You might be reading that question thinking “Hey…why isn’t my CEO on Twitter?” or maybe you had the opposite reaction. “WHY would my CEO want to be on TWITTER? As someone who has spent the last 4 years on twitter learning from others and building great relationships, I am part of that first camp. I’ll admit, I am slightly biased here but I feel strongly that agency leaders should be on social media. This is especially true for leaders in mental health and human services.
Part of my rationale for building my social media ethics course for social workers was to help our profession understand the potential benefits of social media. There are certainly risks (my course talks about ways to mitigate those) but the benefits of building a presence and sharing your story are critical.
I got some help arguing this point from this year’s National Council for Behavioral Health Annual Conference (or #NatCon18). Alicia Aerbersold (Chief Communications Officer for American Psychological Association) and Joy Burwell (Associate Vice President for Communications at The National Council) presented on Social Media for Executives. They lay out compelling case for behavioral health executives to have a presence on social media. Since I couldn’t be there I created this twitter moment (including video filmed by Stamp Out Stigma)…
"#SocialMedia for Executives" at #NatCon18
One of the points I did not think about is access to journalists and increasing the chances of your agencies stories being told on larger media outlets.
I would also add some great examples of executives I follow on social media are Dr. Rasu Shrestha of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and Nancy Lublin of Crisis Text Line
Are you a behavioral health or social work executive? Would love to hear your thoughts on social media? Do you have a great example of a mental health/human service CEO on social media? Please feel free tweet at me at @stuckonsw or comment below…
