140 Characters of Risk: Some CEOs Fear Twitter

By LESLIE KWOH And MELISSA KORN

When General Electric Co. GE -0.22% Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt tweeted for the first time this month, his "Hello Twitter" was greeted with some snarky replies, including this one: "@JeffImmelt how come my grandfather got on twitter before you?" While arguably late to the game, Mr. Immelt's debut on the microblogging site makes him a rarity among chief executives, who have generally steered clear of social media even as their companies have embraced it to commune with customers and pursue new business.

Tweeter in Chief

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While many companies have taken to Twitter, their executives avoid it for fear of making public missteps. Still, some are attempting to navigate the world of social media with aplomb.

Chief executives are under pressure these days to appear accessible and "authentic," but social media—with its demands for quick, unscripted updates that can quickly go viral—poses risks for top managers and the companies they represent, in the form of lawsuits, leaked trade secrets or angered customers. Many corporate leaders say they are too busy running a company to spend time posting 140-character messages to Twitter, or retweeting posts from followers. What's more, for some companies, the business case for using the site can seem unclear, with no direct correlation between Twitter followers and sales. At least one leadership expert thinks those arguments are shortsighted. Most CEOs should accept that social media is part of their job description, says former MedtronicInc. MDT -0.92% CEO Bill George, a management professor at Harvard Business School and avid tweeter. "People want CEOs who are real. They want to know what you think," he says, adding: "Can you think of a more cost-effective way of getting to your customers and employees?" Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. is pushing CEO Randy Papadellis to start tweeting. But when Mr. Papadellis said in a recent interview that one of his first tweets would mention drinking cranberry juice before eating sushi to prevent food poisoning, his director of communications, Cindy Taccini, quickly nixed the plan, noting that the claim hadn't been clinically proven. Seven in 10 Fortune 500 CEOs have no presence on major social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+, according to a recent report by CEO.com and analytics company Domo. Among those who do, 4% have known Twitter accounts and 8% use Facebook under their own names, according to the study, which was conducted in May. By contrast, 34% of all Americans are on Twitter and 50% use Facebook.

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ReutersZappos CEO Tony Hsieh, an early adopter, hasn't posted to his Twitter account for months. He says the network has lost its intimate, chatty feel.

Corporate leaders such as Yahoo Inc.'sYHOO -2.03% Marissa Mayer and Medtronic's Omar Ishrak appear to have struck a balance on their Twitter accounts between personal and professional. When she was tapped to head the struggling Internet company, Ms. Mayer, who is pregnant with her first child, rallied her troops and investors by posting photos of Yahoo-themed baby clothes onFacebook Inc FB -2.45% .'s Instagram photo-sharing site. More recently, on Twitter, she has talked up the company's café. But cautionary tales abound. In May, fashion retailer Francesca's Holdings Corp.FRAN +0.33% fired its chief financial officer, Gene Morphis, after he took to Facebook and Twitter with posts about earnings calls, snide remarks about short sellers and self-congratulatory comments after the company completed a secondary share offering. Mr. Morphis continues to tweet as @theoldcfo. On Monday, he tweeted about meeting with venture capitalists. Mr. Morphis couldn't be reached for comment. Aetna Inc. AET -0.97% CEO Mark Bertolini started his account three years ago—though his daughter, a former social-media director, tried to dissuade him. He has used the platform to share personal news, such as his son's kidney transplant in June. Though Mr. Bertolini started tweeting to communicate with friends, he became a lightning rod for critics of the big insurer, one of whom tweeted a wish that he would die of a stroke, or that his family would perish in a car crash. But he also has used the platform to show a different side of the insurer. Last summer, when a colon-cancer patient tweeted about hitting the cost ceiling on his Aetna health plan, hundreds of Twitter users directed angry posts at Mr. Bertolini, who then reached out to the patient, also via Twitter. The result: Aetna agreed to cover the man's medical bills through the end of his latest plan year. "I don't want to be a press release," says Mr. Bertolini, who has about 3,000 followers. "You have to take some chances. You have to put yourself out there." Fortune 500 CEOs who do have Twitter accounts have an average of 33,250 followers, according to the study by CEO.com and Domo. A business celebrity such as former GE chief Jack Welch has 1.3 million followers. News Corp. NWSA -1.47% CEO Rupert Murdoch, who started tweeting in January, has amassed more than 326,000 followers. The media mogul has tweeted his opinions on issues such as gun control, public education and the euro crisis. News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal.

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Ross McDonald

Not all CEOs are as outspoken. Michael Dubyak, CEO of Wright Express Corp.,AET -0.97% which provides fuel charge cards to government agencies and corporations, says he considered tweeting but concluded there were simply too many pitfalls. Close friends and family can find him on Facebook, where Mr. Dubyak has an account, though it isn't listed under his full name. Many executives who tweet get a helping hand, either in the form of edits from their public-relations staff or ghostwritten posts. GE's Mr. Immelt, for instance, has a team that works to "execute his vision" on Twitter, helping him draft tweets, according to company spokeswoman. The tweets are the result of a "discussion" between Mr. Immelt and Deirdre Latour, GE's senior director of communications, but "it's his tone and vision," she says. GE's legal team doesn't review the posts before they are published. CEOs who do mind their own accounts have to steer clear of bashing competitors, disparaging customers or opining on polarizing topics like religion and politics. When she trains executives on social media, Amy Jo Martin, CEO and founder of social-media agency Digital Royalty Inc., says clients are "fearful of sharing too much versus not sharing enough." She advises executives to give followers a glimpse, not a guided tour, of their lives. Some executives are already over it. Zappos Inc. CEO Tony Hsieh, an early adopter, hasn't posted to his Twitter account since June. In an email, he said the network is good for making announcements, but has lost its intimate, chatty feel. He has moved on to sharing photos on Instagram instead. Write to Melissa Korn at melissa.korn@wsj.com

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Managing the Facebookers

Dec 30th 2008From The Economist print edition

The balance of power between old-school managers and young talent is changing—a bit

Illustration by David Simonds

This culture clash has been going on in many organisations and has lately seeped into management books. The Net Geners have grown up with computers; they are brimming with self-confidence; and they have been encouraged to challenge received wisdom, to find their own solutions to problems and to treat work as a route to personal fulfilment rather than merely a way of putting food on the table, Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription. Not all of this makes them easy to manage. Bosses complain that after a childhood of being coddled and praised, buy Erythromycin from mexico, Net Geners demand far more frequent feedback and an over-precise set of objectives on the path to promotion (rather like the missions that must be completed in a video game). In a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Buy cheap Erythromycin, a consultancy, 61% of chief executives say they have trouble recruiting and integrating younger employees.

For the more curmudgeonly sort of older manager, the current recession is the joyful equivalent of hiding an alarm clock in a sleeping teenager's bedroom (see article below), where can i buy cheapest Erythromycin online. Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription, Once again, the touchy-feely management fads that always spring up in years of plenty (remember the guff about "the search for meaning" and "the importance of brand me") are being ditched in favour of more brutal command-and-control methods. Having grown up in good times, Net Geners have laboured under the illusion that the world owed them a living. Order Erythromycin online overnight delivery no prescription, But hopping between jobs to find one that meets your inner spiritual needs is not so easy when there are no jobs to hop to. And as for that sabbatical: here's a permanent one, sunshine.

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In fact, herbal Erythromycin, compromise will be necessary on both sides. Net Geners will certainly have to temper some of their expectations and take the world as it is, not as they would like it to be, Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription. But their older bosses should also be prepared to make concessions. Buy no prescription Erythromycin online, The economy will eventually recover—and demographic trends in most rich countries will make clever young workers even more valuable. Besides, many of the things that keep Net Geners happy—such as providing more coaching to young employees or embracing cheaper online ways to communicate—are worth doing anyway. But for the moment at least, real brand Erythromycin online, the Facebookers are under the cosh.

Generation Y goes to work

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Reality bites for young workers

The global downturn has been a brutal awakening for the youngest members of the workforce—variously dubbed “the Millennials”, “Generation Y” or “the Net Generation” by social researchers, Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription. Taking Erythromycin, “Net Geners” are, roughly, people born in the 1980s and 1990s. Those old enough to have passed from school and university into work had got used to a world in which jobs were plentiful and firms fell over one another to recruit them, buy Erythromycin from canada. Now their prospects are grimmer. According to America’s Bureau of Labour Statistics, Comprar en línea Erythromycin, comprar Erythromycin baratos, the unemployment rate among people in their 20s increased significantly in the two most recent recessions in the United States. Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription, It is likely to do so again as industries such as finance and technology, which employ lots of young people, axe thousands of jobs.

Such griping may reinforce the stereotype of young workers as being afraid of hard work—more American Idle than American Idol. Erythromycin recreational, Yet a survey of 4,200 young graduates from 44 countries published in December by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a consultancy, found that they want many of the same things from work as previous generations, no prescription Erythromycin online, including long tenure with a small number of employers. And they are willing to put in the hours to get them, What is Erythromycin, if they are treated well.

Indeed, Net Geners may be just the kind of employees that companies need to help them deal with the recession’s hazards. Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription, For one thing, they are accomplished at juggling many tasks at once. For another, Erythromycin pics, they are often eager to move to new roles or countries at the drop of a hat—which older workers with families and other commitments may find harder to do. Such flexibility can be a boon in difficult times. Erythromycin blogs, “In the economic downturn what we are really looking for is hungry 25- to 35-year-olds who are willing to travel,” says Frank Meehan, the boss of a fast-growing mobile-phone applications business that is part of Hutchison Whampoa, a conglomerate based in Hong Kong, purchase Erythromycin for sale.

Net Geners’ knowledge of internet technology can also help companies save money. Consider the case of Best Buy, a big American consumer-electronics retailer, Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription. Keen to create a new employee portal, Online buying Erythromycin, the firm contacted an external consultancy that quoted it a price of several million dollars. Shocked by this, a group of young Best Buy employees put together a small team of developers from their own networks who produced a new portal for about $250,000, australia, uk, us, usa. Another Net Gener at the company cobbled together a mobile-phone version of Best Buy’s website for fun in seven days in his spare time.

Best Buy, Rx free Erythromycin, which announced in December that its third-quarter profit had fallen by 77% compared with the same period a year earlier, is also betting that its Net Geners can come up with new ways of boosting sales using the web and other means. Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription, “We’ll weather the storm and be stronger because of the Net Generation,” says Michele Azar, Best Buy’s head of internet strategy. Estée Lauder, a cosmetics firm, Erythromycin pharmacy, is also encouraging Net Geners to help it innovate. It has launched an initiative called iForce which brings together young staff to dream up ways of marketing products using emerging technologies. Erythromycin steet value, Programmes such as iForce are based on the notion that Net Geners are well placed to encourage their peers to dip into their pockets. According to a recent survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company of The Economist, Net Geners place more emphasis on personal recommendations than on brands when deciding which products and services to buy, Erythromycin canada, mexico, india. Hence the importance of hanging on to clever youngsters who have grown up with Facebook, MySpace and so forth, and who know how best to create buzz among their peers, Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription.

Net Geners who find themselves out of a job are likely to use the same know-how to create a buzz about themselves so they can find another one. Charlotte Gardner, About Erythromycin, a 25-year-old Californian who was made redundant by a financial-services firm in November, has since been using online job and social-networking sites, as well as micro-blogging services such as Twitter, to promote her skills to potential employers, Erythromycin interactions. Ms Gardner, who is optimistic she will find another job soon, Erythromycin samples, describes herself as “a glue kid”—someone who can get different kinds of people to work well together.

Firms battling through the recession will need plenty of “glue managers” who can persuade Net Geners to stick around and work with their colleagues on important projects. They will need to provide regular feedback to young staff on what is happening in the workplace and why—as well as plenty of coaching on their performance (see article Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription, ). Companies that keep Net Geners in the dark will find themselves the targets of unflattering criticism both inside the firm and online. “These kids will scrutinise companies like never before, discount Erythromycin,” explains Don Tapscott, the author of several books on the Net Generation.

In the end, compromises will have to be made on both sides. Younger workers will have to accept that in difficult times decisions will be taken more crisply and workloads will increase. Their managers, meanwhile, will have to make an extra effort to keep Net Geners engaged and motivated. Firms that cannot pull off this balancing act could see an exodus of young talent once the economy improves. That, to borrow from Net Geners’ text-message shorthand, would be a huge WOMBAT: a waste of money, brains and time.

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