CEOs as corporate ambassadors: deciphering leadership communication via Twitter

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to analyze the ways in which chief executive officers (CEOs) communicate via Twitter and help develop guidelines for effective tweeting strategies that can leverage Twitter in leadership communication. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a large-scale content analysis of more than 65,000 tweets by 338 CEOs. Findings The authors propose a model that categorizes differences in CEO tweets along six independent dimensions: content professionalism, language professionalism, emotional valence, emotion activation, interactional efforts and information cues. The authors also develop coding schemes and measurement scales for each dimension. Originality/value This study provides a multi-dimensional paradigm as well as useful tools for future research on corporate leadership communication on social media.