Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

It’s a PR adage that suggests its a bad idea to pick a fight with the media because they can deny you an audience and control the flow of information.

The solution, according to hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, is to get your own barrel.

Ackman has done that by building a presence on X (formerly Twitter).

Ackman is one of the most active CEOs on social media. After Ray Dalio, he is probably the most visible hedge fund manager. He has 978,000 followers on X.

He started tweeting in 2017 and spent six years gradually building a following which he now uses to expound on business and social issues.

Ackman cleary understands the value of an audience.

“No one wants to have a proxy contest with someone with 900,000 followers,” he said in a recent interview on David Rubenstein’s podcast.

Ackman told Rubenstein there are two reasons he’s active on social media.

First, it allows him to voice his opinions on a variety of topics.

Second, he can communicate directly with stakeholders without relying on journalists who may not convey the message in the same way it was delivered.

“Unlike the media generally where you can be excerpted or quoted inaccurately, here what I have said exactly is for the public record,” Ackman told Rubenstein.

“It doesn’t mean my point of view will be accepted by others, but at least I have a platform to do it in an accurate way.”

It’s an incredibly profound change in the communications landscape and one that more and more executives are picking up on.

Lately, Ackman has been using his voice to pressure Harvard’s President Claudine Gay to resign over her handling of allegations of anti-semitism on campus.

Last night he posted on X a copy of a 2,000-word letter he wrote to the members of the board that governs Harvard. He argued that Gay has “done more damage to the reputation of Harvard University than any individual in our nearly 500-year history.”

The Harvard board will decide whether that is true or not.

What’s clear is that Ackman — already influential as a billionaire who has donated to the school — amplified his voice by posting the letter publicaly to a large group of followers.

We saw a similar dynamic play out with Sam Altman, who leveraged his 2.2 million followers to pressure the board of OpenAI after he was fired.

You cannot buy that kind of visability.

You need to build it over time by posting high-quality content.

It’s an investment Altman and Ackman made over many years.