10 Insightful Social Media Quotes from Smart CEOs

I’m quite fortunate to be part of the team at CEO Connection, working closely with our CEO members on a daily basis as Chief Relationship Officer.  One of the things I value most about my role is the opportunity to meet with small, intimate groups of these executives five times a year in different locales around the world.


At these CEO Connection meetings they have a chance to truly reflect on – and be open and honest about – challenges they’re facing and mistakes they’ve made.  And they share experiences and insights that enable them to leave with renewed, energized vision and strategies.


At our most recent event in New York City last week we spent a good deal of time discussing social media.  I thought you might find some of these CEO comments about social media to be both insightful and perhaps surprising.


To give you a general background, these quotes are from smart, experienced CEOs who represent a variety of companies across industries that boast average revenues of $1.6 billion. Roughly 40% of those in the room were women:


1. “Everyone in my company thinks they’re a social media maven.” (B2C Company)


2. “My biggest concern with participating in social media is that we’ll somehow provoke a crisis.” (B2C Company with overwhelming majority agreeing)


3. “Connecting and creating relationships with customers is nice, but how does that translate to reach?” (Manufacturing company)


4. “We’re definitely increasing our social media budget more than any other media category.” (General agreement)


5. “I recently started tweeting and my employees love it; they can’t get enough of it.  I tweet about the meetings I’m in and general observations, which seems basic, but they better understand what I do.” (B2C Technology company)


6. “By not tweeting you’re tweeting.  You’re sending a message.” (Business services company)


7. “We’re not in control of the conversation, so we need to monitor it and adjust our strategy accordingly.” (B2B Company)


8. “I recently started blogging and every time I meet with employees they implore me not to stop.  They really love it.” (B2B Company)


9. “Our employees’ wives love our facebook page and are our most active group on it.  They’re our advocates.” (Mining Company)


10. “We advise our employees that when they’re using social media they should use social grace – and we trust them to do so.” (B2B Company)
Source Lisa Petrilli