The c suites-guide_to_getting_started_with_social_media_v2

WRITTEN BY JESSICA MEHER (@JESSICAMEHER)
Lindsey Gusenburg is a Marketing Manager on the Enterprise
Team at HubSpot. She brings over 10 years of marketing,
branding, and agency experience to her role. Before HubSpot,
Lindsey specialized in the B2B financial services industry, and
spent seven years on the agency side of the marketing world
in New York City, where she worked on projects for clients
such as American Express, Charles Schwab, and Bloomberg.
AUTHORS.
CO-AUTHORED & DESIGNED BY SHANNON JOHNSON
Shannon Johnson is a Content Strategist at HubSpot, where
she works with her awesome team to create marketing
resources you might actually want to download, read, and
share. Shannon has written, designed, and published dozens
of ebooks, guides, SlideShare presentations, blog posts, and
other resources on various topics related to inbound
marketing, social media, and content creation.
2
@LINDSEYGUS
@SHANNOPOP
CO-AUTHORED BY LINDSEY GUSENBURG

WHY DO EXECUTIVES NEGLECT SOCIAL MEDIA?
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA + WORDS
OF WISDOM FROM HUBSPOT CEO, BRIAN HALLIGAN.
GET ACTIVE ON LINKEDIN.
GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER.
LESSONS TO LEARN FROM TOP SOCIAL EXECS.
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12
17
26
34
WHY EXECUTIVES CAN’T IGNORE SOCIAL MEDIA
ANYMORE.
4
CONTENTS.
3
38 WRAP UP & ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.

1 WHY EXECUTIVES
CAN’T IGNORE SOCIAL
MEDIA ANYMORE.
4

WHY EXECUTIVES CAN’T IGNORE SOCIAL
MEDIA ANYMORE.
Did you know there are as few as 5.6% of Fortune 500
CEOs on Twitter? Additionally, a whopping 68% of
Fortune 500 CEOs don’t have any social presence
whatsoever according to a study conducted by CEO.com
and DOMO.
These stats exist despite evidence pointing to countless
business benefits of being a social executive. A recent
study released by BRANDfog suggests that social
executives are better leaders who can strengthen brands,
build trust in products and services, demonstrate brand
values, and communicate accountability – all by simply
being on a social network.
Why does this matter? The days where chief executives
can hide behind the boardroom doors are gone. There’s
a growing expectation from consumers and employees
that the leaders of companies should embody the brands
they represent – and demonstrate that commitment by
being visible and accessible on social media. This guide
will teach you how to meet that demand.
5

2 WHY DO EXECUTIVES
NEGLECT SOCIAL
MEDIA?
6

There are a few reasons why CEOs and other c-level execs have been, on the whole,
slow to adopt social media:
REASON #1: THERE’S NO TIME.
By nature of the job description, members of the c-suite are busy people. They don’t have
the time (nor should they be making the time) to sit in front of a Twitter feed all day long.
This is why many CEOs and other executives who join social networks show very little
profile activity – or end up abandoning it altogether after a short while.
The chart on the next page illustrates how even on LinkedIn, the most popular of social
networks for professionals, most CEOs are not actively growing their networks with fewer
than 100 connections.
Out of all the people within a company that should be most present where millions of
customers, prospects, suppliers, shareholders, and employees interact, you would think
the head honcho would be one of them. ‘Tis not the case, as you’ll see when you flip the
page.
7

REASON #2: THERE’S ROOM FOR (MAJOR) ERROR.
The traditional media outlets that executives are accustomed to – such as blogs, web
pages, interviews, press releases, and brand videos – are carefully crafted and scripted
by seasoned PR teams. There’s little room for a messaging errors or pushback in these
one-way communication vehicles.
8
Source: 2013 CEO.com Social CEO Report (Fortune 500 CEOs on LinkedIn)

Social media, however, is a completely different story. We’ve all seen big brands make
major social mistakes that are difficult to gloss over by even the best PR folks. This room
for significant error, coupled with the unprecedented access and lack of control a network
like Twitter provides, makes social a scary place for many execs.
REASON #3: SOCIAL MEDIA IS “NOT FOR EXECUTIVES.”
More so than “no time” and “it’s too risky,” a 2012 study by the PR firm Weber Shandwick
suggests that the top three reasons CEOs don’t participate in social media are centered
around the perception that they don’t really think they need to be there. CEOs either
believe that social media is only for certain industries (media, technology, etc.), there’s no
real value in being on social, or that there’s no real demand for it.
The fact that 68% of Fortune 500 CEOs are still missing from social media indicates how
very accurate this is. CEOs and other executives simply don’t seem to believe social
media is part of their job description.
9

THE RISK YOU TAKE BY BEING ANTI-SOCIAL.
More so than “no time” and “it’s too risky,” a 2012 study by the PR firm Weber Shandwick
suggests that the top three reasons CEOs don’t participate in social media are centered
around the perception that they don’t really think they need to be there. CEOs either
believe that social media is only for certain industries (media, technology, etc.), there’s no
real value in being on social, or that there’s no real demand for it.
The fact that 68% of Fortune 500 CEOs are still missing from social media indicates how
very accurate this is. CEOs and other executives simply don’t seem to believe social
media is part of their job description.
For example, even though GM CEO Mary Barra doesn’t tweet a lot, she has used Twitter
as an important tool for crisis management. Her participation in the conversation around
the ignition switch recall demonstrates a level of caring, transparency, and honesty that
are markedly missing, say, from US Airways CEO, Doug Parker, who doesn’t participate on
Twitter at all.
10

Social media also provides an important tool for listening. Top social executives use social
media not only as another platform for communication, but also as an unfiltered news
source. Being able to see and hear the conversation happening in real time is invaluable.
Additionally, even though social media may still feel optional for executives today, it won’t
be optional in a few years. As more millennials enter the workforce and consumer market,
the expectation of transparency will only go up – leaving execs to play significant catch-up.
Social media isn't just about tweeting or Facebooking. It's not about hopping on the
bandwagon. It's not about hanging with the cool kids. It's about transparency and trust.
When a company’s leadership team chooses not to be social, that transparency and trust
suffers. It doesn't matter what industry you're in or what audience you sell to.
Now that we’ve covered why the c-suite needs to get social, let’s talk about how with a
little help from HubSpot’s co-founder and CEO, Brian Halligan.
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3 HOW TO GET STARTED
WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.
12

There are three fundamental things every executive should start doing immediately, which
we’ll talk about briefly before we get to brass tacks ...
1) GET THE RIGHT TOOLS.
Since members of the c-suite don’t have a lot of time to be managing multiple social
accounts, having the right tools is an important aspect of being successful on social media.
Whether it’s the ability to post and monitor social accounts from a mobile device – or
provide access to a team to manage an account on a CEO's behalf – having the right
toolset is key to keeping the account active and engaging.
2) LEARN FROM TOP SOCIAL EXECUTIVES.
There are a number of executives out there already rocking the social media world. One
can learn a tremendous amount about being social by learning from folks that are doing it
right. Identifying a handful of social superstars to follow and observing how it’s done can
be a great way to get started. We’ll talk more about what you can learn from some of the
top social execs later on.
13
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.

3) GET HELP.
Some executives are naturally very social and love to
engage in social media. Most c-level execs, however,
are still not entirely comfortable sharing much online
and need help keeping their profiles updated when
they’re pulled in a gazillion different directions.
It’s important to have the support needed to keep
your social media engine running since it’s not a set-it-
and-forget-it platform. That would be like dialing a
number and then walking away from your phone.
So, while mobile apps can keep you involved on-the-go,
it might also be worth investing in a dedicated
social media practitioner to keep your social streams
running smoothly. Be careful not to let someone else
take the wheel entirely, though. People can tell when
it’s not really you behind your tweets, posts, or status
updates, and that usually does more harm than good.
14

WHERE TO BE ACTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
ACCORDING TO HUBSPOT CEO,
BRIAN HALLIGAN.
There’s more than a handful of prominent social networks
nowadays: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest,
YouTube, Instagram … the list goes on. With so many networks, it’s
hard for even people with tons of time on their hands to figure out
where they should focus their effort.
Don’t worry, though – you don’t need to have a presence on every
social network right away. We’re going to focus on what you can
do to ramp up your company website, LinkedIn, and Twitter – the
channels that HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan says matter most for c-level
execs.
As you get the hang of cultivating relationships and sharing content
on those channels, you can expand to Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, Pinterest, and beyond.
15

Before we dive into LinkedIn and Twitter just yet,
let’s talk about one important digital property you
should have on your company’s website: a bio
page. You should have your own that’s complete
with:
• Your professional background;
• A high quality headshot; and
• Links to your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.
To see what we mean, check out the bio pages of
HubSpot executives Brian Halligan and Dharmesh
Shah here and here.
Why does having a bio on your company website
matter? Because prospects will Google you at
some point during the buying process (our
analytics tell us so), and you want to put your best
professional foot forward by having your bio or
your LinkedIn profile rank at the top of search
engine results.
16
“If you don’t rank first for your
name, you need to work on that.”
- Brian Halligan,
HubSpot Co-Founder and CEO

4 GET ACTIVE ON
LINKEDIN.
17

LinkedIn can be extremely powerful – especially when you're aware of all the social
network’s hidden features that don't get nearly enough exposure as they deserve. Here
are our top tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn.
OPTIMIZE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE.
Treat Your Profile Like Your Resume.
Fill out your entire profile – especially your professional Headline, Summary, Experience,
Education, and Industry sections. Luckily LinkedIn helps you with this by providing a gauge
that informs you how complete your profile is based on what you’ve already filled out.
Customize Your Profile URL.
Make your profile look more professional (and easier to share) by claiming your LinkedIn
vanity URL. Instead of a URL with a million confusing numbers at the end, it will look nice
and clean like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dharmesh. Customize your URL by going
here and clicking “Customize your public profile URL.”
Search Engine Optimize Your Profile.
Add brand- and industry-related keywords to various sections of your profile, such as your
headline or in your summary. Optimizing your profile will help you get found by people
searching LinkedIn or regular search engines like Google.
18

Show Examples of Your Work.
Did you know LinkedIn allows you to add a variety of media such as videos, images,
documents, links, and presentations to the Summary, Education, and Experience sections
of your LinkedIn profile? This enables you to showcase books you’ve authored as well as
many different projects or initiatives you’ve spearheaded. Learn more about adding,
removing, and rearranging work samples here.
Add, Remove, or Rearrange Entire Sections of Your Profile.
LinkedIn also enables users to reorder the sections of your profile in any way you prefer.
When in edit mode, simply hover your mouse over the double-sided arrow next to the Edit
link for each section. Your mouse will turn into a four-arrowed icon, at which point you can
click, then drag and drop to another position on your profile.
You can also customize your profile with sections that apply only to you. Find a full list of
sections to add to and remove from your profile here.
19

Get Endorsed.
There are two ways you can get endorsed on LinkedIn – recommendations or
endorsements. Recommendations are written by existing or past colleagues, and they
appear on your profile (if you allow them to), just like reviews show up on product pages
on Amazon, or on restaurant pages on Yelp. Not having any recommendations is a bit of a
red flag to others who scope out your profile, so if you don’t have any or very few, ask a
few folks to give them to you and offer to write one in return.
Endorsements, on the other hand, enable users to quickly and easily give kudos to their
connections for skills they’ve listed in the Skill & Expertise section of their profile – or
recommend one they haven’t yet listed.
You can't guarantee your connections will endorse you for your skills, but because it's so
easy for your LinkedIn contacts to do (all they have to do is click on the + sign next to a
particular skill on your profile), you'll find that many of them will do it anyway. Just make
sure your profile is complete and you've listed the skills you want your contacts to
endorse you for. It will definitely give your profile a bit of a credibility boost. You can also
remove endorsements if you find people are endorsing you for skills that aren't very
applicable.
20

Here’s what HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan’s endorsements look like. It sure helps convey
he knows a thing or two about software, marketing, and sales, doesn’t it?
21

USE LINKEDIN FOR PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING.
Build as Many Connections as You Can.
Join LinkedIn Groups and Follow Brands.
Did you know that if you're a member of the same group as another user, you can bypass
the need to be a first-degree connection in order to message them? In addition, group
members are also able to view the profiles of other members of the same group without
being connected. Join more groups to enable more messaging and profile viewership
capabilities.
22
“Be promiscuous on LinkedIn. I connect with almost all of the
people who ask to connect with me unless it looks like they are
going to start bludgeoning me with LinkedIn messages. LinkedIn
is evolving, so your expanded reach in this network will give you
more power down the road beyond what meets the eye.”
- Brian Halligan, HubSpot Co-Founder and CEO

You should also follow brands on LinkedIn by going searching for a company and clicking
“Follow” on their company page. A great place to start is with your competitors: Keep up
to speed with what they’re publishing so you can help your marketing team stay ahead.
23

Tune In to Industry News on LinkedIn Today.
LinkedIn Today is an awesome section of LinkedIn
that provides you with the most popular articles
shared on the social network. Follow specific
Influencer contributors, publishers, or topic-related
channels to stay on top of news and stories in your
industry. You can also sign up for daily or weekly
email summary notifications, or get instant
notifications when Influencers you're following post
something new.
When you’re ready for it, you should also consider
publishing articles on LinkedIn to showcase your
industry expertise. HubSpot co-founder and CTO
Dharmesh Shah regularly publishes articles about all
things business to LinkedIn Today. It’s great visibility
for him and for HubSpot. Anyone who has learned a
thing or two from Dharmesh’s posts will likely transfer
that trust and affinity toward HubSpot as a company,
and that makes the sales process a heckuva lot
smoother.
24

Here’s a peek at Dharmesh’s influencer profile where all his published articles can be
found. Compare this with any other exec you know who publishes nothing. Who are you
more likely to trust?
That said, we’ve given you plenty to do on LinkedIn for now, haven’t we? Let’s move on to
helping you master Twitter fundamentals.
25

Create and Optimize Your Profile.
At minimum, you want to at least be set up on Twitter. More and more frequently, people
are going to Twitter to see if company executives are there. Prospective customers want
to see that there’s at least one personality behind an otherwise faceless organization. If
there is no profile to be found, it sends a message that he or she isn’t open for
conversation, much less for business.
A completed profile with a few tweets is better than no profile at all. Case in point: GM’s
CEO, Mary Barra. She’s not very active, but she’s present and responds when tweeted at.
Her profile is well branded, it demonstrates brand values and openness, and she has used
it as a crisis management vehicle.
If you haven’t already, customize your Twitter profile to (a) make it look spiffy, (b) inform
potential followers who you are, and (c) provide a reason why you’re worth a follow.
HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan does this well. His Twitter profile is complete with a close up
photo, a custom background/cover photo, a short bio, his location, and a URL pointing to
HubSpot.com. Take a look on the next page.
27

GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER: LEARN FROM BRIAN
HALLIGAN’S PROFILE.
28
Professional
avatar.
Descriptive
bio & URL.
Industry-related
tweets.
Really cool
cover image.

Tweet Regularly and Tweet Often.
Once you have your profile up to snuff, it’s time to work on growing your audience.
Growing your following is about being visible any time your followers and future followers
are logged in and viewing their feed. So how can you be present non-stop without having
to be logged into Twitter and tweeting non-stop?
The answer is three-fold:
1. Tweet content you create;
2. Tweet content created by others; and
3. Tweet that content more than once.
To share content around the clock, you need a tool that can do four things:
1. Automate publishing from a blog feed;
2. Easily share content you find anywhere;
3. Schedule Tweets; and
4. Upload custom images.
You can do all four of these things with HubSpot Social Inbox, but if you don’t use
HubSpot, there are a few other tools you can use to tweet 24/7, including Hootsuite and
Buffer.
29

30
Additionally, HubSpot, Hootsuite,
and Buffer have Chrome
extensions that allow you to
schedule and share links to
content you find anywhere on
the web without having to leave
the page to log in and share
from your preferred platform.

Regardless of whether you choose to use HubSpot
or some other social sharing tool, the point is to
save time and become more efficient by:
• Automating tweets for content you create (on
your blog);
• Curating and sharing quality content as you
discover it; and
• Increasing the reach of that content by
scheduling multiple tweets.
When it comes to Twitter, it matters less where the
content you tweet came from and more that it’s
plentiful, entertaining, educational, or otherwise
valuable to your existing and future followers.
To find out where to go to find all kinds of great
content to share on Twitter and other networks,
check out our blog post, What Should I Tweet? 8
Places to Find Fantastic Content.
31

Build Your Following.
Your second greatest lever for growing your
followers other than tweeting around the clock is to
follow people and add them to Twitter lists. Since
people get notified via their email and activity feeds
when you do these things, they’re more likely to
notice you and follow back.
You should still only follow people you actually care
about. And definitely don’t follow more than a couple
hundred users per day, otherwise Twitter might
mistake you for a spam bot and suspend your
account.
You can find people to follow by:
• Importing or inviting your email contacts;
• Using Twitter’s “Who to Follow” tool found in the
“Discover” section of Twitter.com;
• Looking at who your followers are following; and
• Browsing a Twitter directory, such as
Twellow.com or WeFollow.com.
32

DO:
1. Show your personality.
2. Quote others.
3. Tweet what you read with
commentary.
4. Retweet with commentary.
5. Leave room for others to
comment.
6. Respond to @messages.
7. Use hashtags to enter a
conversation.
8. Follow all your customers.
9. Follow your leads/prospects.
10. Follow anyone mentioning
your brand.
33
GET ACTIVE ON TWITTER: DO’S AND DON’TS
FROM HUBSPOT CEO, BRIAN HALLIGAN.
DON’T:
1. Keep your profile private.
2. Sell too hard or too often.
3. Be boring.
4. Have long, personal
conversations unless it’s via
direct message (DM).
5. Ignore direct messages
(unless it’s spam).
6. Drink & tweet.
7. Overthink it. Just get started.

6 LESSONS TO LEARN
FROM TOP SOCIAL
EXECS.
34

Despite the overall lack of c-suite social media participation across industries, there are a
handful of executives who have used social media channels to increase brand awareness,
strengthen relationships with existing or future customers, or improve the public’s
perception of the organizations they represent. There’s a lot you can learn by observing
their social media behavior, and that’s what we’re going to explore next.
1) KILL MULTIPLE BIRDS WITH ONE STONE.
Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group.
Richard Branson is very active on social media, and not just on Twitter and LinkedIn. He’s
an avid blogger who uses his blog posts to help populate his other social feeds. See, you
don’t have to come up with 100% original content for every channel you choose to be a
part of. If you create any industry-related content at all (which is a good idea), you can
share it to multiple channels multiple times, just as long as you’re careful not to over-promote
your own stuff.
And, just like the executive team at HubSpot, Branson has his own bio page on
Virgin.com, where you can learn more about who he is, read his latest blog posts, and
easily access his other social channels. Other than his Wikipedia page (harder to control),
it’s the first page that ranks for his name in Google.
35
LESSONS TO LEARN FROM TOP SOCIAL
EXECS.

Despite the overall lack of c-suite social media participation across industries, there are a
handful of executives who have used social media channels to increase brand awareness,
strengthen relationships with existing or future customers, or improve the public’s
perception of the organizations they represent. There’s a lot you can learn by observing
their social media behavior, and that’s what we’re going to explore next.
2) SHARE A BALANCE OF CORPORATE, CURATED, AND ORIGINAL
CONTENT TOPICS.
Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group.
Even though Arianna Huffington’s LinkedIn profile isn’t as robust or as publically
accessible as it could be (at the time of writing, she doesn't have a vanity URL or any other
work experience listed prior to The Huffington Post), she expands her presence beyond
her profile by publishing regularly to LinkedIn Today.
She does a good job of balancing topics she’s passionate about, such as the importance
of sleep, with news specifically related to the business side of The Huffington Post. The
variety of content prevents her connections from getting tired or bored from over-promotion.
36
EXECS.

3) DON’T BE STUFFY.
Elon Musk, Founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, and
SpaceX.
Elon Musk may be worth $11.7 billion dollars, but he sure
doesn’t craft his tweets as if every word is made of gold.
He uses casual physics vocabulary, sure, but you’d
expect that from the spacecraft-, solar panel-, and electric
car-making entrepreneur.
Industry language that your fans and followers also speak
is very different from blasting your feeds with business
babble in an effort to maintain a buttoned-up image. It’s
okay and advisable for even executives to avoid robotic
corporate speak.
Take a tip from Elon Musk. He comes across as relatable
and human because he doesn’t just tweet about work,
and he’s not afraid to use a fragment sentence here and
there. He tweets about his kids, books he recommends,
and movies he likes, and you should, too.
37
EXECS.

7 WRAP UP & ADDITIONAL
RESOURCES.
38

Deciding not to invest more in social may not show harmful side effects immediately. But it
will certainly help your competitors, especially if their leadership teams are ready to
respond at any unforeseeable moment a PR crisis strikes.
The BRANDfog survey we mentioned previously in this guide uncovered some of the
primary benefits to why CEOs and other c-suite executives should get social:
• Better communication;
• Improved brand image;
• More transparency;
• Improved company morale; and
• Better leadership.
Additionally, CEOs who participate on social media are able to build better connections
and a stronger network. These connections can turn into customers, partners, or
employees down the line. Simply put, getting social is good for business.
Now that you know how to get up and running on Twitter and LinkedIn, why prolong the
many perks of being actively social?
39
WRAP UP & ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.

• What Should I Tweet? 8 Places to Find Fantastic Content
[SlideShare]
• How to get 1000+ Followers on Twitter
• 5 Ways CEOs Can Be Interesting on Twitter [SlideShare]
• Your Anti-Social CEO Is Hurting Your Brand [New Data]
• 11 Incredibly Useful LinkedIn Features You Might Not be
Using
• The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Mastering LinkedIn
40
LEARN MORE WITH THESE ADDITIONAL
RESOURCES.

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