70% of Fortune 500 CEOs Aren't Using Social Media

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By Kurt Wagner2013-08-07 18:49:38 UTC

Perhaps they're too busy working on the bottom line, or maybe they just want a little privacy. Whatever the reason, CEOs from the majority of the world's largest companies don't seem to care much for social media.

A new study released Wednesday by Domo and CEO.com found that nearly 70% of Fortune 500 CEOs have no presence whatsoever on any major social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+. Of the 30% that choose to engage in social media, nearly all of them (28%) do so through LinkedIn. And while the number of CEOs utilizing the other three networks is small, it appears that Twitter is the only other social channel Fortune 500 CEOs are moving toward (albeit, slowly).

See also: Facebook: Here's How Your News Feed Works

A few notable CEOs joined the Twittersphere in the past year, most notably Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, who hasn't tweeted since his first day on the site in May despite amassing over half a million followers. (He follows nobody.) But even that number can be misleading: the report found that 22% of Buffett's followers are actually fake accounts, and roughly 13% of all followers of Fortune 500 CEO accounts are actually fake.

Here are some of the report's most interesting findings:

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  There are 28 Fortune 500 CEOs on Twitter, up from 18 in 2012. Only 19 CEOs with accounts — a mere 3.8% of the entire group — have actively tweeted in the past 100 days.

  
  


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  Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Republic Services' Donald Slager each have a Twitter following that is 30% fake. The pair tied for the highest percentage of fake followers on the list.

  
  


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  Only 35 (7%) of Fortune 500 CEOs are currently on Facebook, the only social network of the four studied to decrease in representation from 2012, when 38 CEOs had Facebook accounts.

  
  


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  Only five Fortune 500 CEOs have Google+ accounts.

  
  

Why do you think Fortune 500 CEOs shy away from social media? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Image: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Topics: Facebook, linkedin, Social Media, Twitter, Warren Buffett