MeriTalk, the government IT network, today unveiled the first map of Federal CIOs’ social media standings. Based on an assessment of 29 Federal CIOs and two deputy CIOs, the MeriTalk sCIOal Circle study shows who’s active on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. As the traditional destination Federal IT conferences stumble due to government travel restrictions, government and industry influencers are challenged to work out how to better communicate with the most senior Federal IT decision makers. Many folks are looking to social media as a significant new communication channel.

The study is based on an evaluation of publicly available social media platforms. MeriTalk assigned CIOs points based on Facebook utilization, LinkedIn connections, as well as Twitter tweets, followers, and Follower-to- Follow ratios – F2F ratios. The F2F ratio is the number of followers divided by the number of people followed.

Casey Coleman, CIO, GSA; and Rick Holgate, CIO, ATF; are the most active on social media with eight points each. CIOs are not big Facebook users – only seven have accounts. LinkedIn is very popular – more than 80 percent have accounts. Twitter’s hit and miss – few CIOs have accounts and fewer still tweet regularly. If you take out the top three tweeters, all Federal CIOs have generated a total of 396 tweets in the last six months.

Coleman’s active Facebook account and 500+ connections on LinkedIn bolster her score. But, it’s Twitter that pushed her to the top. Coleman has more than 1,673 tweets – 240 tweets in the past six months. She follows 2,959 tweeters and is followed by 4,908 – a F2F ratio of 1.65.

Like Coleman, Rick Holgate makes Facebook smile and is spiderman on LinkedIn. With 1,426 lifetime tweets he trails Casey – however, he has 480 tweets in the past six months. That makes him the big bird of Federal CIOs.

Steven VanRoekel, CIO, OMB, is the most popular kid – with more than 5,000 Twitter followers. Shawn Kingsberry, CIO, Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, tops the chart as the most approachable Federal CIO on Twitter – with an F2F ratio of 0.37. Mr. Brook Colangelo, CIO at the White House, is the second-most approachable CIO with a F2F ratio of 0.44. Seems the President’s really interested in what America has to say. Honorable mention for Luke McCormack, CIO at Justice, with a F2F ratio of 0.75.

“The sCIOal Circle shows that Federal CIOs are people – just like the rest of us,” said Steve O’Keeffe, founder of MeriTalk. “They’re adopting social media at different rates. Social media’s a lot like a Ouija board – until now, nobody really knew who was out there. The net takeaway – you can’t afford to rely on social media today as the primary communication channel to reach all Federal IT decision makers.”

To download the MeriTalk sCIOal Circle study, please visit https://meritalk.com/showcase.php.

About MeriTalk

The voice of tomorrow’s government today, MeriTalk is an online community and go-to resource for government IT. Focusing on government’s hot-button issues, MeriTalk hosts Data Center Exchange, Cyber Security Exchange, and Cloud Computing Exchange – platforms dedicated to supporting public-private dialogue and collaboration. MeriTalk connects with an audience of 85,000 government community contacts. For more information, visit www.meritalk.com or follow us on Twitter, @meritalk.