Insights from Leadtail Latest Report

Before COVID-19, the name of the game for CIOs was the slow embrace of digital transformation. The impact of the global pandemic has changed that. Now IT leaders are grappling with how to reimagine operations, technology stacks, and newly distributed teams, in a timeframe of weeks and months not years. 

So what’s been on the mind of “stuck-at-home” CIOs during this global pandemic? 

We looked at the Twitter activity of 600+ CIOs and analyzed 113,477 of their tweets from February to April of this year to gain insights into this very question. 

Here’s what we learned…

In a world of COVID-19 what do Chief Information Officers talk about on social media?

We summarized the hashtags used by our Twitter panel of CIOs to determine what topics and conversations were most catching their attention during this turbulent time. 

No surprise, #COVID19 was top of mind closely followed by #cybersecurity, #technology, #leadership, and #innovation. 

The following word cloud (larger hashtags mean more conversations) shows the most popular topics. 

Going forward, we expect to see continued urgency around those trends accelerated by the pandemic, namely: digital transformation, remote teams, rethinking supply chains, and new applications for blockchain, AI, and machine learning.

Who do CIOs retweet and mention the most?

Who had the (social) ear of CIOs during this time period? Turns out, the person our panel of CIOs retweeted and mentioned the most was Myles Suer, who runs the popular #CIOchat. 

Other top CIO influencers included Dion Hinchcliffe and Ray Wang of Constellation Research, Jay Ferro, CIO for QUIKRETE, and Vala Afshar, Chief Digital Evangelist at Salesforce.

One thing we noticed these influencers have in common is their passion for technology and an unwavering belief in the future. This came through loud and clear in their daily Twitter activity!

Most popular technology publications

The top technology publications CIOs shared the most are ZDNet, CIO.com, and TechCrunch. Here’s the rest of the list:

How to use this information

If you’re an aspiring CIO or just sell to them, these social insights can help inform your social media approach for reaching and engaging technology leaders.

Need help with that? Feel free to reach out to us at hello@leadtail.com

Now it’s your turn

Any big surprises in the social insights data? What do you think CIOs will be tweeting about as we move forward into the New Normal?

Want to have a conversation about social media? Let’s talk.