social media and the cio: social insights report
TRANSCRIPT
What You Can Learn From the Twitter Habits of Tech Leaders
and the Social Media CIO
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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................. 2
Tech Leaders Studied ...................................................................3
IT Topics: The Hot List ..................................................................4
Key Findings .............................................................................. 5
What Does This Mean for You? ................................................... 5
The Top Influencers in IT ..............................................................6
Publishers and Brands Shared the Most by IT Leaders .................. 6
Individuals That IT Leaders Retweet Most ..................................... 8
People IT Leaders Mention Most ................................................ 10
How Do IT Leaders Engage With Content? ................................12
Top Apps and Platforms That Drive Twitter Sharing ..................... 12
Beyond Twitter: From Which Social Networks Do IT Leaders Share Content? .................................................. 13
Build Your Influence Among IT Leaders ...................................... 13
Conclusion ................................................................................ 14
About Robert Half Technology ...................................................14
About Leadtail ........................................................................... 14
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Introduction
Technology leaders work in virtually all industries – from hospitality to high tech. The one thing they have in common? A keen interest in their profession and the need to keep pace in a rapidly changing industry. To stay up to date and do their jobs even better, many look to social media to stay informed, meet up-and-coming tech talent and keep their fingers on the pulse of technology trends.
With that in mind, Robert Half Technology and Leadtail, a social insights research and marketing firm, developed this report to answer the following questions:
• What topics are important to technology leaders, and what are they talking about?
• Which content sources are these savvy technology experts consuming and sharing?
• What/who are the most influential publications and people to these executives?
The research was developed using Leadtail’s Social Media Insights technology to analyze data publicly available from Twitter. The data gathered and presented in the aggregate is intended to be used for inspirational purposes and offers a glimpse into how CIOs use social media to showcase and establish their expertise and leadership.
We hope you find this information useful, and we invite you to visit us at www.rht.com for help with any of your career or staffing needs.
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Tech Leaders Studied
To develop this report, the Leadtail team identified CIOs and IT leaders active on social media, based on criteria such as job title, type of company and location. They then extracted insights from these professionals’ key social media activities, such as what links they shared, who they mentioned and retweeted, and popular hashtags and platforms used to share content.
Data Snapshot
524
83,314
47,936
10,188
57,922
20,472
CIOs and senior IT leaders at private sector companies in the U.S. and Canada
Leadtail analyzed over 100,000 Twitter accounts to identify
links shared on those tweets
unique hashtags
mentions/replies
retweets
public tweets published by these executives
Leadtail analyzed
That includes
The specific data set analyzed for this report was composed of:
• Five hundred and twenty-four IT leaders in the U.S. and Canada who were active on Twitter during the reporting period.
• IT leaders in both business-to-business and business- to-consumer organizations.
• A total of 83,314 tweets and 47,936 shared links.
• Tweets published in the third and fourth quarters of 2014.
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IT Topics: The Hot List
Which topics grab the attention of technology leaders? Cloud computing, social media, big data and mobile are perennial top topics for IT leaders, but there are a great many conversations happening in the IT community on everything from national security to how to get more women involved in technology. As the graphic below illustrates, IT is a big tent with lots of room to find your niche and engage with others on topics you are passionate about.
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What Does This Mean for You?
Social media provides an excellent opportunity for IT profes-sionals to network with IT leaders, stay current on topics of interest in the industry and enhance their reputation by sharing news of interest.
In this report you will discover publishers, brands and individuals who influence these tech leaders. Knowing where CIOs and IT leaders get their information can provide you with a social media road map for staying informed and networking with leaders in the technology space.
Key Findings
• CIOs engage on social media to showcase expertise and leadership, and drive conversations about technology strategy and innovation.
• Cloud computing and infrastructure, big data, analytics and the Internet of Things are top-of-mind topics for these technology executives.
• CIOs and IT leaders actively engage with the social media content of other technology leaders, industry analysts and journalists, as well as with marketing and social media influencers.
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The Top Influencers in IT
Perhaps more important than the topics tweeted are the top sources of information for technology executives. In an age of information overload, who do IT executives trust to keep them informed? Following are the publishers and brands that IT leaders share the most. These could be useful sources for all IT professionals to follow.
Publishers and Brands Shared the Most by IT Leaders
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Top 20 Publishers and Brands Most Retweeted by IT Leaders*
11. Gartner, @Gartner_inc
12. Inc., @Inc
13. Gigaom, @gigaom
14. VentureBeat, @VentureBeat
15. CIO Straight Talk, @CIOStraightTalk
16. WSJD, @WSJD
17. The New York Times, @nytimes
18. The Verge, @verge
19. The Economist, @TheEconomist
20. CIO Magazine, @CIOMagazine
*Based on unique number of IT leaders in the sample who retweeted the publisher or brand.
1. CIO.com, @CIOonline
2. Forbes, @Forbes
3. TechCrunch, @TechCrunch
4. WIRED, @WIRED
5. Fast Company, @FastCompany
6. Harvard Biz Review, @HarvardBiz
7. Wall Street Journal, @WSJ
8. Mashable, @mashable
9. Forbes Tech News, @ForbesTech
10. Business Insider, @businessinsider
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Individuals That IT Leaders Retweet Most
Of course, social media fame isn’t limited to publishing houses – people also can build powerful brands online. Whether their tweets are timely, topical, provocative or data-driven, the individuals IT leaders retweet demon-strate a passion for the profession through the quality of content they create, curate and share.
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Top 20 People Most Retweeted by IT Leaders*
11. Dan Rockwell, @Leadershipfreak
12. Brian Fanzo, @iSocialFanz
13. Jay Ferro, @jayferro
14. Cameron Morrissey, @ManagersDiary
15. Ben Haines, @bhaines0
16. Ralph Loura, @RalphLoura
17. Will Lassalle, @wlassalle
18. Nigel Fenwick, @NigelFenwick
19. Walt Mossberg, @waltmossberg
20. John Dodge, @Thedodgeretort
*Based on unique number of IT leaders in the sample who retweeted the person.
1. Vala Afshar, @ValaAfshar
2. R Ray Wang, @rwang0
3. Mike D. Kail, @mdkail
4. Aaron Levie, @levie
5. Tim Crawford, @tcrawford
6. Martha Heller, @marthaheller
7. Robert Schmidt, @ambassadorcio
8. Michael Krigsman, @mkrigsman
9. Lolly Daskal, @LollyDaskal
10. Marc Andreessen, @pmarca
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People IT Leaders Mention Most
Mentioning a person by name can mean a few different things in social media: giving credit to someone for an idea or piece of content being shared, engaging some-one directly in a conversation or giving a shout-out to a person you’ve recently met.
In any context, being mentioned is a sign that a person is an active part of the social conversation, and those mentioned most are the people you’ll find at the center of engaging conversations between IT professionals.
This word cloud shows the people mentioned most by IT leaders during the report period.
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Top 20 People Most Mentioned by IT Leaders*
11. Andi Mann, @AndiMann
12. Martha Heller, @marthaheller
13. Dion Hinchcliffe, @dhinchcliffe
14. Ben Haines, @bhaines0
15. Steve Wozniak, @stevewoz
16. Peter Thiel, @peterthiel
17. David J. Hinson, @davidjhinson
18. Stephen diFilipo, @S_dF
19. Mike D. Kail, @mdkail
20. Myles Suer, @MylesSuer
*Based on unique number of IT leaders in the sample who mentioned the person.
1. Vala Afshar, @ValaAfshar
2. Marc Andreessen, @pmarca
3. R Ray Wang, @rwang0
4. Michael Krigsman, @mkrigsman
5. Satya Nadella, @satyanadella
6. David A. Bray, @fcc_cio
7. Aaron Levie, @levie
8. Marc Benioff, @Benioff
9. Tim Crawford, @tcrawford
10. Brian Katz, @bmkatz
Social Media and the CIO • rht.com
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How Do IT Leaders Engage With Content?
Twitter Web Client 67%
57%
58%
29%
26%
22%
19%
12%
11%
11%
9%
7%
7%
6%
5%
Twitter for Websites
Twitter for iPhone
Twitter for iPad
iOS
Twitter for Android
Hootsuite
TweetDeck
Twitter Mobile Web
Twitter for Mac
BufferMobile
Web-BasedTweetBot for iOS
Percentage of IT leaders who published at least one tweet originating from this platform during the report period.
While the two most popular methods of sharing to Twitter are Twitter’s web-based interfaces (its own website, Tweet button and embedded wid-gets), roughly half of the apps and platforms CIOs and IT leaders use to share content to Twitter are primarily or exclusively mobile.
Top Apps and Platforms That Drive Twitter Sharing
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Beyond Twitter: From Which Social Networks Do IT Leaders Share Content?
Twitter continues to be a “hub” for cross-posting content between social networks, particularly content easily consumable in both the desktop and mobile environments, such as video, pictures and slide decks.
If you’re trying to engage with IT leaders on social media, your best bang for the buck lies in creating and sharing content via YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Slideshare. These visual social media platforms get the most cross-posting from their native domains to the broader Twitter audience.
Twitter 100%
27%
38%
18%
13%
11%
10%
6%
5%
5%
4%
4%
4%
3%
3%
YouTube
Slideshare
Paper.li
Vimeo
Vine
Swarm
Twitter Images
Storify
Kickstarter
Google+
GitHub
Build Your Influence Among IT Leaders
If you’re looking to build influence among IT leaders, here are three takeaways to help you:
1. Make your content shareable. Include calls to action to share your content, and use proper markup language to ensure the shared content displays in a way that drives engagement and traffic back to your site.
2. Keep it simple. Use recognizable standard buttons and widgets over custom-built sharing icons or aggregated share widgets (e.g., use the Tweet button vs. ShareThis).
3. Make it mobile-friendly. Simply put, your content must be easy to read on mobile devices. Whether that’s via the use of responsive design to accommodate a variety of screen reso-lutions or keeping pages light and fast to adapt to a variety of connection speeds, you need to make sure your content can be easily consumed via tablet or smartphone.
Percentage of IT leaders who shared content from this domain to Twitter during the report period.
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Conclusion
About Robert Half Technology
With more than 120 locations worldwide, Robert Half Technology is a leading provider of technology professionals for initiatives ranging from web development and multiplatform systems integration to network security and technical support. Robert Half Technology offers online job search services at rht.com.
Follow Robert Half Technology at twitter.com/RobertHalfTech or visit our technology blog at blog.rht.com.
About Leadtail
Leadtail came about from our desire to help B2B marketing leaders tap into the power of social media to get closer to target buyers and radically improve their marketing strategies.
Leadtail works with innovative companies to create social media strategies and leverage social insights research. We also publish social insights reports about different decision- maker groups such as digital marketers, HR executives and CFOs. Follow Leadtail at twitter.com/leadtail or visit our website at leadtail.com.
CIOs are continually pushing themselves forward to become better leaders and visionaries for their companies. These profes-sionals know that business and technology are both evolving at breakneck speed, and they’re tapping into authoritative sources of information (including each other!) in real time to stay ahead.
As an IT professional, knowing who is influencing the influencers can help you learn, share and move your career forward. We hope this information was useful, and we invite you to engage with us via our own social media feeds at:
Google+
YouTube
Blog
Social Media and the CIO • rht.com
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