The Internet and social media are necessary tools for executives to effectively engage stakeholders. Weber Shandwick has been tracking the online and social media presence of CEOs since 2010. At the time, few chief executives had an online presence, but by 2014, CEO sociability had become mainstreamed.

Socializing Your CEO IV refreshes this CEO sociability analysis, this time examining engagement in addition to online presence, for U.S. Fortune 50 companies, Fortune’s 25 Most Important Private Companies and Mercury News’ top 50 companies in Silicon Valley. Socially engaged CEOs are more than just publicly visible online and go beyond posting content. They are responsive and interact with others.

CEOs were awarded one point for each platform they have a presence on, two for each platform they’ve posted on within the past 12 months and three points for engaging or interacting with others. The maximum number of points a CEO can receive is 38.

Letters + Quotes + Video + Pictures

+ Homepage

+ “About Us” page

+ Diversity and sustainability pages

+ Spotlight pages, which are enhanced versions of a bio and sometimes even a separate leadership page

SOCIALIZING YOUR CEO IV:THE ENGAGEMENT FACTOR

METHODOLOGY Weber Shandwick audited the online presence of CEOs from the top 50 public U.S. companies in the 2016 Fortune 500 rankings, CEOs from Fortune’s 25 Most Important Private Companies and the top 50 CEOs from the Mercury News’ Silicon Valley’s top 150 companies for 2016. Platforms audited were company website, company YouTube, external CEO blogs or websites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram.

THE SOCIAL CEO INDEX AVERAGE # SOCIAL CEO INDEX POINTS

SILICON VALLEY CEOs

PRIVATE COMPANY CEOs

PUBLIC COMPANY CEOs

5.1 4.8 3.7

MOST CEOs ARE VISIBLE ON THEIR COMPANY WEBSITE, WITH MORE THAN JUST A BIOGRAPHY

MORE THAN HALF OF CEOs APPEAR IN VIDEO ON

THEIR COMPANY WEBSITE OR COMPANY YOUTUBE CHANNEL

WEBSITE PAGES SEARCHED INCLUDE

TYPES OF CEO VISIBILITY

MOST CEOs HAVEA PRESENCE ONLINE 92% 86%

PUBLIC COMPANY CEOs SILICON VALLEY CEOs PRIVATE COMPANY CEOs76%

SILICON VALLEY CEOs

PUBLICCOMPANY CEOs

65%58%

PRIVATECOMPANY CEOs52%

PUBLICCOMPANY CEOs

PRIVATECOMPANY CEOs

SILICONVALLEY CEOs

90% 66% 65%

SILICON VALLEY CEOs ARE MOST LIKELY TO ENGAGE ON SOCIAL NETWORKS.

ALTHOUGH CEOs ARE VISIBLE, THEY ARE NOT ENGAGING

PUBLIC COMPANY CEOs ARE LEAST LIKELY TO ENGAGE ON SOCIAL NETWORKS.

39% 22%

For more information about Socializing Your CEO IV: The Engagement Factor, please contact: ThoughtLeadership@webershandwick.com