10 Tips for Getting Your CEO on Twitter

A tweeting CEO is a terrific asset. It puts a human face (and voice) to the company’s leadership and it demonstrates the executive team’s commitment to customers. And unlike blogging, tweeting imposes relatively light demands on a CEO’s precious time.

For some leaders, being on Twitter is a necessary way to stay in touch with key audiences and issues. Arguably, the CEO of any company in the tech, communications or media industries (or with clients and customers in those industries) should be on Twitter. For CEOs in any other sector Twitter is strictly optional–though CEOs who are always and can’t put down the Blackberry or iPhone will likely take to it with ease.

Once you’ve determined that your CEO is a good Twitter candidate, here are 10 practices and tools that can make you make your boss an effective Twitterer and thus open a new communications channel with your customers:

1. Ease into it. Your CEO needs to get a feel for Twitter before tweeting. Set up an anonymous/pseudonymous account that follows a few dozen CEOs, public figures, friends and colleagues. After your CEO has monitored it for a few weeks it will be much easier to see what makes a good tweet.
2. Download it. Most people find Twitter much more useful if they use a client program like Tweetdeck, Tweetie or Seesmic. Set up your CEO with one of these, especially if you think your CEO may use more than one account (see below) be sure to choose a client that supports multiple accounts.
3. Don’t fake it. Your CEO should write and post her own tweets, in a first-person voice. It’s acceptable and appropriate for one or two other communications staffers to have access to your CEO’s account, but they should use that access only to post informational links about your CEO (speaking notes, videos, announcements of upcoming appearances) and not to post thoughts, observations or other updates. There’s nothing worse for your CEO’s Twitter credibility than a tweet that mysteriously posts while he is on stage, delivering a speech–or worse yet, supposed to be paying attention to someone else’s
4. Connect it. If your CEO also blogs, those posts can be tweeted through his account automatically with the service Twitterfeed.
5. Save it. Write now and tweet later using a service like HootSuite. Your CEO can use that middle-of-the-night insomnia to tee up some quotes, insights or observations, and then set them to publish sometime during the next day (when people are awake to read them). Conversely, if you have a global audience, you may want to set some of your CEO’s tweets to detonate after hours, so that your employees on the other side of the world will see them.
6. Manage it. Create a “twitter fodder” file. Include lists of possible tweets (quotes, observations, kudos to team members, etc.) and a list of twitterers to follow as a source of retweetable material. Encourage your CEO to retweet or reply to messages on a regular basis, so that at least 1/3 of his Twitter feed feels conversational.
7. Shout about it. Publicize your CEO’s tweeting by adding her username to her business card, e-mail signature and online bio. Make sure your employees, vendors, clients and colleagues know that this is a good way to keep in touch with your CEO, and set expectations for whether and how often they might expect personal replies.
8. Monitor it. Assign a communications staff person to the job of monitoring your CEO’s Twitter activity. Your monitor should use an RSS reader or Twitter client to track all tweets that include your CEO’s username, and assume responsibility for replying to routine inquiries; if your CEO is following more than a handful of people (which they should!) your monitor will need direct access to the CEO account in order to keep on top of Direct Messages, too. Your CEO is likely to get certain kinds of messages on a regular basis (for example, requests for jobs or investment information) so agree on a set of standard responses that your monitor can send from the company account. For example: “Thanks for asking @CEOName about jobs at @CompanyName. You can find info about our current openings here: http://company.com/hr.”
9. Divvy it. Consider setting up multiple accounts, potentially including a separate account for personal use, one for replies (if they won’t be interesting for other people to read) and one for the company (to use for posting company news, or for responding to tweets your CEO doesn’t have time to answer).
10. Don’t Auotmate it. Resist the temptation to auto-follow or auto-reply. While Twitter has now disabled most forms of auto-reply, you’ll still find people who automate a “thanks for following me” message. Don’t use any kind of boilerplate on your CEO’s feed. If you need to use standard replies (for example to job inquiries) those should come from a separate staff or company account.

These practices are just a starting point for your tweeting CEO. Real success on Twitter comes from discovering the feeds, voice and conversations that work for your leader and your brand. Lay the groundwork that makes Twitter easy and fun, and your CEO will be able to explore and enhance the value of Twitter to your business.

Alexandra Samuel is CEO of Social Signal, a social media agency. She helps companies and organizations increase revenue, build brand and strengthen team relationships by creating
compelling online communities and social web presences. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Follow Alex on Twitter at twitter.com/awsamuel.