Management at this time extends far past nook workplaces and closed-door conferences. It lives within the feed, thrives within the remark part, and developments on timelines. From Elon Musk’s headline-making posts on X to Nasdaq president Tal Cohen bypassing press releases to announce 24-hour buying and selling on LinkedIn, social media has change into a highly effective device for executives. It’s the place they form their private manufacturers, construct and join with audiences, and broaden their visibility and attain.
Increasingly more, executives are recognizing the worth of those platforms. Based on 2024 knowledge from the communications advisory agency H/Advisors Abernathy, 70% of Fortune 100 CEOs now keep a minimum of one social media account, and practically half put up a minimum of as soon as a month. In an period the place visibility, authenticity, and belief are crucial to efficient management and rising via the C-suite, mastering social media is not a nice-to-have; it is a aggressive benefit for these vying for high company and board roles.
At the moment’s leaders aren’t ready for introductions. They’re stepping ahead, talking on to customers, purchasers, buyers, and audiences that reach properly past their respective organizations. LinkedIn, specifically, has change into one of the vital influential and accessible platforms for government communications. As Dan Roth, editor-in-chief of LinkedIn, tells Fortune, “There’s a call for more authenticity and transparency, and people now expect to hear directly from their leaders to understand their perspective.”
This evolution has basically reshaped government communication, permitting leaders or these with CEO aspirations to showcase their thought management and share insights, highlight staff and firm tradition, acknowledge workforce wins, and talk about business developments. Extra tellingly, this digital presence seems to have an actual impression. Analysis from FTI Consulting reveals that 92% of execs usually tend to belief an organization whose senior executives are energetic on social media.
“We’re on this stage the place you must say what you imply, imply what you say, and have one thing fascinating to say,” says Christopher Downey, a former director of social media for AMD and social practice program director at IBM. For formidable leaders, meaning embracing the total spectrum of content material: from written reflections to short-form video and every thing in between.
Take McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski, who commonly makes use of LinkedIn to talk on to shareholders, staff, and friends about firm imaginative and prescient, values, and enterprise updates. This type of transparency, PwC analysis finds, strengthens credibility with staff, buyers, and customers alike.
However presence alone isn’t sufficient. Akeem Anderson, senior vp at H/Advisors Abernathy, stresses that it should not simply be a broadcast channel. It ought to be an area to spark dialogue and set up one’s mental authority.
“The best-in-class CEOs have a perspective that they’re unafraid to share,” he says. “And when leaders consistently show up with that perspective, people begin to anticipate—and even look forward to—what they’ll say next.”
Putting the correct tone is essential. Whereas some high-profile figures like Musk thrive on provocation, Anderson encourages a extra measured strategy. He advises leaders to “loosen their ties a bit,” embrace the conversational nature of social media, and infuse posts with character, relatability, and even vulnerability—whereas nonetheless exercising discernment.
Executives ought to ask themselves if what they’re saying is constructing on a pure curiosity round a subject, a development, or a specific second in a substantive manner. “If the only thing you have to add to this moment is your singular voice and opinion, perhaps it’s not worth sharing, especially if you’re someone who is aspirationally looking to be leader of a company,” he says.
Roth echoes this sentiment, noting that essentially the most impactful leaders on a platform like LinkedIn are intentional but private of their strategy. As an alternative of reposting bland firm updates and tepid press releases, they share considerate reflections, actual classes, and distinctive takes knowledgeable by their very own experiences and what they’re listening to from business friends. In different phrases, they’re disseminating helpful content material with a signature voice and perspective.
Blackstone COO and president Jon Grey, broadly seen because the inheritor obvious to CEO Steve Schwarzman, epitomizes this stability. His short-form movies—typically filmed mid-run or whereas touring—contact on every thing from market insights to earnings updates. The consequence? Content material that feels candid, credible, and unmistakably human.
Whereas the informality of digital platforms presents a level of artistic license and freedom, Anderson reminds leaders, particularly these aspiring to the CEO seat, to be aware and discerning in curating their social media persona.
“It’s not something that you do haphazardly or without consideration,” he says. “It’s just as important as how you show up in traditional media, how you show up at town halls, how you show up in investor meetings.”
In the end, in a world the place affect is inbuilt real-time and belief is earned in public, those that rise to the highest might very properly be those who be taught to guide on-line and drive impression from the palm of their hand.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
