The Social Media CEO

In his 1999 bestseller of the same name, Bill Gates referred to our rapidly evolving business climate as “Business @ The Speed of Thought.”  Like many of his pronouncements, that too was prophetic.  Even a visionary like Gates, however, might be amazed at the newest business transformation embodied in Social Media.  Looking back over the last few years, change is now occurring with such blinding speed that the emerging business landscape is hardly recognizable.

When Gates’ book hit the street, Microsoft was a juggernaut, its growth and profits the things of legend.  In those days, if you asked nearly any man on the street to name the fastest growing company in the world, Microsoft would have been the most common answer.

Today, the fastest growing company in the world is a small social buying site called Groupon, which is now valued at more than $1 billion. Groupon joins the social networks, Facebook and Twitter, and the online gaming company Zynga, in the small, select fraternity of web 2.0 startups that have crossed the $1 billion threshold.

What has caused this change?  Is it merely the power of new ideas?  Perhaps.  More likely, when future business historians look back at this period, they will realize that a totally new force has come into play:  The Social Media CEO.

What is so different about this new breed of Chief Executive?  Apart from the obvious, that he is more likely to wear jeans than Armani suits, is the fact that he is totally immersed in Social Media.

George Colony, the CEO of Forrester Research said recently, “While one can only speculate about the future of CEOs and social media, there’s no question that social media plays a huge part in life and the world as we know it right now.”  He went on to suggest that, “As younger CEOs replace older ones, news consumption habits change and social media continues its trend towards ubiquity, there’s little question that the man (or woman) at the top will need a firm grasp on social media — whether that be for recruiting, scouting, public engagement or social CRM.”

The game and the rules are both changing, and to remain competitive today’s CEO’s must struggle to keep up.  The striking undercurrent of this development, lost on many of the younger pundits, is that future CEO’s will ignore this business imperative at their peril.  As was the case in the web’s early days, when many top executives thought the web was a passing fancy and that websites were a useless extravagance, those who do not adapt will be left behind.   Companies and their top executives who embrace Social Media will excel, those that do not will languish.  The creative, socially engaged executives, will run circles around their stodgy counterparts.

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