Last week PRWeek, one of the leading public relations publications, released a “power list” of the top 25 professional communicators.
The companies represented by the 25 were spread across a wide range of industries – from General Electric to IBM to Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. They are all major players in their respective industries, and each undoubtedly has a team or two (or more) of marketers, public relations experts and communication specialists.
But with titles like Vice President of Communication, Ford Motor Company, you’d think Mr. Ray Day might like to stay plugged in to what was being said about the company.
Right?
Well I did some research and found that a disturbingly low percentage of the “top 25 communicators” had a presence on Twitter. [Note: I’m referring to a visible presence. They may well have a username that isn’t easily searchable by a name or company search]
In fact, only eight percent (that’s two people) on PRWeek’s list were on Twitter. An astounding 44 percent of the companies that these people represented weren’t on Twitter either!
Maybe I’m simply too “new-school”, but I was very surprised to not find FedEx on the microblogging site. It seems to me like that would be a great avenue to connect with clients…you know – field complaints, handle inquiries, and direct traffic to the homepage?
So without further ado, I give you the “25 top communicators” as rated by PRWeek:
Name on Twitter? Company on Twitter?
1. Harris Diamond,CEO
Weber Shandwick Worldwide
and IPG’s Constituency
Management Group.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes. (@WSUSA) – 623 followers, 85
updates. +4 other accounts like
@WSCanada.
2. Richard Edelman, worldwide
president and CEO, Edelman.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes. (@EdelmanMIA) – 985 followers,
371 updates. +5 other accounts like
@Edelman_India
3. Charlotte Otto,
chief global external relations officer,
Proctor and Gamble.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes. (@PGNewsUS) – 523 followers,
0 following, 44 updates.
4. Leslie Dach, EVP, corporate
affairs and government relations,
Wal-Mart.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Not really. There is @RVwalmart and
@WMsoundcheck, but not a true Wal-Mart
account.
5. Jon Iwata, VP, marketing and
communications, IBM. On Twitter –
@coastw – 449 followers, 49
updates.
Company?
Yes. (@ibmdesign) – 3705 followers,
832 updates. + at least 20 more accounts
like @ibm4bloggers.
6. Robert Gibbs, White House
Press Secretary.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes. (@whitehouse) – 646,970 followers,
259 updates. +1 @WhiteHouse_blog and
@BarackObama.
7. Sally Susman, SVP and chief
communications officer, Pfizer.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Nothing official.
8. Ray Day, VP, communications,
Ford Motor Company. Not found
on Twitter.
Company?
Yes (@Ford) – 10,476 followers, 1,594
updates, 10,014 following. Managed by
Sotty Monty, head of Ford social media.
+6 other accounts like @FordCustService
9. Ken Cohen, VP, public affairs,
ExxonMobil.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Not found on Twitter.
10. Mark Penn, CEO,
Burson-Marsteller
On Twitter - @Mark_Penn – 166
followers, 24 updates.
Company?
Not found on Twitter.
11. Bill Margaritis, SVP, global
comms and IR, FedEx.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Not found on Twitter.
12. Dave Senay, CEO,
Fleishman-Hillard.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes. (@Fleishman) – 1713 followers, 49
updates. + individual employee accounts
like @RachelleLacroix.
13. Gary Sheffer, executive director,
comms and public affairs, GE.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes. (@GE_Reports) – 2843 followers,
474 updates, 2225 following. + at least 2
more accounts like @GETech_Infra.
14. Rachel Whetstone, VP, public
policy and comms, Google.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes. (@google) – 1,097,659 followers,
488 updates. +at least 16 more accounts
like @ChromeBrowser.
15. Jack Daly, SVP of corporate
relations, McDonald’s.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
No. But there are localized accounts like
@SanDiegoMcDonalds (607 followers) and
@McDonaldsBrazil (548 followers).
16. Ray Kotcher, CEO, Ketchum.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Not found on Twitter. However, Pamela Rocco
Von Lehmdem, an SVP can be found, if you
search really long and hard.
17. Ray Jordan, VP of public affairs
and corporate comms,
Johnson and Johnson.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Not found on Twitter.
18. Simon Sproule, VP, corporate
comms, Microsoft.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes, broken into segments like
@MSWindows (27,631 followers
1,099 updates, 27,029 following) and @bing.
19. Julie Hamp, SVP of corporate
communications, PepsiCo.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes (@pepsico) – 2668 followers,
1,080 updates, 1,414 following
20. Joele Frank, managing partner,
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Not found on Twitter.
21. Maril MacDonald, CEO,
Gagen MacDonald.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Not found on Twitter.
22. Steve Lipin, senior partner,
Brunswick Group.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Not found on Twitter.
23. Joseph Evangelisti, managing
director, corporate comms,
JPMorgan Chase.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes (@JPM_News) – 590 followers, 289
updates.
24. Margery Kraus, CEO, APCO
Worldwide.
Not found on Twitter.
Company?
Yes (@APCOJobs) – 494 followers, 74
updates, 706 following.
25. Melissa Waggener Zorkin, CEO,
president, and founder,
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide.
Nothing that appears legitimate on Twitter.
Company?
Sort of. (@WaggedHK) – their Hong Kong
branch. 204 followers, 4 updates,
217 following.
Congratulations to Jon Iwata and Mark Penn. They’re the only two that could be found on Twitter.
So why is that? Is it because these C-level executives are simply too busy to spend time on Twitter? Is it because they have squadrons of employees who manage the accounts for them?
Or is it because no one on the list is under the age of 35?
There’s no denying that younger demographics tend to be early adopters of new social networks much sooner than their older counterparts.
After all, Quantcast statistics show that the main age demographic for Twitter users is 18-34. But maybe it’s more than that.
I’m not suggesting that the people on this list aren’t excellent at their jobs. A full-scale marketing/PR/communications plan for a company the size of JPMorgan or Johnson and Johnson goes far, far beyond little ‘ol Twitter.
But Twitter has proven itself to be a valuable listening tool for companies who DO adopt the service. I’ve read a lot of positive news about @SouthwestAir and how they’ve managed customer relations on Twitter. Why can’t McDonald’s do the same?
In fact, I would think McDonald’s would be a Twitter power user by now – tweeting to its followers about new meal deals, sharing it’s latest advertising videos on YouTube, and directing traffic to its homepage.
At the very least, I would think Jack Daly would want to keep an open channel for communication on Twitter and listen to what was being said.
The same goes for companies like Johnson and Johnson. They could monitor trends about people complaining about cold and flu symptoms. “What are people saying about how they feel?” “How can we use this information to make better products, better advertising and a better company?”
Granted, that shouldn’t fall on Ray Jordan to actively monitor what Sally SoreNose is saying on a daily basis – but SOMEONE should be listening!
As far as the lack of presence on Twitter for these executives…It’s my opinion that they should have an account (that is easily found) if ONLY because someone may be looking for them someday and have a question about the company.
At the very least, they would be able to redirect the person to the proper information source.
Who knows…maybe Pfizer would want to monitor tweets like this one to gauge public sentiment. (By the way - congratulations to Ford, GE, Microsoft, Pepsi, APCO Worldwide and Waggener Edstrom. They’re the only ones who were following a respectable number in proportion to their followers.)
Or maybe not. If it were my communications strategy, I’d at least have someone listening in.
By: Zack S.
