Everything you need to know about social media strategy for executives

The demand for business transparency has never been higher. Today’s consumers prefer to engage with brands that are open, honest and transparent. But businesses don’t have the luxury of sharing information indiscriminately—doing so can lead to risks like inconsistent messaging, or worse, reputational damage.

For businesses, true transparency is deliberate and strategic. That’s why a well-crafted social media strategy for executive leadership is essential—it ensures your brand’s transparency is both genuine and impactful.

Your C-Suite’s social media presence can humanize your brand, making it seem more approachable, honest and trustworthy. It’s a personal touch that enhances brand visibility and deepens connections with customers, employees, investors, partners‌ and beyond.

Chances are, you follow an executive you admire. With a focused strategy, you can elevate your leaders to become influential figures for your stakeholders, too.

In this guide, we’ll show you why an executive social media strategy is essential. We’ve also included examples of some of the most effective executives on social media to inspire and guide your approach.

Bonus Resource: We’ve compiled our top tips for developing an effective executive social media strategy. Share this resource with your leadership team today to help them enhance their personal brands.

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The age-old saying is true—trust really is everything. Unfortunately for brands, it’s becoming tougher to earn and even harder to keep.

Today’s consumer is faced with more options than ever before in the midst of fluctuating economic conditions where market optimism can change at the drop of a hat. If that’s not enough, ad-fatigue is fanning the flames of anti-consumerist trends like no-buy years and “underconsumption core”.

To succeed in this era, businesses must earn the type of brand trust that positions their products and services as non-negotiables—and that starts from the top down. An active executive presence on social media can shift your company’s image from a “mysterious corporate entity” to a “trusted partner,” leading to better talent retention, market visibility and overall profitability.

The benefits of an executive social media strategy far outweigh any potential risks or time cost. If “to post, or not to post?” is still your question, the following stats and figures will help you find the right answer.

It supports talent retention

An executive social media strategy doesn’t just humanize your brand with consumers—it can also resonate with employees, too.

Executive social media offers your leadership team a powerful platform to publicly embody your organization’s mission and values. It shows your employees that leadership is genuinely committed, not just in words but in actions. This visibility can significantly boost confidence in the company and in the leadership team.

When employees see leaders actively engaging and aligning with company values, it enhances trust and motivation. In fact, a recent study from Deloitte found that workers who trust their employers are 260% more motivated to work—and 50% less likely to leave.

It attracts investors and partners

They say the best investors invest in people, not ideas—and according to recent data, 75% of investors use social media to inform investment decisions.

The 24/7 nature of social media makes it an essential tool for investor relations professionals to monitor and engage in key conversations about their company and the broader market. A strong executive presence on social media ensures that potential investors and partners hear about your company directly from the source, allowing you to present a compelling and authentic narrative.

By helping executive leaders craft their personal brands on social media, you not only enhance the company’s image but also foster trust and credibility with current and prospective stakeholders.

It bolsters customer loyalty

According to a Q1 2024 Sprout Social Pulse Survey, 78% of consumers strongly/somewhat agree that—compared to a year ago—a brand’s social media presence has a larger impact on whether or not they trust the brand. This shift underscores the growing importance of a strong online presence.

An executive’s active engagement in industry conversations not only showcases your brand’s leadership but also reinforces its position as an industry innovator. By positioning themselves as thought leaders, executives can enhance customer loyalty, as people are more inclined to stay loyal to brands they view as pioneers and authorities in their field.

Now that we’re squared away on the benefits, let’s look at examples. Here are some executive social media profiles you can look to for content inspiration:

Beth Ford, President and CEO, Land O’ Lakes, Inc.

Land O’ Lakes does more than just make great butter. The century-old, farmer-owned cooperative is home to multiple business units that span every corner of the agricultural industry from seed to feed to food. But all 46,000 of CEO Beth Ford’s LinkedIn followers probably already know that.

Ford uses her platform to amplify the brand’s efforts to connect individuals to the farmers that grow their food. On top of that, she frequently advocates for investment in rural communities through corporate social responsibility programs and lobbying efforts.

The takeaway: Bring your company’s mission and vision to the forefront of your executive social media strategy to inspire trust and drive meaningful connections.

Jamie Miller, EVP, Chief Financial Officer, PayPal

Jamie Miller leads PayPal’s global financial operations, playing a pivotal role in corporate finance, tax functions and of course, investor relations.

What sets Miller apart as a standout CFO on social media is her approach to quarterly earnings content. Every three months, she shares her thoughts on PayPal’s stock performance following the company’s official earnings release, offering her followers some perspective on the company’s financial outlook and strategic priorities. Her post on PayPal’s Q2 2024 results earned over 1,100 reactions on LinkedIn.

The takeaway: Don’t let trade publications and stock analysts tell your story for you. Take control of your company’s financial narrative by proactively planning social-first executive communications around quarterly results.

Rex Lee, Chief Information & Technology Officer, Canadian Tire Corporation

IT isn’t always thought of as a very exciting business function—but a quick scroll through Rex Lee’s LinkedIn profile proves otherwise.

On social, Lee frequently shares his perspective on cybersecurity as it relates to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. He doesn’t claim to have all the answers. Instead, he shares learnings and thought-starters to encourage conversations with others navigating the space. His social media efforts cement Canadian Tire as a forward-thinking company that’s willing to ask big questions on behalf of their customers.

The takeaway: Showcasing expertise doesn’t have to be dry or boring. Work with executives to cultivate their personal brand, so you can help them develop more authentic content that highlights their unique leadership qualities.

Shannon Hobbs, Chief People Officer, BNY Mellon

As BNY Mellon’s Chief People Officer, Shannon Hobbs engages over 53,000 employees from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. On social media, she does the same.

Hobbs actively engages with BNY Mellon team members on LinkedIn by sharing and expanding on their posts to her own network. This approach not only amplifies employee voices but also serves as a meaningful acknowledgment of their contributions.

The takeaway: An executive social media strategy isn’t just about what your leaders post—it’s also about how they engage with and amplify others. Set your leadership team up for social media success by regularly highlighting employee content that’s worth sharing.

The biggest challenge you’ll face while bringing your executive social media strategy to life is the perceived risk. Privacy concerns can easily stop a C-Suite from using their personal profiles as a marketing channel. Luckily, while this may be a hurdle, it doesn’t have to be a major roadblock.

The right social media management tool can help your team actualize your executive social media strategy seamlessly, minimizing potential governance risks and cumbersome content approval processes.

Sprout empowers teams to seamlessly manage both brand and executive social media strategies on a single, centralized platform. With Sprout, executive communications teams can efficiently oversee leadership profiles on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).

To get started, simply add your executive leader’s social profile to Sprout. For enhanced security, it’s ‌best practice to create a separate Group specifically for executive profiles. This ensures the data and content calendars for these profiles remain distinct from your brand channels, keeping everything organized and secure.

Once you add the profile, you can customize permissions at the profile level, giving users various degrees of access and control. Typically, users outside the executive management team are granted “No Access” permissions to maintain confidentiality and protect sensitive information.

After setting up the profile, you can easily schedule and approve posts, photos‌ and videos directly within Sprout. If your executive prefers to approve content outside of the platform, you can assign them an “External Approver Seat,” which sends content directly to their email for approval.

A social media strategy for executive teams is like a rising tide that lifts all ships. It not only serves to bolster the impact of your brand social strategy—it can incentivize more employee advocacy participation, as well.

At Sprout, we use Advocacy by Sprout Social to encourage employees to amplify content that reinforces our key messages. When encouragement comes from a senior executive, the impact goes even further.

After Sprout President Ryan Barretto curated his most recent article on what CMOs are saying about social media, the piece received 87 shares from Sprout employees, earning a potential reach of nearly 233,000 impressions. It became our second highest performing Advocacy post in July 2024, despite being shared with only six business days left in the month.

You can create the same impact with your executive team’s social content. Employee advocacy tools make it easy for team members to share executive content across their personal networks, giving it a much wider reach. When employees amplify executive posts, they help extend the content’s audience, boosting the executive’s visibility and influence.

For customers using Sprout for their Employee Advocacy program, you can seamlessly include executive teams’ LinkedIn or X posts in your curated advocacy content. If an executive’s Personal Profile is connected to Sprout, any post can be sent to Employee Advocacy as a resharable post.

The power dynamic between consumers and brands has shifted, putting people back behind the wheel. And they’ve got their sights firmly set on the truth.

As the demand for honesty and transparency from brands and businesses grows, social remains your C-Suite’s best bet for not only surviving the scrutiny, but also amplifying your brand and company values. It’s no longer a matter of “if” they should be on social, it’s “how”.

Use the examples in this guide to help your CEOs and executives build a powerful social presence that helps fuel your company’s social strategy, builds rapport with employees and ultimately grows your business.

Want to inspire your team with top insights from this guide? Download our executive social media strategy tip sheet to quickly share key strategies and elevate your team’s social media game.