Nowadays, leadership metrics aren’t just comprised of revenue numbers—they also include Instagram likes.
Burson-Marsteller released a new report Thursday in which the public relations firm looked into how business leaders communicate on social media. The research looked specifically at 167 Facebook pages and 224 Instagram accounts of public figures with the title of CEO, founder, or owner and measured executives on four metrics: followers, interactions (how much social media users responded to posts), effectiveness (ratio of interactions to followers), and activity (how often the executive posts).
Unsurprisingly, Mark Zuckerberg came out on top, with the most Facebook (FB) followers by a long shot (85 million). Yet it’s not only that people are following the Facebook CEO—they care about what he has to say. For example, his video with wife Priscilla Chan and their daughter Max wishing the network a happy Lunar New Year received 30 million views.
The second-most followed business leader, according to Burson-Marsteller’s report, is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. While no longer an acting CEO, Gates has managed to keep a high profile, with nearly 19 million followers and 8 million reactions to his post since last year. Gates posts on Facebook about once every day.
Richard Branson is the most active business leader on Facebook, posting about five times per day. The Virgin Group founder is also the fourth most-followed executive (the third being actress and Honest Company co-founder Jessica Alba) and the one with the second-most interactions (the first being Gates). Branson posts range from the personal—he uploaded a photograph of his blood-stained face after a cycling accident—to the political. His video, “Why the U.K. Should Remain in the E.U.,” was watched more than 8 million times.
Former New York City mayor and Bloomberg LP founder Mike Bloomberg is right behind Branson when it comes to how many people interact with his Facebook posts, most of which are about his philanthropic efforts. Unlike Gates and Branson, he shares very little personal content—yet still manages to keep his audience highly engaged.
Finally, in regards to impact, Mobilink CEO Jeffrey Hedberg is making a splash. The chief of the Pakistani telecom company doesn’t post often (only 25 times since 2016), but his followers take note when he does. His effectiveness rate (the ratio of interactions to posts) is about 32%.
