It’s been much discussed for the past several years and while the outcome in the end wasn’t necessarily surprising, what was surprising was that when the announcement was made, a huge opportunity was missed. I am of course talking about Microsoft corporation’s appointment of Satya Nadella as their CEO, but what was the huge opportunity missed?
In today’s digital world, people turn to LinkedIn to learn about a person’s professional background and they turn to Twitter to learn what that person has to say. In both social media platforms (approximately a quarter billion and a billion users respectively), Mr. Nadella's profiles are embarrassingly weak and for a major technology company that critics claim has lost touch with modern users, this represents an unfortunate and huge missed opportunity to engage and impress.
This is Mr. Nadella’s public LinkedIn profile (2 days following the announcement):
In today’s digital world, people turn to LinkedIn to learn about a person’s professional background and they turn to Twitter to learn what that person has to say. In both social media platforms (approximately a quarter billion and a billion users respectively), Mr. Nadella's profiles are embarrassingly weak and for a major technology company that critics claim has lost touch with modern users, this represents an unfortunate and huge missed opportunity to engage and impress.
This is Mr. Nadella’s public LinkedIn profile (2 days following the announcement):
It says CEO of Microsoft is his first gig (!) and he only has 384 professional connections. If potential customers, or worse: stockholders, were searching for reassurance that Microsoft’s technology portfolio and $300b market cap was in good hands with an experienced veteran who lives in our modern, socially driven world, they didn’t find it on LinkedIn.
In addition to professional credentials, it’s logical to be interested in what Mr. Nadella has to say. Is he engaging, insightful, intelligent? Does he have a vision for the future? Unfortunately, Twitter, the most popular direct communication platform in the world, also gets the same treatment as LinkedIn from Mr. Nadella and his marketing team. His last tweet, @satyanadella, before the two since he has become CEO is three years old. And while Mr. Nadella deserves kudos for giving Twitter a second chance since his appointment, the paraphrased version of last and only two tweets since being named CEO are (and again I am paraphrasing) A) “I promise to tweet more, just not right now” and “Look, I live in Seattle and am on the Seattle Seahawks Bandwagon”. Even going back to 2010, there is an uncomfortable lean towards corporate schilling rather than intimacy. Great twitter accounts, such as @benioff or @richardbranson, are full of windows into their owner's character and vision, Mr. Nadella's tweets offer us only banalities.
Still, none of this is irreparable. The beauty of social media is that it is about the moment, so Mr. Nadella and his marketing team have countless opportunities moving forward to take full advantage of these platforms and to better instill trust by showing the world that Mircosoft gets the modern technology user and has some of its best years ahead.
Or...they could take the Larry Ellison (@larryellison) approach to social media: no LinkedIn profile (at least that I could find) and a Twitter account with 44,500 followers and exactly one tweet. One snarky, hyper competitive, sales thirsty tweet:
In addition to professional credentials, it’s logical to be interested in what Mr. Nadella has to say. Is he engaging, insightful, intelligent? Does he have a vision for the future? Unfortunately, Twitter, the most popular direct communication platform in the world, also gets the same treatment as LinkedIn from Mr. Nadella and his marketing team. His last tweet, @satyanadella, before the two since he has become CEO is three years old. And while Mr. Nadella deserves kudos for giving Twitter a second chance since his appointment, the paraphrased version of last and only two tweets since being named CEO are (and again I am paraphrasing) A) “I promise to tweet more, just not right now” and “Look, I live in Seattle and am on the Seattle Seahawks Bandwagon”. Even going back to 2010, there is an uncomfortable lean towards corporate schilling rather than intimacy. Great twitter accounts, such as @benioff or @richardbranson, are full of windows into their owner's character and vision, Mr. Nadella's tweets offer us only banalities.
Still, none of this is irreparable. The beauty of social media is that it is about the moment, so Mr. Nadella and his marketing team have countless opportunities moving forward to take full advantage of these platforms and to better instill trust by showing the world that Mircosoft gets the modern technology user and has some of its best years ahead.
Or...they could take the Larry Ellison (@larryellison) approach to social media: no LinkedIn profile (at least that I could find) and a Twitter account with 44,500 followers and exactly one tweet. One snarky, hyper competitive, sales thirsty tweet:
Larry Ellison, like a boss. :)
Best,
Chris
Author: Chris Russell
Best,
Chris
Author: Chris Russell
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