Why LinkedIn is a team sport

Martin Thomas

Corporate reputation is as much defined by the

aggregated profiles of key individuals as it is by official

corporate channels.

The social media profiles of the senior management team

matter

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Senior managers need to set the right example

• 86% of CEOs think it’s important that they themselves champion the use of digital technologies PWC, Global CEO study, Jan 2015

Potential candidates are checking out the senior team

‘I’ve learned … that most new joiners have ‘socially audited’ me prior to joining. By doing this they were looking to acquire a good sense of what type of person I am, what leadership style I might have, what my principles and beliefs are and whether we, as a business, are socially relevant in a digital world. So if you want bright people to join you, it makes total sense to ensure you have a digital breadcrumb trail and can be easily found’.  Phil Jones, managing director, Brother UK (Interviewed by social C-suite)

Employees expect senior mgmt engagement in social media

• 75% agree that ‘c-suite engagement in social media makes a brand more honest and trustworthy’

• 73% that it ‘made them more effective leaders’ • 93% that ‘CEOs who actively participate in social

media can build better connections with customers, employees and investors’

• 68% that ‘CEOs who do not engage on social channels will become less relevant in the digital age’

BRANDfog 2016 Social Media Survey of of US employees

American’s call it ‘demonstrating bench strength’

• Showcasing the breath, capability and personality of the executive team

• Business is becoming less about the ‘super-star CEO’ and more about a ‘Dream team’

Humanising the corporate brand

• We tend not to trust faceless organisations

• Giving outsiders the sense that there are people behind the corporate façade that hopefully they can trust

Meeting client & partner expectations

• Potential customers of professional service firms increasingly check-out senior management profiles rather than traditional corporate channels

Ensuring corporate resilience in a crisis

• Having a socially-active c-suite leadership team can mitigate risks before a reputational crisis occurs. ‘In a crisis, people aren’t going to CNN anymore but will quickly click on which of the management team is on Twitter’. Ann Charles, founder BRANDfog