CEOs want to be social media influencers. Not everyone is on board.

For years, Braden Wallake has posted all the things from enterprise classes to animal footage on his LinkedIn web page. A fateful midweek put up on a late-summer day stopped the advertising and marketing government in his tracks.

Wallake shared a teary-eyed selfie with a message about his emotions after shedding employees. Identical to that, he was the “Crying CEO.”

“I awakened the subsequent day, texted my advertising and marketing individual and mentioned, ‘I believe I went viral final evening,'” mentioned Wallake, whose put up has raked in additional than 57,000 reactions and 10,000 feedback.

Customers blasted the HyperSocial CEO as being “manipulative” and displaying “self indulgence.” The picture “would make an incredible dart board,” one other wrote.

Company executives and founders like Wallake have been offered on the concept a vibrant social media presence can increase their private and firm-wide model consciousness. However the actuality is much less picture-perfect than it is made out to be.

In lots of circumstances, these leaders come off not as relatable however as cringey. And so they’re studying the laborious manner that their digital footprints may even have materials enterprise implications.

“There may be actual advantages from CEOs being on-line, however there can be nice dangers,” mentioned Ann Mooney Murphy, a Stevens Institute of Know-how professor who has studied how firm leaders acquire social media superstar standing. “One must tread rigorously.”

The pitfalls of social media utilization for enterprise leaders have gotten more and more clear as extra executives take to the platforms. Almost three-fourths of Fortune 500 chief executives had at the least one social media account final 12 months, up from roughly half in 2019, information from Influential Govt confirmed.

Greater than seven out of 10 Fortune 100 CEOs with social platforms posted at the least as soon as a month in 2024, a 32% enhance from the 12 months prior, in accordance with an evaluation from communications agency H/Advisors Abernathy launched this week. CEOs have flocked particularly to the work-focused social web site LinkedIn, the place they put up 3 times a month on common.

An energetic social media presence may help construct model recognition and drive consideration from mainstream information shops, Murphy mentioned. It will possibly additionally enable executives to develop para-social relationships straight with customers — one thing that was as soon as reserved for more-traditional celebrities like actors or athletes, she mentioned.

Whereas firm information was king in these posts, H/Advisors Abernathy discovered executives devoting extra social actual property to sharing private happenings. This softer fashion of content material — examples of which embody Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sharing footage from Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour and Goldman Sachs‘ David Solomon posting particulars for his DJ units — may help hold followers engaged, Murphy mentioned.

A subsector has sprouted up round executives’ social media habits, with a number of companies providing coaching packages or consulting companies targeted on greatest practices. PayPal made waves in advertising and marketing circles earlier this 12 months when it posted a “Head of CEO Content material” position, which paid upwards of $300,000 partially to guide social media communications technique.

However lately, a rising record of anecdotes like Wallake’s “Crying CEO” expertise present how posting by means of life can go awry.

Jason Yanowitz boasted on X in October that Blockworks, the crypto firm he co-founded, noticed “large development” and hit “report revenues” in 2025. He additionally mentioned the corporate was shuttering its information division and really helpful staffers to anybody hiring journalists protecting digital currencies.

One consumer steered that Yanowitz forgo smiley faces and strike a tone with much less “triumphancy” in a put up saying job cuts. Another person replied that “earlier than leaping into what’s subsequent,” he ought to “handle the actual individuals who have been impacted.”

Yanowitz, who declined CNBC’s interview request, later wrote on X that he “mustn’t have talked about income” within the authentic put up.

Across the identical time as Yanowitz’s tweet, a social media video that includes Snowflake income chief Mike Gannon supplied a case research on how these incidents can evolve into real-world crises.

In an Instagram clip considered thousands and thousands of occasions, Gannon instructed a avenue interviewer that the information storage agency was slated to rake in $10 billion “in a few years.” Shortly after, Snowflake mentioned in a regulatory submitting that statements made within the interview weren’t approved and that traders “mustn’t rely on” them. The corporate declined to make Gannon accessible for an interview.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shared visions for his enterprise ventures on social media in between musings about politics and cultural points. Two years in the past, Musk discovered himself in courtroom defending feedback associated to enterprise plans made on X, his social media platform previously referred to as Twitter.

In a number of cases, readers have responded on to executives whose content material they discover problematic or cringe-inducing. Some, like Ryan Benson, have additionally mocked the broader development of enterprise leaders’ trying to attach straight through social media.

“It is simply disingenuous,” mentioned Benson, 28. “They are not making an attempt to talk with folks the way in which that possibly an influencer has success in. They’re making an attempt to speak at folks to make them assume one thing about their place.”

Executives’ missteps on social media can catalyze discontent from traders, customers or staff, in accordance with Murphy of the Stevens Institute of Know-how. In some conditions, she mentioned social media statements might result in elevated regulatory or authorized danger for the businesses they signify.

Regardless of the downfalls, company leaders who’ve seen the underbelly of social media do not remorse being on-line.

HyperSocial’s Wallake mentioned he initially took time away from LinkedIn to let the mud settle and now thinks twice earlier than making a put up. However Wallake nonetheless recommends different enterprise managers harness social media to develop their manufacturers given the advantages. If somebody does carry up his teary image, Wallake brushes it off.

“If folks need to name me the ‘Crying CEO,’ they’re greater than welcome to,” Wallake mentioned. “If they really get to satisfy me, they’ll see me smiling far more typically than they’ll see me ever crying.”

When Yehong Zhu, co-founder of media know-how startup Zette AI, jumped on a day-in-my-life development, responders roasted her over perceived laziness. Folks mentioned she needs to be “embarrassed” and was “essentially ineffective to society.” One commenter mentioned they have been “printing this out and taping it to the wall to remind me each time I catch myself believing in meritocracy.”

Zhu obtained handwritten hate mail tied to the put up despatched to her workplace. However she additionally seen a flood of press protection that included the corporate’s identify and signups to a product waitlist, underscoring the ability of publicity — even when it is unfavourable.

“After there was this big inflow of consideration, I spotted, what, possibly all consideration is nice consideration,” Zhu mentioned. “So long as your identify is of their mouth, you are doing one thing proper.”

Zhu later understood that her put up was taken as “rage bait,” a style of content material so notorious that Oxford named it the 2025 phrase of the 12 months. She’s at present present process a social media rebrand and is contemplating leaning towards controversial posts — with the hope of profitable extra consideration on-line.

“I used to be not making an attempt to rage bait,” she mentioned of the unique put up. “The day that I truly attempt to rage bait, all people might be truly enraged.”