So you’re scratching, you’re clawing and fighting to educate managers and business owners on the beauty of social media. You’re honing your tactics. You’re going off on the merits of engaging in conversations with customers, you’re Tweeting about how it’s all about transparency etc. etc. But what you should know is that it really comes down to 3 really basic tenets. Here they are.
1) Show them how social media can make them money
2) Show them how social media can save them money
3) Show them how you will increase brand equity
With this knowledge in your head, go ahead and push all the nuances of social media that you want. Sell and educate till the cows come home (though not sure where the cows went in the first place). But be sure you do this. Be sure that when you are done talking- or is that listening? That you have at least proved to them that one of the above three things will happen after you have embarked on your social media plan. The go do it!
Right to the points, Marc!
The underlying message is that customers are out there using Social Media and conversing with them is now what contributes to the bottom line.
Evelyn
Marc: Article posts like this one (and the others demonstrating the financial return on social media) are why I keep coming back to your blog on a daily basis.
I am diligently working with key senior-level executive stakeholders in my company to demonstrate the merits of all three recommendations. This is not a simple task, but it’s THE ONLY WAY I know to achieve the final social media buy-in. So often, we forget that a key component of strategic execution is Corporate Power & Politics 101 such as surgically managing up, thinking from the C-Level perspective, or just plain old make your bosses’ lives easier.
As your fellow thought leader David Meerman Scott is fond of saying, “Nobody Cares About Your Products — They Care About Their Own Problems.” Your 3 key recommendations succinctly crystallize what keeps C-Level execs awake at 3 AM particularly in these uncertain economic times (Making Money, Saving Money, and Increasing Brand Equity).
As always Marc — Thank You.