The Benchmark
Most chief executives are invisible online. Whether that is a problem for you is a different question.
Six questions show you where you stand next to your peers. Answered from memory, result on screen right away.
The starting point
Why this comparison is already running
In our own first calls, the same picture repeats: most executives have a dead profile or none at all, while a visible few are known across their market.
Before anyone calls you, offers you a mandate, or applies to work with you, they usually look you up first. In that moment you get compared with visible peers, whether you want it or not. Whoever checks your name has checked others before, and some of them were easy to find.
The habit itself is documented: in the Brunswick study “Connected Leadership” (2022, n=6,400), 82 % of employees research a CEO’s online presence when considering joining. From our own practice we can add: most chief executives we meet have no working presence of their own. The visible few are exactly that, few. That is why a comparison is worth four minutes.
The evidence
What changes when someone switches sides
Sarah Gäbler holds a leadership role at Bridge imp, HR and interim management. Her profile sat unused, like most. Four months later, the right people knew her name, and her numbers have been above the reference values since.
“The conversations always start with an advance of trust. As if people have known me forever. Even though it’s the first exchange.”
Sarah Gäbler · Bridge imp
Your comparison includes
The check does not grade your work.
It shows where you stand: compared with what your peers make publicly visible.
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Where you stand in three areas
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The typical peer as your reference
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What the visible few do differently
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The one step that moves the most
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“Not now” is an allowed result
The few
The visible few are exactly that, few.
From the mandates
What changes for them
“It has to have real value. For readers, and for me.”
Antje Lenk
Interim Management · Bridge imp
6,000 → 23,000 followers
Read the case →“On the very first video call, prospects bring up my LinkedIn posts.”
Dieter Leikermoser
Mechanical engineering · Mey Maschinenbau
70 → 900 profile visitors / week
Read the case →“For you, it's simply not an option that this doesn't work, is it?”
Michel Karaenke
IT Interim Management · DACH
534,919 impressions in 3 months
Read the case →The method
Six questions, three dimensions, one comparison
The comparison asks in the order visibility is built: Does your profile exist? Do you post regularly? Does the market respond? You answer from memory, there is nothing to look up.
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Presence 2 questions
Do you exist as a person: an account of your own, a profile that fits your role? For reference: most executives we meet start without one.
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Activity 2 questions
Does a post of your own appear regularly, or does only the company page post? For reference: the visible few post steadily under their own name.
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Resonance 2 questions
Do people respond to your posts, and do conversations start with them? For reference: where nothing appears under your name, there is nothing to respond to.
6 questions · about 4 minutes · no sales call