Post contributed by Matt Ballantine, Founder of stamp London and Digital Customer Experience Consultant at The IG Group. Matt founded stamp London in the summer of 2013, in a career that has included working at BBC Worldwide, Reuters, global marketing agency Imagination, and Microsoft.

Over the last year, I've been running a quarterly research report into the social network habits of FTSE 100 companies and, more specifically, the CEOs of these organizations. The news is enlightening, if somewhat depressing, for evangelists of Web 2.0. Since the summer of 2013, the FTSE 100 CEO community has become distinctly less socially-networked in a time when being connected online is now commonplace.

Some may argue that LinkedIn and Twitter (the two networks I've been tracking) are no place for the head of an internationally-listed business. But there are multiple reasons why leaders should be engaging; at the very least to protect their own online reputation, and to demonstrate the collaborative, open and connected behaviors their organizations are asking staff to demonstrate.

Role models within the CEO community are hard to find. Indeed, the FTSE 100's poster child for social networking, former CEO of Burberry, Angela Ahrendts, is now working for the famously secretive Apple. But one business leader who is exceptionally connected is Telefónica O2 CEO, Ronan Dunne. Earlier in 2014, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to ask him a few questions about how he approaches social networking:

Many of your Chief Executive peers seem to not be engaged with social channels. What do you think are the things that stop them?

Time is the obvious one. With a busy schedule, it can be difficult to take the time to share what I’m doing and engage with the wider social media sphere. But, as my customers and staff are using it, I know I have to and want to be on it. Social media, both Twitter and Facebook, have become the customer service front-line in many cases for many brands. It is really important that CEOs engage their social team to ensure that customer service and reputation issues are dealt with, so they don’t feel the pressure of having to answer each and every comment.

How has being social network-connected changed the way you, as an executive, do business?

As a leading digital [telecommunications company], we have seen first-hand the explosive growth of social media through our customers’ use of smartphones. We’ve been on Twitter as @O2 (233,000+ followers) since 2008. I’ve personally been on Twitter for several years, but 2011 was a breakthrough year for Twitter—and has become, in our view, central to how any business manages reputation and shares information with stakeholders, media and customers.

Has being connected via social media changed the culture within Telefónica O2?

We are a very open organization, and social media has proven to be a very powerful way to communicate and attain feedback from our employees. In many ways, it's me who has been catching up with O2 and our customers, and I now use the internal social network, Yammer, to stay in touch with everything going on around the business, as well as Twitter, to give everyone insight into what I am up to.

How can FTSE 100 CEOs take their first steps into social networking?

Different businesses will address how best to utilize the CEO alongside the brand presence on social media. If a CEO is going to add value on social media, I feel they need to be contributing something only they personally could. In my case, it’s the insider’s view of life as a CEO. I would recommend having a light touch approach to start; then, as understanding builds, start getting more interactive and having conversations.

I first got really involved on social media in 2011; before I joined, I had the misconception that Twitter conversations weren't going to be relevant to me. However, as I got involved, I quickly realized that there were conversations from our customers and employees that were going on, and they were very relevant.

If I could presume to offer one piece of advice—if you’re going to take the plunge, ask for advice and support, also always insist that tweets are your own and in your tone of voice. After all, you would never allow a press release to go out in your name without signing off on it, would you?

Check out more Learning from Peers posts on the Cielo HR Leader blog.