The recently released ‘2012 Fortune 500 Social CEO Index’ shows that among executives occupying the top positions at some of the largest publicly held companies, only 4% use Twitter and 7.6% use Facebook. These figures are significantly lower that those for the general population. More than 33% of the adult US population uses Twitter and 50% uses Facebook.
The report also shows that the top level executives seem to prefer LinkedIn over Facebook and Twitter. 26% executives had LinkedIn accounts, which is higher that the general figure of 20%.
Although the number of big company executives present on Twitter is very small, those who do have an account have a large following. Their average number of followers is 33,250. The large following attracted by few top executives may have given rise to the notion that executives who are socially active reap benefits like customer engagement and loyalty.
According to a survey carried out by BRANDfog, there may be some truth in the notion. The survey shows that the presence of senior level executive on social media improves a brand’s profile and helps boost purchases. These executives are also perceived to be more trustworthy and better leaders. These findings support the investments made on professional social media services.