The Anti-Social CMO

source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2012/11/29/the-top-20-social-cmos-of-the-fortune-100-visuals/

This article brings to the fore the issue of the growing gap between technological progress/global connectedness and CMO (Chief Marketing Officers) participation. The article shows pretty astoundingly that MOST Fortune 100 CMOs do NOT have active facebook/twitter/linked-in accounts/friends/followers, even though the rest of the world (aka normal people) seems to be moving full force into the realm of social media. 

This is problematic for numerous reasons, but I'll just state the big one: How will CMOs manage what they don't understand? WIth the majority of CMOs having never interfaced in the social space, how will they understand & approve/make decisions on the digital marketing strategies & tactics being employed by the digital marketers who sit on their own teams?

To be fair, this problem might not be so much about the willingness of CMOs to accept social media, as it is about the generational gap between Boomers (current c-suite) and Gen X/Y/Z'ers (more so Y and Z then X). Whereas Boomers grew up under the norms of achieving work-life balance and separating their personal lives from the world, Millenials today are living with an uber-connected-always-on-integrated-work-life-social mindset.

What does this all mean? That likely, as the current C-Suite steps down over time, the issue of social media/digital adoption will correct itself. In the meantime, if you're a CMO and not getting down with social, at least start taking some classes/reading articles about this stuff so that you don't lose touch with reality (or more importantly reality doesn't loses touch with you) over time...