Comments on: Apparently, YouTube Automatically Makes Your CEO A Thought Leader

By: AHA

AHA — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:46:02 +0000

I am beginning to see the hyping of Twitter (and to some extent Youtube) as a kind of reverse shibboleth: if a person raves about the awesomeness of this glorified/crippled web-based IRC/SMS substitute thingy, they are automatically excluded from really being taken seriously by me.

Nothing wrong with Twitter in and of itself (I use it myself) but I am totally down with your message of the necessity of actually blogging (or, in my case, running a magazine) and spending serious braincycles plus sanguine/perspiratory/lachrymatory fluids to create content of value.

By: Adam Singer

Adam Singer — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 05:04:46 +0000

Hey Karlie – cheers for coming on here and responding. Of course, we all have our opinions and viewpoints — and that’s the whole point of discussion and debate. Glad you’re open to it.

By: Karlie Justus

Karlie Justus — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:25:55 +0000

Hey Adam,

I wanted to say thanks for your post. I couldn’t find much discussion around the topic, so I was glad to hear someone else’s thoughts on if/why/how CEOs are using YouTube. I’m still looking for examples of proactive communication from CEOs on YouTube, where I could learn directly from these men and women.

You bring up some good points, and I wanted to respond to them.

1. I based the first statement on personal Google and Twitter research. A better statement should have been “more attention” has centered around Twitter than YouTube when it comes to best practices and examples of proactive communication. I mention in the post’s lede that nearly all of the discussions I could find around YouTube and CEOs had to do with reactive crisis communication.

2. You’re right – there’s definitely not a magic formula when it comes to using social media tools, and I didn’t mean to imply that. I would amend that statement to say any B2B company with video content suitable for public consumption – product demos, tradeshow interviews, commercials, etc. – should be on YouTube, as it makes that content searchable and provides one more point of customer contact.

3. I’d also amend that a CEO using YouTube would be a thought leader for other CEOs using or considering using the service – not over all of social media. If a CEO is using YouTube, he or she can share dos and don’ts, pros and cons, best practices etc. with others. Because this group is relatively small, others would probably be able to learn something (even if it’s just that this would not work for them and their organizations). To me, this is one aspect of thought leadership.

Again, thanks for helping me think through this a second time around and pointing out where there needs to be additional conversation.

By: David Akermanis

David Akermanis — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:31:51 +0000

The bit about your CEO automatically becoming a thought leader is way too funny.