There is no better time than now to be a chief information officer (CIO). 2016 is the year of the connected customer and an opportunity for CIOs to help their companies learn more about and engage with their customers in a whole new way. Every business is a technology business and CIOs are best positioned to leverage innovation to help their companies grow, while delighting customers and employees. The evolving role of information technology (IT) organizations has created an unprecedented opportunity for CIOs to lead digital business transformation initiatives within companies of all sizes, in all industries. I also believe that CIOs who drive successful digital transformation are best suited to win CEO jobs.
In a 2016 State of IT research report, digital trends like mobile customer facing and productivity apps, social networking, cloud computing, data science, cybersecurity were shaking up traditional IT strategy and driving a need for more collaborative and customer-focused leadership roles in IT. In order to successfully drive company-wide transformation, successful CIOs are collaborative, accessible and demonstrate the ability to influence their organizations, customer and business partners by being accessible, informed and role model agents of change.
One common characteristic of extraordinary CIOs is that they are active and passionate social networkers. These CIOs frequently use public social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging platforms to share their points of view. Many of these CIOs are work behind the scenes to mentor and promote thought leadership and group collaboration. These social CIOs are inspiring technology and business leaders to actively drive digital transformation for the betterment of their employees, customers and business partners.
I have complied a list of 100 social CIOs who consistently demonstrate their willingness to be active on Twitter. I use several factors to develop this list including frequency of use, size of network, quality of content, share of voice data and my own experience with CIOs. In addition, for the first time this year, I consulted with a social influence expert and thought leader Marshall Kirkpatrick, co-founder Little Bird (@GetLittleBird), in order to further validate the CIO list. Marshall is a brilliant researcher and provided fantastic input towards this project.
Please join me by congratulations the 2016 most social CIOs on Twitter. I encourage you to follow each of these wonderful executives on Twitter. I also welcome your suggestions regarding other social CIOs that should be recognized for their willingness to actively engage on Twitter.
- Dr. David A. Bray, FCC - @fcc_cio