One client told us recently that search engines and online marketing weren’t effective for reaching the C-Suite. That thinking is soooo 2000’s, according to our own intuition. And now, thanks to a Forbes report on CEO usage of the Internet, we have some data to back up our opinions.
Now that CEOs are typically in their 40s and early 50s, they grew up as a PC generation of executives familiar with search tools and the web as part of their information-gathering process. And while executives under 40 are most likely to use online tools, it’s not limited to that age cohort. In fact, the study showed that six out of ten executives are conducting more than six searches a day for information.
Significantly, while delegating research may be part of the stereotype, it is not the reality. 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.
The study described CEOs as belonging to one of three digital generations: Generation Wang, Generation PC and Generation Netscape. And beginning with Generation PC, those who began their working careers during the mid-1980s, they’re online all the time, with 81% accessing the Internet on a daily basis. And those executives under 50 years old are 3 times more likely to access information from videos, a mobile device, or an online professional community.
