Indian CEOs remain relatively inaccessible to consumers on social media as compared to their European and US counterparts, reveals a study conducted by the London-headquartered ECCO International.

The study, which looked at the largest companies by market capitalisation in 21 countries, revealed that 58 per cent of global CEOs are active on LinkedIn, compared to 20 per cent in India. On Twitter, this figure is 17 per cent worldwide and 10 per cent for India.

Uday Kotak, CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, is among the leading CEOs globally with nearly one million followers on Twitter.

Since the study covered CEOs of top 30 companies by market capitalisation in each country, several business leaders with large a Twitter following did not get covered. Some notable Indian business leaders with large Twitter following include Ratan Tata (7.65 million); Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group (7.2 million); Vijay Mallya (5.96 million), and Nandan Nilekani, Infosys (2.52 million).

CEOs in France are the most active on social media. Denmark follows closely in second place, while Australia shares third place with the Netherlands.

As of 2017, CEOs in the United States still have the most followers, despite the country ranking only fifth for total presence on social media. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook tops the chart worldwide with over 11 million followers on Twitter (an increase of 120 per cent since 2017).

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, leads the way on LinkedIn, with over 6 million followers (an increase of 300 per cent since 2017). Bhavya Doshi, Asst. Vice President of ECCO’s India agency Pressman, said that LinkedIn is becoming increasingly important, while most CEOs continue to shy away from communicating on Twitter.

“On Twitter, the language is often more pointed, and the risk of backlash from consumers is significantly higher. With LinkedIn, this risk is lower – and more CEOs are recognising the opportunities this social media channel offers,” said Doshi.

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