You’re on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn etc. and know and understand the benefits of using social media as a way of ‘meeting’ your clients and customers – current and prospective. But how can you convince your boss when they think Social Media is really ‘just for kids’ and takes up too much time out of the working day?
Well, in order to have a good chance of getting your point across you’ll first need to see it through the eyes of your boss. Sometimes this isn’t easy; however the following points might help you get started:
• Try focusing on the reason ‘why’ use Social Media rather than the ‘how to’ us it. It’s so easy to caught up in how to use Facebook, Twitter etc – but ultimately that isn’t going to help your business case. Once they’ve agreed with your proposal it’s easy to put a date in the diary on how to use it
• Make sure you research who’s using the Social Media platforms and trends that you want to recommend, that way you can show your boss which demographics will align with your company’s needs.
• Spend time establishing who is talking about your organization, product or service in the Social Media Ecosphere – and where, when and why the conversation is happening in the first place! If you can provide evidence that the conversation is already happening without you, it will support your argument that your organisation needs to get involved.
• But if no-one is ‘talking’ about you, but they’re talking about your competitors, then the same argument applies. It might also be possible that your industry sector doesn’t yet have an active community online, therefore this will strengthen your argument to get started as you can be the first to provide a ‘home’ for the community.
• Demonstrate how your competitors are successfully implementing Social Media (or not as maybe the case). This will help bring the discussion of implementing Social Media higher up on the agenda. When the ‘discussion’ happens, make sure that you can show how to improve upon what’s already happening.
• During the discussion with your boss, ensure you can interpret the how implementing Social Media can help achieve your organisations business objectives, as this will be of great interest to them. Show the results your boss can expect from a successful effort and how you’ll report these successes. Demonstrate the relationship between engaging a social media presence and community with your brand in a meaningful and measurable way:
New leads, increased visitors, brand awareness, search engine rankings, click through etc
.
• Don’t forget to discuss timelines. Social Media success won’t happen over night, so make sure that you let them know a ‘realistic time-frame’ so that they don’t get frustrated. Think ‘small wins’ and report often so they can see the effect of your efforts.
At the end of the day, remember that your boss will want to ‘look good’ in front of their boss and that may possibly take some of the credit for your idea(!), so with thorough planning and background research you should be able to convince them that Social Media is beneficial to your organisation and that it should be given opportunity to do so…
Have you had difficulty in trying to implement Social Media in your organization or have managed to convince the powers that be to ‘give it a go’? If so, let me know 
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Lee,
This is a clear and concise way to look at social media from a corporate viewpoint. Companies need to get a move on to catch up with SM now that its been around for a while. Some great points raised here. The thing that most companies don't 'get' is that SM can put you in front of people who generally would have a barrage of screening secretaries or PA's etc in place.( Just like them-in fact!)
They make the mistake of thinking its all about people having a bit of a joke etc. Yes it is that too. The old sale adage comes to mind 'people buy people not products'. They will do business with you if they like you. Social media fills that post beautifully.
I was speaking to a manager of another firm this morning about these matters and he was not interested.
Until, that is, I mentioned the pounds and pence, the value of work that came from my social media activities within the last 12 months.
I find this most basic metric grabs the attention of the business owner/manager in a way that discussions about conversation, web2.0, relationship building or generations x,y or Z never do.
It might not be the most important criteria to you or I as social media participants, but it sure does resonate with them.
Is it appropriate to discuss the bottom line return in such terms? If we do not look at the pounds and pence are we, to some extent, deluding ourselves? The money side often feels like a taboo subject.
I love all the other stuff in the blog as well. Good to have a fully fledged proposition to put forward, outlining all of the commercial benefits.
Thanks Robbie for your feedback
When asked about their social media activities, I think some companies are a little hesitant to respond at times as they either don't understand or believe social media can support the business case. Although implementing a social media strategy might not be an appropriate direct course of action for them, I believe unless all aspects of social media have been explored, from an organisations specific viewpoint, it can't be ruled out entirely.
But let's not forget that if in the end an organisation establishes that using social media platforms are not the right course of action for them, there maybe still 'good reasons' to utilise social media internally e.g. help avoid work duplication, increase inter departmental communication etc.
Hi Neil. Thanks for your feedback.
You're correct, as social media advocates it is easy to overlook or not mention the benefit social media brings to the bottom line, or even the triple bottom line for that matter, because we know that it does…
Your comment on “The money side often feels like a taboo subject” really stood out and as people think that it's not strictly 'PC' to mention that using social media platforms positively affetcs their bottom line. But they should shout it as loud as possible from the roof tops(!) After all, user generated content (UGC) – blog posts, consumer product reviews, forum comments etc – are what truly influences other people at the time when they are making a decision.
A focus on the bottom line is important but it's important to discuss what they specifically want to achieve by using social media: greater awareness, greater sales, greater loyalty – discussed in 'How to start using social media for business – Part1' (Sep 7)
Ultimately if any one of these are increased then it will have a positive effect on the others – economics 101
– the trick is to establish that social media has been the cause…
So maybe when the topic of conversation turns to the 'bottom line' we should start by explain the process of how social media effects awareness, sales, and loyalty (the knock-on effect) and then mention by not engaging with their audience using social media it could potentially have the opposite effect…
Really looking forward to our coffee Neil
“It might also be possible that your industry sector doesn’t yet have an active community online, therefore this will strengthen your argument to get started as you can be the first to provide a ‘home’ for the community.”
I'm wary about this statement. We know from the Conversation Prism that there's not shortage of tools / communities that people can use to communicate with each other. Do you have any examples of how / where companies have created tools to facilitate their customers / prospective customers to socialise online?
Further and contrary to your statement, surely if there's no substantial social or community presence, then this lessens the need for companies to invest in SM – logical?
Hi Phil
Firstly, thanks for taking the time out to post your comment.
The conversation prism [Brian Solis http://www.briansolis.com/2009/03/conversation-… does offer a plethora of social media platforms that communities can use. However, in answer to your question, “Do you have any examples of how / where companies have created tools to facilitate their customers / prospective customers to socialise online when communities did not exist previously?” my answer is yes. The agency I work for has set up several community forums now – one in particular comes to mind (they develop a specific cloud computing system for the healthcare sector). The community forum was set up for a variety of reasons:
1) To bring users together in one place
2) As a Customer Service enhancement
3) To prioritise development revisions aligning them with specific user requirements
I've also set up a social media listening dashboard for a company within the financial services sector – to better understand what 'issues' people have relating to 'products' they've been sold etc – and the insights there are helping them be more proactive with their existing clients and business development functions.
In answer to your second question, you might be right, but I think it all depends on if your customers/clients are or aren't talking about any of the following:
- you
- your company
- employee's within your company
- your products
- your services
- your competitors products or services
- employee's within your comptetitors company
- industry news, rants or raves e.g.compliance issues, regulations etc
There are many more scenarios that can be added to the list above, however, if you answer 'yes, that's being discussed online' to any of the above then I would suggest having a 'voice' online…
If you answer 'No, nothing like that is being discussed online' and nothing is being discussed for the 'extended list' of possible scenarios and customers and clients have responded with a resounding 'No' to the social media pressence survey then … I'd make a cuppa tea and have a chocky biscuit
Happy to send you a full list of possible scenarios where a company may need to evaluate using social media, just let me know. My email is lee@smallwood.ws or if you would like to chat it through my mobile is +44 (0) 7759 475 059 or if you would prefer a skype chat my Skype ID is lee.smallwood
Speak soon and thanks for posting 2 really good questions
Phil
From my point of view I would think that if there are genuinely none of your competitors engaging in social media then that to me would spell 'opportunity'.
Whats wrong with being a trail blazer? Would it not put YOU or YOUR company at the forefront and ahead of the rest of the herd? Surely this is what business is about at its core- staying ahead of the game.
You can be absolutely SURE that someone somewhere will be discussing you or your type of business online. Guaranteed. Whether you know about it or not.
And, there is nothing more satisfying than setting up Google Alerts and seeing you and your business/ products mentioned across the web. At its heart its really just about a new way to get your message out, but in a more personal way than you would be used to. People are always resistant to change.
Social media is here to stay, embrace it, you will be glad you did.( Promise!)
Love your passion here Robbie. It reminds of a story an old boss of mine told me:
There were once 2 shoe salesman that travelled to Africa to see if there were possible opportunities.
The first shoe salesman calls his boss and says, 'Boss, I'm coming home… no one here wears shoes'
The second shoe salesman calls his boss and says, 'Boss, Boss, I'm staying here… no one hear wears shoes!!!'