World's top CEOs desert Facebook for Twitter, LinkedIn: Study

Top bosses at the world's 50 biggest companies are using LinkedIn more than they did two years ago and have completely deserted Facebook, a new study reveals.

The study by PR firm Weber Shandwick, that looked at social media use by CEOs running the top 50 companies on Fortune's 2014 Global 500 rankings list, found that 10 per cent of those CEOs are on Twitter, up from just two per cent in 2012, Re/code.com reported.

LinkedIn was the most popular network, with 22 per cent of CEOs on the platform, up from just six per cent in 2012.

The study found that none of the CEOs have active Facebook pages. In 2012, 10 per cent of the CEOs in that category were using Facebook.

Leslie Gaines-Ross, Weber Shandwick's chief reputation strategist, said that she expects that number to increase in the future.

"There was a sense two to three years ago that CEOs had to be on every platform to be doing their job properly. Now I think that CEOs are identifying which platform really works for them," Gaines-Ross was quoted as saying.

Surprisingly, just 28 per cent of these CEOs have a public social media account at all, regardless of platform. It was just 18 per cent in 2012.

The study also found that more CEOs are participating in company videos, a nod to the importance of video as a marketing strategy for companies.

More than half of these CEOs appeared in videos on their company website or YouTube last year, up from 40 per cent in 2012 and just 18 per cent in 2010.