(photo credit: Microsoft Stock Images)
A sharp suit, a confident handshake, and a quarterly earnings call that doesn’t tank your stock were once the benchmarks of leadership presence. Now? It’s the pinned tweet that lands. The off-script LinkedIn essay that gets reshared by investors and interns alike. It’s voice in pixels, credibility in comment threads, identity forged in front of a scrolling public that’s half-engaged and hyper-critical. Influence, if you can hold it, is fluid, immediate, and unforgivingly digital.
Building that influence isn’t about echoing empty affirmations or dropping stats from reports no one reads. It’s about knowing exactly what part of your brain is worth exporting online and what part your audience wants. CEOs aren’t thought leaders because they say they are. They become influential because their ideas cause ripple effects, not eye rolls.
First, Sound Like You Wrote It
There’s a weirdly specific alchemy to the posts that work. Some read like they were ghostwritten by a committee of consultants with a thesaurus addiction. Others? They hit. They resonate. They’re flawed in the best way. They sound human. The best CEO content doesn’t always polish every word into marble. Sometimes it drops a half-formed thought that later becomes a headline. Or asks a question without pretending to have the answer. Voice isn’t branding. Its presence. And if yours reads like an earnings report, good luck keeping anyone’s attention past the second sentence.
Don’t Just Publish. Participate.
Dropping a blog post and disappearing is the online equivalent of giving a speech and walking out before the applause. Engagement builds staying power. Not the kind where you like every comment like a bot, but the kind where you pop into a relevant thread and say something sharp. CEOs who treat digital platforms like dinner parties, and not megaphones, tend to build influence without trying so hard to be influential. It’s less about frequency and more about substance. A single idea, stated well, can last weeks. A dozen throwaways last ten minutes.
Platforms Speak Different Languages. Learn Them.
Twitter is fast. LinkedIn is thoughtful. Podcasts are long-form thinking wrapped in a casual voice. Every channel expects something different. A quote that sounds brilliant on one platform might come off as rehearsed on another. And while it’s tempting to cross-post everything, the result is usually diluted, static, and ignored. The smartest CEOs aren’t everywhere. They’re somewhere on purpose.
Outsource Help. But Don’t Outsource Soul.
Yes, someone can schedule your posts. Yes, strategic communications firms can help refine your message, make it sharper, bolder, or better placed. But there is no substitute for having a point of view. It’s your name. It has to sound like your brain. If your voice online feels like someone wearing your suit but not your thoughts, you’ve lost the thread.
The modern CEO’s digital presence is more than a nice-to-have. It’s a signal. Of relevance. Of awareness. Of someone still engaged enough to matter. Build it slowly. Shape it with intention. But most of all, say something worth remembering. For more information, look over the infographic below.
