ÜBERCEO

Last year our research on chief executives showed that Fortune 100 CEOs are social media slackers. To recap: Only two had Twitter accounts; 13 CEOs had LinkedIn profiles; and less than 20 percent had a Facebook page. While some 75 percent had Wikipedia pages, many were seriously outdated. Our research also showed that not a single CEO had a blog.  

We still say that CEOs need to make their own decisions about their personal and company’s social media strategy.... But at the very least they need to be aware of the Web 2.0 tools their customers are using to communicate and share information.   

One former CEO has already taken the plunge. Founder and former CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates, opened up a Twitter account on January 19, 2010. His first words: "Hello World. Hard at work on my foundation letter–publishing on 1/25.” One day later he announced on Twitter that his blog—The Gates Notes—had gone live.  

Since that big-bang Tuesday, Gates has been regularly posting tweets on his page. They mainly reference the difficult situation in Haiti, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and his hot-off-the-press blog. 

On Twitter he already has 365,862 followers and is following 43 people. In the first eight days, he has mingled with celebrities and exchanged ideas with nonprofits. He retweeted Ryan Seacrest as well as OneCampaign’s tweets about urgently needed aid for Haiti. 

His blog, on the other hand, is a full-fledged Web site. It’s obvious that his intention was to make the site as personable and personal as possible. The navigation tries hard to be and succeeds at being simple, friendly and inviting.  

It seems that Gates is really trying not to be disconnected, disengaged and disinterested—the three Ds we coined to describe last year’s batch of anti-social Fortune 100 CEOs. Maybe we’ll see other CEOs follow Gates’ example as they realize the marketing and brand-building potential in social media.