How a Social CEO Attracts Top Talent and Boosts Company Credibility

A Social CEO does a huge favour for their businesses, as nearly half of a company’s reputation is attributable to their CEO’s social media presence.

Today, all CEOs face the same challenge of maintaining a strong brand presence and cultivating a favourable public image.

Social media addresses this by giving executives a direct channel to share personal narratives and highlight their company’s values, achievements, and innovations.

If you are a CEO and not active on social media, you willingly let your peers leave you and your company behind the competition for top talent.

How a Social CEO Attracts Top Talent and Boosts Company Credibility

How Social CEO leveraging social media attracts top talent and enhances their company’s credibility

#1 Social CEO Builds Credibility and Trust

Social media allows CEOs to foster transparency and build trust with current and future employees. A Weber-Shandwick study found that 86% of executives view social CEOs as open and honest​.

Decreasing trust in businesses and authorities has been a vital issue in the business landscape for some time now. According to a PwC report, businesses believe they are much more trusted than they actually are.

  • A staggering 71% of employees say they will leave the company if it loses their trust.
  • 87% of executives think customers highly trust their companies, while only 30% do so.
  • 71% of consumers say they are unlikely to buy if a company loses their trust.

The key benefits for social CEOs active on social media are:

  • Managing their reputation (their own and their company’s)
  • Connecting with current and future employees
  • Managing shareholder criticism
  • Showcasing their leadership style

A robust social media presence allows CEOs to communicate their company vision directly, share insights, respond to feedback, and engage and attract top talent.

This trust is crucial, as 71% of employees prefer to stick with employers they trust. A credible CEO can significantly enhance the company’s reputation. Employees expect the CEO to act as the face of the company and lead the way in employee advocacy.

#2 Social CEO Enhances both Their Personal and The Company Brand

When CEOs share insights and achievements of their people and teams, discuss what their company mission and vision mean, explain how their business contributes to society, and reflect on their values and beliefs about work, leadership, and better work-life balance, they can significantly enhance the brands they represent.

This attracts potential talent and helps retain current employees by showcasing a positive and dynamic company culture. Social CEOs have a significant role in the company’s social recruiting strategy.

#3 Social Media Provides the Social CEO A Direct Line of Engagement with Stakeholders

Social media is a fantastic two-way communication platform, allowing CEOs to interact directly with employees, customers, and investors. This engagement enhances the sense of community within the organization, builds a dialogue between the CEO and their employee audience, provides CEOs with a great social listening platform and helps address employee concerns in real-time.

#4 The Social CEO Showcases Authenticity

The request for more human-to-human brands has never been higher than today. Authenticity has become a pillar of humanized brands. Social CEOs have a central role in humanizing their companies as they have a vast internal and external audience, and they also hold the position of getting others to follow their lead.

Human-to-human company and employer brands benefit from reliability, trust and authenticity. Talents increasingly seek leaders who demonstrate genuine engagement and commitment to shared values, beliefs, standards and purpose, making this a compelling talent attraction and retention strategy.

#5 Becoming a Social CEO Can Generate Competitive Advantage

Actively social CEOs can serve as a significant competitive advantage. Having a company lead who is active on social media is likely to differentiate the company in a crowded market and showcase commitment to transparency and innovation.

Socially active CEOs are better positioned to lead discussions on industry trends and societal issues, enhancing their reputation and the company’s​ perceived value on the market.

While these examples are top-level and more strategic, there are many other benefits, too:

  • Increasing employee engagement and loyalty
  • Driving website traffic
  • Generating business and recruitment leads
  • Gaining insights into talent and customer preferences and trends that can lead into better talent attraction processes, product and service development
  • Building talent networks
  • Facilitating active communication with key talent and other stakeholders
  • Improving customer relations
  • Paving the way for smoother business transitions, changes and mergers and acquisitions

Three-Step Plan Into Becoming a Social CEO

#1 Schedule time for social media activity

Consistent appearances and engagement are key to being seen in followers’ feeds. Scheduling, for example, just 15 minutes a day—in the mornings or the evenings—allows one to develop a habit of social media activity.

Regularly post updates, engage with followers, and respond to feedback to demonstrate commitment and visibility

#2 Post about your thoughts, views and highlights

Many CEOs on social media only share company blogs and links to news articles about themselves or their businesses. Becoming a Social CEO is not about this.

Especially on LinkedIn, sharing original posts without links and actively commenting on other people’s posts is paramount. In fact, comments with at least 15 words boost the visibility of your posts.

Use social media to showcase what makes your company a great workplace, demonstrate your leadership values, focus areas, and priorities as the CEO, and advocate for your employees’ achievements.

#3 Be transparent

Transparency creates trust, and trust builds loyalty. Be you. Let your audiences get to know you as the human you are.

If you are a CEO looking for advice or a partner on becoming a social CEO, contact me at susanna@emine.fi or LinkedIn. As a Thinkers 360 Top 50 Global Thought Leaders on Personal Branding 2024, I have extensive experience as a social CEO and plenty of tips and advice to share.

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