Chief executives are under pressure these days to appear accessible and “authentic,” but social media—with its demands for quick, unscripted updates that can quickly go viral—poses risks for top managers and the companies they represent, in the form of lawsuits, leaked trade secrets or angered customers.
Many corporate leaders say they are too busy running a company to spend time posting 140-character messages to Twitter, or retweeting posts from followers. What’s more, for some companies, the business case for using the site can seem unclear, with no direct correlation between Twitter followers and sales.
At least one leadership expert thinks those arguments are shortsighted. Most CEOs should accept that social media is part of their job description, says former Medtronic Inc. MDT +0.95% CEO Bill George, a management professor at Harvard Business School and avid tweeter. “People want CEOs who are real. They want to know what you think,” he says, adding: “Can you think of a more cost-effective way of getting to your customers and employees?”
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From: CEO.com — Why Some CEOs Fear Twitter
By Leslie Kwoh and Melissa Korn
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