Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh Could Teach Ford CEO Alan Mulally a Few Things About Twitter
Business Week
- Thursday, April 23, 2009Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh Could Teach Ford CEO Alan Mulally a Few Things About Twitter
By Rachael King
Today Ford CEO Alan Mulally decided to try out Twitter with Ford's Chief Tweeter, Scott Monty. You can find the session here. My colleague David Kiley wrote an interesting blog post about that event, which you can find here. David Kiley gives Mulally mixed reviews. "I think what I want to see from CEOs using the media is more attention to delivering meaningful content rather than flat out commercials," he writes.
Perhaps Mulally should check out Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com on Twitter. You can find his Twitter stream here. Hsieh gives his Twitter followers a peek into the life of a CEO - his whole life. On Tuesday morning he wrote: "Dear breakfast burrito: Why are you so angry w/ me? Why spit on my shirt? Because I had an Egg McMuffin without you yesterday?" And then, earlier today he wrote this tweet about work: "Today is Take Your Sons & Daughters to Work day. Just spent 30 mins judging a screaming contest btwn 83 boys & girls. Boys won this year." He's engaging and funny and his Twitter stream makes followers want to learn more about Zappos.com. He's got more than 482,700 followers, which in Twitterland means that he's a rock star. (Well, at least it did before @Oprah started tweeting in ALL CAPS)
Why does Tony Hsieh do this? When I interviewed him last August he said that the corporate culture at Zappos.com was his number one priority and Twitter was a good way to foster relationships among employees. Hsieh also talked about how one of his core values is being open, honest and transparent. He succeeds on that count. His tweets also make him seem human, breakfast burritos and all.
An unexpected benefit? Customers have really responded to Hsieh's tweets and he's even used it to bounce ideas off of them. I'd love to see Alan Mulally do that.
So, does your CEO tweet and is he or she worth following? Give me your suggestions below and I'll follow your CEO for a week.
