You, Your Company and Social Media

You, your venture, and the social media world is a perplexing threesome. Where does the CEO as an individual separate from the vision and value of the company on social media? How do you find the balance between the two-way dialogue between your company and your customers that social media provides? How do you balance the promotional branding of your product that you put out there on social media with the unsolicited customer feedback and conversations that comes back into your company? Most importantly, how can you leverage and measure the impact of social media to build company value?

CEO archetypes
- Naked Emperor/Megalomaniacs – Sink value of company: golf score, huge mansions, corporate jet for personal use, win awards, write books & sit on many boards while in office – Media whores
- Firefighters: these are the ones who are so busy putting out a bush fire in front of them they neglect the whole forest and they justify their business because they don’t get that they are putting out a modest impediment…they are “too busy” to plan and prepare, and unknowingly they lose sight of the vision of the venture …..
- Dinosaurs: who have long since been irrelevant to the company, but aren’t yielding to the next generation of leaders who want to grow and innovate in the company
- Benevolent Dictators: this is what everyone should strive for

Social media
- Company
  - Strategy offers marketing channel to push products to customers
  - Customers on social media can communicate directly with company. Before social media, one disgruntled customer might tell 10 people. With the reach of social media, they could tell millions. Add to that our society of reality TV and micro blogging that indulges, inspires and rewards unfiltered judgmental complaining. This means even when you haven’t done anything wrong or even know if someone is pissed off, a customer can denigrate the value of your company through the reach of social media
- The CEO
  - Social media strategy offers a forum to espouse vision of the company
  - Social media is also offers a place to humanize leadership of company
  - However, leadership must be careful to separate their personal social media from their company related social media. They can bleed over and cause detriment to company value.