Tweeting with CEOs of the Top 20 Independent PR Firms

In the public relations arena, CEO’s build brands, and advise their clients to use social as part of their brand identity. We reviewed the CEO’s of the 20 largest independently owned PR firms to see who is doing twitter right, and who is not.

Those who don’t do it right? The CEO’s of APCO Worldwide, Ruder Finn & Finn Partners. Read on for those who do.

1. Edelman, New York, NY – Daniel Edelman, CEO – there is an account in his name, but not him. The firm’s account @EdelmanPR has 68.4K followers, has been a member since 2009 and tweeted nearly 6500 times. They seem to have a good blend of original tweets to retweets of other’s posts. Their posts include a mix of article links, quotes, and occasional bits of advice. It’s a good representation of the firm and their CEO.

2. APCO Worldwide, Washington, DC – Brad Staples, Global CEO – @BradStaples (the firm’s account is @apcoworldwide). He has 455 followers with 173 tweets and has been a member since 2010. It appears he tweets in spurts, usually several toward the middle of the month and then nothing until the next middle of the month. He says “Tweets on the intersection of business, politics and society. Options personal RTs not endorsements.” It’s all business in his tweets for at least the last several months. We might suggest warming up the page with a few more personal thoughts – not all gushy or anything, just ways to make it bit more social. Clearly does not practice what they preach.

3. WE, Bellevue, WA (Waggener Edstrom) – Melissa Waggener Zorkin, CEO –  @melissawz (@wecomms) has 3,700 followers, joined in 2008, and has tweeted over 8K times. She doesn’t make it easy to find her, so most references to her from others are with a hashtag instead of the account name. Other than finding her account, she appears to be doing an excellent job on her page. A nice mix of posts and retweets, and what she posts include articles and reports from others, quotes, and some personal thoughts about the PR industry in a conversational tone.

4. W2O Group, San Francisco, CA – Jim Weiss, Chairman and CEO – @WeissWord (@W2OGroup) has 2100 followers, joined in 2009 and has tweeted 1450 times. He probably averages about 15 or so tweets a month. He retweets about 1 out of 3 posts, but almost all of his posts have a link in them. That often means not much interaction happens. So, we think it could improve by adding a more personal touch some of the time. Post with passion about a work project, that type of thing to engage more of the followers.

5. Ruder Finn, New York, NY – Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO – @bloomgk (@RuderFinn) has 145 followers, 4 tweets and has been a member since 2012. Clearly this is not her social media platform of choice. Even the posts from the company page simply post her name rather than her Twitter account.

6. Finn Partners, New York, NY – Peter Finn, Founding Partner and Dena Merriam, Founding Partner — @Finnpartners. Neither partner appears to have a personal Twitter account. The corporate account has 5.7K followers, joined in 2008, and posted nearly 3K tweets. The corporate account has a fun blend of office and personality posts, retweets, and working in client information without being pitchy.

7. MWWPR, New York, NY – Michael W. Kempner, President and CEO, @mkempner (@MWW_PR) has 2.9K followers, 19.6K tweets, and has been a member since 2008. Kempner seems to have a good grasp on this social platform. He posts a lot of political stuff,  but he doesn’t say much about those posts. He retweets a lot and shares the fun happenings at his firm. He’s got the Twitter thing down.

8. ICR, New York, NY – Thomas Ryan, CEO, @ICR_London is the only Twitter account we found for their firm. They don’t show links to any outside platforms on their website. So it would seem they need to make a change to at least include links to FB, Instagram, LinkedIn or any other accounts they have to make it easier for people to connect with their brand.

9. DKC Public Relations, New York, NY – Sean Cassidy, President, @dkcnews is the corporate Twitter account, but nothing was found for Sean Cassidy. The corporate account has nearly 3500 followers, joined in 2009. and tweeted just over a thousand times. They post a fun variety of client events, New York happenings, retweets about local sports and other events, with just a bit of branding pitches tossed in now and then.

10. Zeno Group, New York, NY – Barby K. Siegel, CEO, @barbysiegel (@zenogroup) has 710 followers, joined in 2010, and has nearly 3.8K tweets. This is truly a personal account – most of her posts are letting followers know where she is at that moment, and well, the woman travels a lot. It’s fun but doesn’t appear to be used from a business angle. The corporate account, however, posts a lot of techie information.

11. Allison+Partners, San Francisco, CA – Scott Allison, Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO, @AllisonPR – we found a few Scott Allisons – but none were the one from Allison+Partners – on Twitter. The corporate account has nearly 7K followers, joined in 2008, and has tweeted nearly 3400 times. Their posts stick pretty close to business, and many of their retweets originate with employees of the firm. We’d suggest they throws a few fun happenings around the firm to mix it up and build relationships will followers.

12. Global Strategy Group, New York, NY – Jon Silvan, Co-founding Partner and CEO, @jonsullivan (@GSG) has 74 followers, 4 tweets and joined in 2013. Clearly Jon is not all that into Twitter on a personal level. The corporate account gets a bit more love.

13. PadillaCRT, Minneapolis, MN – Lynn Casey, CEO, @PadillaCRT. Lynn Casey does not appear to have a Twitter account, though the corporate account has almost 3700 followers, 2300 tweets, and joined in 2010.

14. Racepoint Global, Boston, MA – Larry Weber, Chairman and CEO, @TheLarryWeber (@racingpointglobal), has 3400 followers, 1200 tweets and has been a member since 2009. About two-thirds of what he posts are retweets and the original posts are strictly business. Interestingly they have three different Corporate accounts – one for the corporation, in general, one for Europe, and one for Asia. It would be great to see some more engaging posts to bring people to a deeper trust and feeling of relationship.

15. G&S Business Communications, New York, NY – Luke Lambert, President and CEO, @LukeLambert_GS (@gs_comms) has 187 followers, 132 tweets, and joined in 2008. Obviously this is not his first priority when it comes to social media, but he incorporates a nice blend of business, personal, and client/company events. Many of his retweets come from the corporate Twitter account.

16. Coyne PR, Parsippany, NJ – Thomas F. Coyne, CEO, @coynepr has no account for Tom Coyne, but the corporate account changes things up by having a different staff member responsible for tweeting each week. They have over 4100 followers, almost 4100 tweets, and joined in 2008. Lots of fun but professional posts. Coyne PR in their various social media platforms are good at infusing a bit of fun and humor into the mix of helping others with PR and branding work for clients.

17. Taylor, New York, NY – Tony Signore, CEO and Managing Partner, @tonysignore (@taylorstrategy), has 181 followers, 413 tweets, and joined in 2009. His personal account has a blend of business, truly personal, and sharing information with work colleagues. He’s not the most active poster, but he doesn’t seem to waste his posts with nonsense either.

18. Prosek Partners, New York, NY – Jennifer Prosek, Founding Partner, @Jprosek (@ProsekPR) has 503 followers, 331 tweets, joined in 2009, and interestingly has 0 favorites (stars) – her last post was in 2013, so it seems she has all but abandoned the page. Their corporate account has 1300 followers and 2200 tweets. They do a good job with the types of posts they have, but would probably do better if they doubled up on the numbers. Currently, they are only posting about 5-8 tweets per month.

19. Hunter PR, New York, NY – Grace Leong, Managing Partner, @GraceTLeong (@hunterPR) has 432 followers, 115 tweets, and joined in 2009. She has only posted four times this year on her personal account, which is some business, some about education for children, and some personal life, and other causes she supports and doesn’t. The corporate account is much more active with nearly 8K followers and 2800 tweets. They have a good blend of the more personal touch to build engagement and relationships, but almost no retweets. We would suggest they use that option a bit more to foster deeper relationships with clients, media, and potentials of both.

20. 5W Public Relations, New York, NY – Ronn Torossian, CEO and President, @RTorossian5wpr (@5W_PR) has 5200 followers, 9500 tweets, and joined in 2009. Torossian’s account is more active than many of the above accounts. He’s taken the time and effort to favorite almost 700 posts by others, a gesture building good will and trust with others. About half of his posts are retweets, again building stronger ties with others, and he has a good blend of business, personal, and good ol’ New Yorker love of the city. His personality shows through – that’s a good thing – if you have to be someone different than yourself to gain followers, it’s not worth it.

That’s our take on the top 20 Independent PR firms (as listed by O’Dwyers). Are you a follower of one or more of these – tell us what you think.