Pro-Business or Common Citizen?

Abstract

This paper examines the social media content of a woman Indian chief executive officer (CEO) in her communication in the public space. The active involvement of CEO in communication activities influences the business effectiveness, performance, and standing of the business headed by her. The emerging social media has become an essential strategic tool from “buzz word” with more popularity among businesses and creates great opportunities for communication efforts both for corporate and personal use of CEO. For this study, Tweets posted on Twitter, a micro-blogging social media platform, by an Indian woman CEO are used for analysis. Rstudio and Nvivo were used for tweets extraction and analysis. The findings show the various themes in CEO's communication which are categorized in different sectors. The tweets are limited to business sector; it also includes the personal (feelings and status updates), political views and social concerns (ranging from water scarcity, education, illiteracy, women empowerment, need for improved governance, policy support). The paper extends the theoretical and empirical arguments for the importance of CEOs' social media communications. Finally, this research suggests that with a well-planned and strategic social media use, CEOs can create value for themselves and their businesses.