Too often posting on the Internet can feel like shouting into the void. The sheer size of the Web makes it difficult to tell if your words are being read by anyone who matters. Here’s good news. A study by Forbes and Google (free registration required) suggests that senior executives are increasingly attentive to what they read on the Web. Among the highlights:
- “Executives who came of business age with the rise of the personal computer— typically those between the ages of 40 and 50—are now assuming leadership positions in corporate America.” They know their way around a computer.
- “Executives find [the Internet] more valuable for locating business related information than references from colleagues, personal networks, newspapers and magazines, TV and radio, and conferences and trade shows.” Perhaps because the Internet combines them all into one, easily searchable source?
- “More than half of C-level respondents said they prefer to locate information themselves, making them more self-sufficient in their information gathering than non-C-suite executives.” In other words, information gets to executives directly; it isn’t filtered through layers of delegates.
- “While text is still the preferred format for receiving information, streaming video, webcasts, and similar formats are increasing in prevalence, especially among executives under 50.” And, “[E]xecutives under 40… are the most willing to engage with emerging Internet technologies such as blogs, wikis, Twitter, mobile computing, and online social networks.”
- “Executives under 50 are more likely to access the Internet daily, and they conduct more searches than older executives.” This signals a generational changing of the guard in corporate America.
It’s useful to know that many chief executives do their own Internet research. But some other findings leave us scratching our heads. Historically, people advanced up the corporate ladder as they aged. C-level executives tended to be older than mid-level and entry-level staff. Why, then, does this research find that C-level execs are more likely to do their own Web searches than the lower-level people? Are older employees being passed over for promotion to the C suite in favor of younger exec’s who are more comfortable finding information on the Web? Or does the climb-with-age pattern still exist, but the younger exec’s, while they search a lot, feel edgy about making decisions based on what they find? Do they prefer “groupthink” to avoid going out on a limb? Or is it something else?
We tried contacting Forbes and Google but got no response. Maybe they’re all too busy searching the Web.
In any event, here is one unequivocal finding: “77% of survey participants view guidance from colleagues at work as very valuable… compared to 43% maintaining the same view of online communities.” So don’t believe everything you read in pixels.
