Traffic to IZEA.com
Corporate blogs are nothing new. They have been around long enough to see mainstream adoption from companies like GM, HP and Bank of America. Corporate blogs are usually maintained by marketing or PR teams, with CEOs and upper level execs popping in every once and awhile to make an announcement or two. They are typically sales, service or industry centric… watered down and lack any real personality. The large majority of these blogs are the same-old boring-ass corporate communications crammed into a new format. Corporate Twitter accounts tend to follow a similar path.
I am not saying that there is anything wrong with corporate blogs or Twitter accounts. Dissemination of organizational information through social media is an important part of the marketing mix. However, I believe this is a myopic view of how social media should be used by companies. I believe every CEO should augment their corporate social media strategy with their own personal social media presence. Here’s why:
Relationships Matter
Any CEO worth his weight in corn flakes understands the value of relationships. As CEO you have relationships with customers, vendors, employees and investors. Some relationships are formed in the office throughout the work day, but the strongest relationships tend to be formed outside the confines of the office. When a CEO takes a client on a golf outing, invites an investor to dinner or grabs a beer with employees the magic is in the personal connection. The little stories that are shared between people create a deeper bond and understanding of each other.
Social media allows a CEO to take thousands of people on a golf outing at the same time. They can simultaneously share a beer with customers and investors or even bond with new people that may become valuable contacts in the future.
Relationships Have Their Place
While these bonds are important they also have their place. I don’t want to go to the Google blog and see how Eric Schmidt spent his vacation or what he does to manage stress. It’s not appropriate to share that type of personal information on a corporate blog. When I go to the Google blog I expect to see information about Google. However, it would be perfectly acceptable and relevant content for Schmidt’s to share on a his personal blog (which doesn’t exist).
We follow this rule at IZEA where I am CEO. The IZEA blog is focused on things relevant to IZEA and our community. Ted.me is filled with content relevant to me and my personal thoughts about the world around us. While there is some overlap in audience each blog has a different message and bond with the reader.
Relationship Force Multiplier
Most CEOs that don’t use social media say they “don’t have time to play on the Internet” or “It’s not a good use of my time”. To which I say “You may be rich, but you are a donkey”. That’s like saying you don’t have time to write a mass email about the new product launch because you are in physical meetings about the new product launch.
I look at my personal use of social media as a relationship force multiplier. I can’t possibly maintain communications with all the people I want to face to face. But my blog and twitter account let me build and maintain relationships with thousands of people every month. If you can make time to play a round of golf (4 hours) you can make time to write a blog post (.5-1 hours) or write a tweet (.5-1 minutes).
Relationships Drive Results
If you are a numbers driven CEO you have probably read all of this and think it is complete crap. I don’t blame you. There are a lot of “social media consultants” out there (which I am not) that talk about this stuff without anything to back it up. Here’s the bottom line: My personal blog consistently rates in one of the top 5 referrers to IZEA’s corporate website. Twitter is consistently in the top 5 as well (though I can’t take 100% credit for that). My personal use of social media drives traffic, helps retain customers and most importantly acquires new customers.
Personal social media isn’t just about good relationships. It’s about good business. Go setup your blog and get on Twitter already. Once you do don’t forget to follow me!
If you read this whole post and don’t leave me a comment I will hunt you down and steal your twinkies.
Great post! But why would you want to steal my twinkies, had I not commented?
You always draw a great picture in your blogs and tweets and I appreciate that!
@George:
It makes me sad when I spend a bunch of time on a post and nobody leaves a comment. It’s weird… the easiest, stupidest stuff I post seems to draw the most interaction.
Relationships do matter and because they are CEO, they should be very active to connect to everyone to provide better service/products. After all, they will not have the CEO position without any customers/consumers!
[…] Fuente de inspiración: CEOs Need A Personal Blog & Twitter […]
Good points but I believe communication using the social media as you described it should be specific to the age of your targeted audience and the business. Today the age demo using this type of communication style is not in the majority. As CEO’s or corporate leaders we must determine the ENTIRE VALUE of our time and style of communicating. Sending email, texting and communicating in the social media outllets of today does not replace face-to-face time, it only supplements an already existing and trusting relationship. I will concede that CEO’s will need to communicate more often through more sources with a heightened sense of transparency but only after a relationship has been created.
Great post Ted. You have done a tremendous job in building a brand for yourself and connecting that to the world through social media. I’m love reading biographies and watching the bio channel and you tube clips of successful people who have built great companies. With social media, CEO’s can communicate on a whole different level.
By the way; we have not had the pleasure to meet yet. Dale Flowers has told us a lot about you. We have been working with him for the past year. He was trying to get a meeting set up with you, we should meet for lunch soon. I live downtown.
Great post Ted. I got a lot out of it. And I’m keeping my twinkies on my desk, under lock and key. If I see damage to my lock box, I’m coming after your “gel”.
Nice post, I think one thing we need to remember is not all CEO’s are th inspiring, or great to know – and could actually have the reverse effect if the customers really knew them.
BTW – I have no twinkie – just crumpets.
Cheers
N
Hi Ted–Great article! I love your rule “The IZEA blog is focused on things relevant to IZEA and our community. Ted.me is filled with content relevant to me and my personal thoughts about the world around us.”
It’s amazing how many companies do not apply that rule to their own organization. If you use [insert any form of social media] for business, I do not need to know that you are taking a coffee break or whatever other details people share.
Commenting so you don’t hunt me down and steal my twinkies. LOL!
It’s been amazing watching how much your social media presence draws new customers to our company. However, I think that from our perspective it’s easy to believe that everyone understands the value of virtual “relationships” as much as we do. I have to remind myself in conversation often that the average adult still thinks Twitter is a fad (if they know what it is, and these “average adults” are often the same people who thought the Internet itself was a fad).
Fad it [Twitter] may be, but social media and social networking is not going away. And as time goes by, the “average adult” will have grown up and learned about business in this world where social interaction is as commonplace (or more) online as it is in real life.
And one last note, on your Top Traffic Sources graphic above a lot of that direct traffic may also be coming from Twitter since clicks from Twitter clients into a web browser usually have no referrer URL attached to them.
Great post! Keep getting CEOs and corporate leaders on board with blogging and Tweeting… If they refuse, their younger competitors will have a huge advantage.
Good points. I will try to stay fresh. By the way I picked up on you from a twitter write.
Thanks
Even for CEOs who find they do have time to “play” on the internet, not every exec has the ability to write easily or well. Maintaining a blog or Twitter or other social media presence shouldn’t be burden for a top exec, and if he/she can get some help from a p.r. person with the writing or organizing, why not? As long as it reflects the exec’s thoughts. But to get most impact from the dialogue, that CEO should be regularly looking at the comments.
If he’s able to do the writing himself, so much the better. But not being able to write shouldn’t have to stand in the way of a CEO having a social media presence.
Good and practical approach. However I would like to know how you have been able to keep updating your blog so often? Is this a habit, rookies like me will find exhausting???
Manesh
Well said, Ted. Pity about your tongue, though. I would send my CEO a link if the site wasn’t so palatable 😉
I agree that CEO’s need to reach out through social media. But how about those who have kept themselves and the company low profile intentionally? How can we convince them?