The CEO’s email address should be on the company’s site. Unless he or she is afraid of publicity. And customers.
No excuses! It’s 2008. They make spam filters that work now.
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Rafe
Pro PR Tips 
I disagree, unless that email is monitored by someone other than the CEO (i.e. executive assistant or somone similar). It’s not that the CEO is off limits, but with all the demands placed on them it is hardly possible for them to keep up with all the email they would/could receive. In my experience I’ve seen several email addresses for CEOs get abused and misused by clients, employees, press, etc.
For customers, there are other methods of letting them get in touch with the company. For high ranking customers/clients, the CEO can and should give them his contact info if needed, but there are other channels to go through before getting to a CEO.
For media, what’s wrong with going through a PR pro if one is available? I will agree that the PR contacts name and email should always be on a site. Personally (as a PR pro), I work very hard to get contact that day and within a couple hours if I receive a pressing media inquiry. If its not pressing, then we work within their deadline to get them on the phone together or meet in person if time and the situation allows it.
JB,
Ok, I’ll give you this compromise: The CEO should publish an email address on the site. Maybe it’s not his/her ONLY address, and maybe it’s also monitored by an admin or even a PR person. That would work.
PR people can be great, by the way, but when it’s 1:00am and I’m working on a story about a broken site or something, who’s more likely to be awake, the PR team or the CEO?
Furthermore, “within the day” is SLOW in the modern world of blogs and Twitter. That’s why I want to go direct. Not always. But I want the option.
The PR person – we don’t sleep. ;)
JB, you should check out “email forwarding” — it’s really dope, and very simple to set up, too. You can put an email address anywhere that looks good and have it all come back to whatever you’re already using (or your, heh, CEO is already using). In fact, you could and should have multiple emails depending on the context and target audience, and have all of them aimed back at your gmail with handy filters activated to pre-sort the crap.
Takes 20 minutes, tops.
Rafe, Jeremy and Justin… in that order,
Rafe, see Jeremy’s comment. I am available 24-7 for my clients and the media trying to reach them (my cell is always on and near my bed… sometimes to the dismay of my wife!). If you have met with a CEO for a company I represent, chances are you’ll be given their b-card for direct follow up. However, if you really want to reach them (in case they miss your email), call me still.
Jeremy, spot on.
Justin, agreed, on all points. Most CEO’s I know (granted, I don’t know 1000’s) have multiple email addresses, routing different ways. I just think the blanket statement of “CEO’s email address should be on the company’s site” disregard’s other functions like customer service, PR team, VP’s (of whatever capacity), etc. It would literally be a full time job for 1 person (or a team depending on the CEO and company) to vet and respond to every email, media or not. Email forwarding, as good as it is, won’t make the CEO more responsive to particular media requests as Rafe (appeared–it’s how I read it) suggested.
Either way, it makes for a good discussion! :-)
Well, I’m more prone to check in by Twitter or Facebook first ;)
Surely this depends on the size and nature of the company. Many people believe (often correctly) that the higher their complaint or enquiry goes within the company, the more likely they are to receive a helpful response. Publish the email address of the CEO of a major consumer goods company and he will receive thousands of emails every day, most of which should be dealt with by someone else. On the other hand, if your company is a small service provider with a handful of staff, the CEO may be making most of the decisions anyway.
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