Good Things Happen When CEOs Tweet

There’s been a flurry of debate about Fortune 500 CEOs and their social media activity following Domo/CEO.com’s report earlier this month.  Example:  Less than 2% actually use Twitter.

Former Omniture founder Josh James is now CEO of Domo, which conducted the study. He says that as his company’s senior leader, his Tweets add value to the company.

“One day I tweeted about a product feature that I liked. Two weeks later in a meeting with engineering, I was shown our product with that particular feature built in,” he wrote in a contribution to Forbes analyzing the study. “We never had a meeting to discuss it. I never sent a memo. The engineer took the cue and figured out how to make the product better.  That was pretty amazing.”

Janine Nickel, who lives in our general neighborhood, liked the video tour of Vocus Town, our new corporate campus, and tweeted about it. A Twitter conversation ensued and she asked for a tour.  Vocus CEO Rick Rudman responded.  That was a week ago, and yesterday, Janine indeed stopped by for a visit.

Rick not only gave her a tour, but in a face-to-face conversation discovered that Janine has a business relationship with Ron Kaiser, who serves on our board, and is literally neighbors with Jim Bruno, who leads our international efforts.  It was like six degrees of Kevin Bacon, with a personal touch.

Because Rick is active on Twitter, we’ve made a new friend.  While Janine often blogs about the benefits of a home office, she has a standing invitation to stop by our HQs for an office space away from her home office space.

CEOs are busy.  Maybe they’re not all on Twitter, but ours is – and we’re proud of it.  Good things happen when CEOs tweet.

Follow Rick on Twitter @VocusChairman.