Atlas Iron’s Ken Brinsden (@kenbatlas) joined Twitter shortly before becoming managing director of the entrepreneurial miner earlier this year. He’s tweeted about running late to the airport without his passport, and about Atlas Iron’s community development day. Of the four CEOs he’s displayed the most sophisticated use of the network, using retweets and tagging other users in his tweets. This suggests he’s reading his Twitter feed, as opposed to just using it as a broadcast medium. However, so far, he has only 13 followers. Atlas Iron’s chair, David Flanagan (@DavidFlanagan), signed up to Twitter about a month before Brinsden.
Bank of Queensland CEO Stuart Grimshaw (@grimshawstuart) used his first tweet in June to poke fun at the bank’s rivals: “How good to be a ‘small’ bank when we can make a quick decision on interest rates and put customers first,” he tweeted. He’s also used Twitter to congratulate the Wallabies and All Blacks on a good game, and to express dismay at the lack of sun in Brisbane (a rare occurrence for Queensland, we assume).
Wesfarmers’ MD Richard Goyder (@RGoyder) – who posted tweets for two days in August –appeared to tailor his posts to his employees and shareholders. “I would like to sincerely thank everyone at Wesfarmers for helping us achieve our result for the year,” he tweeted on August 16. He seemed pretty chuffed with the group’s result, posting six tweets on the same day about it. The following day, he tweeted about a sports game – his last known appearance on the network.
NewsCorp’s Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) shows age is no barrier to using the Twitter network effectively. Of the ASX 100 CEOs, he’s the most prolific user of the network, using it to broadcast his opinions on politics, popular culture and his competitors to 333,759 followers. He rarely engages with others on the platform, but his posts are interesting and lively, and have attracted a steady readership. Today he tweeted twice about the latest American election poll, which found Romney has four points on Obama when likely voters are considered. “Who knows which polls are right? But they certainly point to real contest of visions for America,” he tweeted. “Like to hear more about education.”
We found accounts in the names of several other CEOs that could potentially have at one stage belonged to those atop the ASX 100. But as they hadn’t ever tweeted or followed anyone, it’s hard to gauge whether or not they were legitimate. @IanNarevCBA has 32 followers, among them several bankers and journalists, but the account holder has yet to tweet or upload a profile picture. The @MagnusNicolin account appears to belong to Ansell CEO Magnus Nicolin, but its owner has yet to tweet or follow anyone, so it’s hard to tell for sure. And the mysterious @davidthodey is a locked account with a Telstra profile picture, with a description directing people to Telstra customer service. It has no followers and is not following anyone. In April, CEO Thodey said Telstra had 60 people monitoring social media for mentions of the telecommunications company, so the company may just have registered his name to prevent someone else from doing so.
Several high-profile CEOs had spoof accounts named for them, but these were clearly not associated with the real executive.
Myriam Robin is a reporter for SmartCompany and its sister site LeadingCompany. She has degrees in economics, international studies and journalism. She likes writing about businesses taking risks and doing new things.
