Executives on Twitter: Image improvement through social media

Even the top managers of Germany cannot avoid the topic of social media. Instead they utilise it to their own advantage. They use the social media platform Twitter to improve their own image.

In the year 2019, people’s trust in institutions, media and economy hit a record low in Germany. Consequently, the factor of social media is more important than ever, especially for executives. They can use platforms like Twitter to build a foundation of trust with their clients, employees and business associates.

According to the Edelmann Trust Barometers of 2019, 67 percent of Germans expect a clear positioning of managers with regards to social, political and economic issues. The executives can use Twitter to share their views regarding those issues with the world. At the same time, roughly 39 percent of Germans believe that CEOs are reliable conveyors of information. This is a 5 percent increase to 2018.

Every fourth Twitter user is an executive

The social relationship platform Hootsuite recently conducted a study which concluded that Twitter can be considered the social media platform for executives. In Germany, roughly every fourth user of the social network is in a leading position. Accordingly, Twitter has a large user community of influential and wealthy people.

The choice of topics of the German top managers shows quite a broad range. Tweets by DAX-listed companies often deal with people and companies, while the discourse about their own businesses, the professional world and women in leadership positions are predominant. In general, there is no tendency coming from German companies with regards to the topic range.

The top “Buzzers” of 2019

In the first quarter of 2019, the leading role of the “Buzzers”, which means the especially loud managers on Twitter, is taken by Sina Trinkwalder. She is the manager of Manomama and has been tweeting with a clear politic stance to her active followers for several years. The second and third place respectively are taken by Ulrike Guérot of the EuDemLab and Rob Bubble of the Richtig Cool Ltd.

An analysis of the user engagement revealed that the user engagement of B2B-DAX-listed companies grew by 13 percent in 2018. The B2B-Twitter-Accounts have grown by an even larger number, they grew by 77 percent. Consequently, Twitter can be regarded as one of the most relevant and current communications channel for companies and managers. (der Bank Blog)