When we were conducting research to launch our new thought leadership service, one of the questions we asked marketing leaders was, “Do you wish your CEO would engage on social media?”
Every marketer said they wanted their CEO and company leaders to get more visible. Part of that response is due to the fact that social media content from founders and executives in the C-suite performs exceptionally well. But their hopes went beyond just performance metrics.
They wanted a leader who was willing to follow the blueprint of what has made other leaders successful throughout history: connecting with their followers, especially on an emotional level.
Let’s take a look at some recent historical examples of this. We’ll also consider data showing how today’s customers and employees are eager for business leaders who can connect emotionally. We’ll then explore the two key elements required to make that happen.
Heavy is the head, and high are the expectations
My wife and I were big fans of the Netflix series The Crown, a drama that chronicles England’s royal family from the early twentieth century through the present day.
The series is well-acted, beautifully filmed, and incredibly well-written. But the show’s true appeal is its characters. Queen Elizabeth. Prince Charles. Lady Di. Prince Philip. The stories behind these people are riveting.
Yet the most interesting characters to me were the British citizens.
The show portrayed their resilience through tough times, such as the Battle of Britain and the Aberfan disaster. But they didn’t make it through those tough times alone. They needed their queen, despite the fact that she held a largely symbolic and ceremonial role.
During those times of national crisis, they always looked for reassurance from her. And when she connected, the masses rallied.
America loves its royalty too
In America, we have the same type of reverence for our president. Despite our three branches of government, the first place people look for leadership in good times and bad is the president.
But when presidents do not connect with constituents, they won’t be as effective. In fact, they may not be the leader for long.
The 2024 race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, short-lived as it was, serves as a perfect example.
When Joe Biden was elected in 2020, he promised a return to normalcy after Donald Trump’s first term as president. Part of his version for “normalcy” included maintaining a lower, more presidential profile. Biden reduced his public appearances and outreach while he focused on passing big pieces of legislation.
That retreat may have been in part due to his declining cognitive abilities, but the point is Biden largely vanished from the public eye. As a result, he was unable to nurture his emotional connection with voters. In the vacuum, Donald Trump stepped in and eventually resurrected his candidacy.
People today expect more from their leaders
That sense of connection people want with their leaders is prevalent in politics, but it also exists in business.
FTI Consulting published “Leading from the Front,” research that measured the impact of thought leadership content from CEOs and executive teams. Their findings were eye-opening:
- 92% of professionals say they are more likely to trust a company whose senior executives are using social media.
- Content from individual leaders generates 3X more comments than company LinkedIn pages.
- Content from individual leaders creates 2X the number of engagements compared to company LinkedIn pages.
What we’re seeing with today’s business leaders mirrors the dynamic between Queen Elizabeth and her loyal subjects. People—both customers and employees—respond favorably when they can see and hear directly from the person at the helm.
The two pillars of connection: Media and emotion
But we’re talking about more than visibility here. We’re talking about making a true connection. So what exactly does that entail? Look back at the examples we cited and you see two basic forms of connection occurring:
A connection built through media. For the Queen of England, it was radio addresses and TV broadcasts. For Trump, it was digital platforms—especially Twitter and podcasts—to stay front and center (well, maybe not quite center ;-).
A connection forged through emotional impact. Queen Elizabeth, stilted as she was, managed to touch her subjects through poignant words and an appeal to patriotism. Biden was actually effective getting elected in his first term by leaning into his ability to empathize, but that was nowhere to be found in 2024. Instead, the emotion du jour was populist rage, and Trump leaned into it as he railed against the political machine, the cultural elite, and the failures of Biden’s immigration policies.
Notice that the medium may change over time, but the importance of the emotional bond remains. While technology evolves at a dizzying pace, the human mind remains wired for emotional decision-making.
In fact, in business the emotional response can be just as strong as in politics—if not stronger. As consumers, we expect real value in exchange for our hard-earned money. And as employees, we depend on businesses for our livelihood.
(For more on this, check out our article on why people think more like Kirk than Spock when it comes to decision-making.)
Lean into the digital and emotional co-dependency
There has always been a co-dependent relationship between mass media and emotion for leaders. You need media to reach the masses, but you also need to connect on an emotional level for that media outreach to be effective.
It’s become more pronounced with the rise of digital media. Not only is digital ubiquitous, it’s measurable. The impact is felt and recorded in terms of impressions and engagement.
Take these two posts from my own LinkedIn account. On the left, you have a post that contains a statistic that should garner the attention of business leaders. The post drew 28 likes and 18 comments, and generated 1,097 impressions.
The post on the right was about my daughter’s career as a dancer, and how we did our best to support her. It outperformed the business-focused post, nearly tripling engagements, and giving impressions a 5X boost.
However, I’ve been following a consistent pattern: posting a strategic business post early in the week, and a personal, emotionally-packed post later in the week. And guess what? The emotional posts always outperform the business ones—building both trust and my personal brand along the way.
Digital gets you there. Emotion makes you matter.
As a CEO or a founder, there’s plenty of research showing that modern executives are more effective when they are available online. But it’s not enough to just have a social media account on LinkedIn—you need to connect to people with your content.
To do that effectively, you need to lean into the emotional connection your customers and employees are looking for. If you’re shy or reserved, that’s fine. You don’t have to reveal details from your personal life like I do in some of my LinkedIn posts.
But you can still share stories about yourself that reach people emotionally. For example, you can talk about the struggles you’ve had to overcome to build your business. Or perhaps you have a particular employee who takes care of a customer in a profoundly important way.
The stories that make us human are within you, and they will help you connect with people. History has shown that this is the path to success, no matter the media form. If you want to lead, you have to connect.
