Should a CEO Be on LinkedIn? How Large Companies Plan Leadership Profiles

Summary

A CEO of a large Indian company should definitely be on LinkedIn, but only after two questions are settled: who approves what, and what reaches the stock exchanges first. This post walks through how that works for one post, from interview to publication, and how the CEO’s profile should sit alongside the company page.

Body copy

A candidate holding an offer letter from a large Indian company searches the CEO’s name before replying. What comes up is an annual report letter, an award-night photo and little else. That gap is getting harder to defend. H/Advisors Abernathy’s 2025 report on Fortune 100 CEOs found that LinkedIn remains the channel of choice for CEOs, and that engagement rates on the platform rose 15% in 2024, the highest of any channel. India’s largest companies are more cautious.

A recent academic study of 1,829 posts by 121 CEOs found that NIFTY 50 CEOs take a more reserved approach to social media than Fortune 50 and unicorn CEOs. Employees notice the silence. Brunswick’s survey of Indian employees found that they prefer to work for a CEO who uses digital and social media over one who does not by 48 to 1.

“A CEO’s LinkedIn presence is more than personal branding. It gives the company a human voice, builds trust, shapes perception and establishes thought leadership. When leaders communicate directly, they don’t just represent the business; they lead its story.”

Dipesh Puthran, AGM, Brand and Communication, TIC

Where the risk sits

On 2 December 2024, Ola Electric’s chairman and managing director announced a plan to expand the company’s network of company-owned stores, posting on X at 9:58 am. The information reached the stock exchanges at 1:36 pm on BSE and 1:41 pm on NSE, and SEBI issued a warning letter on 7 January 2025. Regulation 30(6)(ii) of the LODR Regulations requires material information emanating from within a listed company to go to the exchanges first, and no later than twelve hours after the event. The platform was X. The sequencing rule applies to anything a CEO publishes.

Other risks are less formal. A promoter-led group discussing succession cannot afford a loose line about the future. A CEO who drifts into politics gives a regulator or a customer a reason to take offence. And if the CEO is reluctant to write, start with low-risk posts, such as welcoming new joiners or thanking a team that hit a milestone. If even that feels forced, wait until there is something the CEO wants to say.

One post, start to finish

Take a listed auto-components maker whose CEO visits a new plant on a Tuesday and wants to post about it. That evening, the communications head sits down with the CEO and asks what stood out. The CEO mentions that the plant is close to full capacity and that a second line is being planned.

The writer, in-house or from a thought leadership content team, drafts the post on Wednesday morning. Both details go to the company secretary, who asks whether the board has approved the second line and whether it counts as a Schedule III event. It has not been approved, so that line comes out. The post goes live on Thursday with the site visit, the local hiring plan and the CEO’s account of meeting a machine operator who had trained in the same town. The company page has nothing to add, because nothing official has changed.

Keeping the CEO and the company page in step

When there is an announcement, the order is the exchange filing, then the company page, then the CEO. A restructuring or policy change should reach staff through internal communication channels (the intranet, email, a town hall) before it appears on LinkedIn.

Results day shows how this works. The same company files its quarterly results with the exchanges in the afternoon, and the company page posts a short summary once the filing is out. The CEO’s note goes up the next morning and covers what the numbers mean on the ground: where the plant is hiring, what the order book looks like on the shop floor. Nothing in it goes beyond what the filing already says.

The page’s corporate social media strategy should define which topics belong to which account, so the two do not cover the same ground in different tones. The CEO’s profile should link to the page in the About and Featured sections. Decide who presses publish and write it down, with login access kept to a minimum. Replies in the comments are most credible if they come from the CEO, even if they are just a few words.

Pro tip: Keep a one-page list of what the CEO never posts: unreleased numbers, internal disputes, competitors by name, political positions. Attach it to the content calendar.

Planning a leadership profile for your CEO? Get in touch with TIC.