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Q&A: trust & the social executive

Open, honest and accessible leadership is the perfect strategy for executives in the social media era, according to ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott and Facebook Strategic Development Partner Craig Mullaney.

“You can’t trust someone you don’t know,” Mullaney, the head of Facebook’s business influencer program, said. “Social media is an incredible medium for allowing people to get to know who you are.”

“Across the board, whether it’s a business leader, or a scientist, or another public figure, it’s those who can share some of their personality and what makes them tick which have the most success.”

Speaking together as part of a discussion on socially engaged leaders and business transparency, Elliott said social was such a crucial tool he was shocked more CEOs don’t have a social presence.

|"You can’t trust someone you don’t know.” - Craig Mullaney

“How can you not?” he said. “It is the way people live today.  To me it would be equality ludicrous for me to say I don’t have a mobile phone.”

“I just see it as a tool of life and if you’re not participating in that, how can you possibly understand your customer base?”

Elliott said transparency on social media would help the financial services sector solve some of the problems it is currently dealing with relating to the Royal Commission into banking.

“Part of the reason we’re having this royal commission is people feel banks have lost touch and don’t listen. So we should listen,” he said. “We should be available. And that means being visible and responding to community concerns.”

The two executives also touched on authenticity and keeping up with customer expectations. Watch the video above to find out more.

Shayne Elliott is CEO at ANZ and Craig Mullaney is Strategic Partner Development at Facebook

The views and opinions expressed in this communication are those of the author and may not necessarily state or reflect those of ANZ.

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