you know, it's who you are.
But how many followers are actually real?
The study found that up to 30 per cent of the more than two million CEO Twitter followers were actually fake profiles which raises the question of quality versus quantity.
"It takes a significant investment of time and effort to acquire the quality of social followers that will impact your business," explains James. "CEOs and brands need to focus on quality over quantity when it comes to building a following."
Some interesting findings from the study include:
- 67.9 per cent of the CEOs on Twitter are active users, meaning they have tweeted in the last 100 days
- Fortune 500 CEOs tweet on average 0.98 times per day
- They gain an average of 838 followers per day (but only 68.8 followers if you exclude Warren Buffet)
- There are 140 Fortune 500 CEOs on LinkedIn, 25 of which have more than 500 connections
- And no surprise, the most popular CEO on Facebook is none other than Mark Zuckerberg with 16,742,363 followers.
By Donna Donaldson, MSN Money
Do you use social media in your business? Do you think it helps? Which social media channels do you prefer to get your message across?
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