Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons has emerged as the most influential Irish leader on social media this year, the first Social CEO Report released by The Reputations Agency (TRA) shows. The report analysed the social media activity and LinkedIn profiles of the CEOs of the 100 organisations featured in TRA’s Ireland RepTrak® study from March to September.
Gibbons was highly commended for the popularity of his LinkedIn channel, the vibrancy of his narrative in promoting the island of Ireland overseas for Tourism Ireland and the quality of the engagement from his connections. Anne O’Leary, CEO, Vodafone Ireland and Francesca McDonagh, CEO, Bank of Ireland, took second and third place respectively.
The study showed that 85 per cent of the 100 Irish leaders examined have a LinkedIn account, but only 38 per cent posted in 2020. A post is deemed as anything they have posted on their own feed – from posting an image, video or an insight or sharing another LinkedIn users post. Only 27 per cent were seen to be regularly active on Twitter.
Of those studied, 30 CEOs were noted as having a well-executed social media strategy ensuring they maximised their connections and their content to elevate their organisation’s vision and purpose. The report said that leaders of indigenous Irish organisations account for 40 per cent of the top ten and 50 per cent of the top 30 positions.
Irish semi-state bodies were also strongly represented, with their CEOs taking one third of the top 30 positions, led by the CEOs of Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland (Paul Kelly), IDA Ireland (Martin Shanahan), RTÉ (Dee Forbes) and An Post (David McRedmond). Marketer of the Year 2007 Niall O’Grady, now at 123.ie, also made the top 30.
Over one third of the top 30 were female. Social media leaders played their part in leveraging digital platforms to build corporate reputation, with LinkedIn chief executive Sharon McCooey in eight place and Facebook CEO Gareth Lambe in 12th place.
