America’s top CEOs appear to be mostly absent from the social media community, with only two of 2009’s Fortune-100 CEOs have Twitter accounts, none have personal blogs, 13 have LinkedIn profiles and only 19 have a personal Facebook page. These results point to a “miserable” level of engagement among top execs, who “appear to be disconnected from the way their own customers are communicating” and are “giving the impression that they’re disconnected, disengaged and disinterested, according to a new study by UberCEO.

CEOs on Twitter
Twitter is the least used service by Fortune 100 CEOs, despite being one of the fastest growing social media networks, the study found. Of the two CEOs who have Twitter accounts, one has more than 7,000 followers but is not following anyone. The other has never posted an update.

CEOs on LinkedIn
Only 13 CEOs have LinkedIn profiles, and of those only three have more than 10 connections.

* Three CEOs – all from technology companies - have more than 80 connections.

* Five CEOs with profiles have only one connection each.

* Two list old titles.

* One has two profiles, but has only a total of five connections.

CEOs on Facebook

* More than eight in 10 (81%) top CEOs don’t have a personal Facebook page.

* Among those who do, the largest number of friends any one CEO has is 13.

* There is one CEO with a profile, but with no friends.

* The majority of CEO Facebook pages have limited or no information.

* Several CEOs have fan pages or fan groups, but these are not counted as personal pages.

CEOs on Wikipedia
Wikipedia had the highest level of engagement among the Fortune-100 CEOs (76% had pages), yet 28% of those entries had outdated information, incorrect titles, missing information, or lacked sources.

CEO on Blogs
One of the most surprising findings of the study was that no Fortune-100 CEOs had a personal blog that was easily findable using the executive’s name.

Opportunities
Today’s CEOs are reluctant to participate in social media because they fear regulations or legal obstacles, or may have a general lack of knowledge and/or time constraints. However, foregoing social media opportunities may mean many missed opportunities to connect with stakeholders. The long and short of it is that CEOs have the opportunity to positively affect their company’s perception, visibility and brand experience by taking part in social media activities. Right now, they’re absent from the discussion. With the public already skeptical about large corporations, CEOs can’t afford to pretend that social media is not for them. Only 14% of executives think CEOs have a good reputation. However, C-suiters have been slow to take to social media and do not see it as an important way to rebuild trust and repair image.