In a world where every stakeholder carries a newsroom in their pocket, reputation is no longer a quarterly concern. It is a live data stream. There are 4.8 billion social media users globally, representing nearly 60 percent of the world’s population, spending an average of 2 hours 24 minutes per day on social platforms. In this environment, leadership cannot operate 9 to 5 while the narrative runs 24×7.
News never sleeps. Neither does perception
Digital platforms have overtaken traditional channels as the primary gateway to news. Facebook remains the world’s top social platform for news, used by 37 per cent of respondents across 47 countries in a 2024 global news survey. In India, nearly 71 percent of people prefer online news, with about half relying on social media as a key source. In the United States, a significant share of adults now say they regularly get news on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
The implication is clear. Brands are no longer defined only by what they say in official channels. They are defined by a real-time conversation occurring on feeds, chats and comment sections across time zones.
Trust is volatile in the always-on era
The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer shows a stark trust crisis. Seven in ten people believe business leaders, government and media figures deliberately mislead them. Trust in CEOs has dropped sharply since 2021, even as people still expect business to step up on societal issues.
In this climate, silence is interpreted as indifference, delay as guilt and corporate statements as spin unless backed by consistent, human leadership visibility. Reputation is now a function of responsiveness and perceived honesty, not just historic brand equity.
When crises break, minutes matter, not days
Recent crisis reviews of 2024 highlight how a single malfunction, outage or misstep can dominate headlines and social feeds globally within hours, from airlines to tech platforms. Social media analytics firms document how negative sentiment can spike and go global in minutes, forcing brands to react at unprecedented speed.
Academic research reinforces this. Studies of corporate crisis communication in the social media age show that the way organizations respond online, how fast and with what tone, directly shapes reputation outcomes. Separate research has even found a positive link between CEOs’ social media reputation and firm value during turbulent periods.
24×7 leadership. What it actually means
“Always-on” leadership does not mean a CEO tweeting at 3 a.m. every day. It means building a system in which leadership presence is continuously available, credible and aligned across channels. In practice, that looks like:
- A visible, media-trained leadership bench, not just one spokesperson
- Clear crisis playbooks with pre approved guardrails and escalation paths
- Active, authentic executive presence on key platforms where stakeholders already are
- Data driven listening using social and news analytics to spot weak signals early
- Cross functional war rooms that can activate within minutes, not days
This is leadership as an operating system, not a one off performance.
The new competitive advantage. Real time credibility
In the era of real time reputation, the question is no longer whether a brand will face a sudden storm. It is whether leaders will be present, prepared and believable when it hits.
Organizations that treat 24×7 media as a permanent operating condition, and not a temporary PR problem, will convert speed and transparency into trust and market advantage. Those that still lead on a “business hours” mindset will continue to discover that their reputation has already been decided overnight.
In a world where the feed never stops, leadership cannot log out.
