We all know about the many opportunities and substantial value social media provides for communications, marketing and for business overall, at least you should if you've been following my blog. What's still a grey area though is the adoption or rather acceptance of social media by the highest hierarchical level (if we can call it that way) in an organisation - the C-Suite.

One of the very fundamental things about social media is that conversations happen all the time, no matter whether you are listening, participating or ignoring them. This means that even if senior management is not following or engaging on platforms such Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram etc. people are still talking and are by driving the conversation about the brand. Those conversations are often so powerful that they even manage to shape the brand's story and significantly influence corporate reputation. Isn't that a reason enough for CEOs to join the conversation and share their voices?

Apparently, for many it is not.

That's what 'The Global, Social CEO Survey 2014' by BRANDfog has found.

Aiming to examine "the aspect of social media engagement in the C-Suite, including its effect on brand reputation, transparency, brand trust, and overall company leadership", BRANDfog's overall conclusion is that social media's importance for executives is more critical than ever with three recent trends shaping modern business communications:

• Social CEOs make better leaders - an increase of 30% from 2012 to 2013 (from 45% up to 75%).
• Social CEO engagement leads to brand trust - the majority of respondents believe that a company whose leadership uses social media to communicate about core mission, brand values and purpose is more trustworthy.
• Social media is modern PR as it has become an essential aspect of PR and communications strategy for C-Suite executives, especially in a crisis.

Important to note here is that corporate leaders really are the faces of a company; they set the cultural tone of organisational communications and are so a significant part of brand identity. Today's more sophisticated, hyper-connected, always-on consumers expect brand CEOs to be the transparent voice and link between ordinary people and the company. In many cases, especially among millennials, consumers expect those conversations to happen exclusively on social media. They expect to learn about your products, supply chain operations, sustainability initiatives and all other corporate activities on social platforms. But how can a leader build such a relationship when he or she is not vocal there, where those consumers are actually active?

The opportunity cost of ignoring social media is failure to engage and create meaningful, authentic relationships with current and potential brand advocates. This, on the other hand, leads to lack of trust, damaged image and a significant risk for the long-term success of the company.

An active social media presence helps create brand awareness and establish industry leadership with consumers more willing to purchase from companies.

Adopting social media and starting to participate and learn from those conversations isn't a peril, it's an opportunity, a competitive edge to provide context for business decisions, address brand issues, better adapt to market changes, showcase company culture, create transparency and ultimately build trust.

Because without trust a brand is worth nothing. If no one trusts you, no one will buy from you.

Ignoring the all so powerful social-savvy voices on social media is a risk that senior managers cannot allow to make anymore.

Will you jump in?

Image courtesy of suphakit73 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net