Posts tagged best practices


How do I get my boss to understand social media?

Nov 2nd

5 comments

In my position as a teacher and a consultant, this is one of the most common questions I hear. So let’s get it out on the table and take on this big topic of SPONSORSHIP.

NEWS FLASH: If you are not being supported by your boss and you hope to pressure him/her into supporting your nascent social media initiative through a “grassroots” effort, it’s not going to work. Not in the long run. For effective, lasting organizational change to occur, it must be supported from the top. How do you gain that support when your boss doesn’t get it?

Who is the “sponsor” of your social media effort?

Let’s be clear about the term “sponsor.” The person who controls the budget and job assignments of the people working on social media is the “sponsor,” in our definition. This may not necessarily be your boss. It might be your boss’s boss or even the head of the company. When winning support for your project, be clear on who the real decision maker is!

Here are six ideas to get the boss on-board:

Conduct a “pilot” program. One of the most effective ways to get something started is to propose a temporary project. For example, go to your boss and tell her you want to try a new idea for 12 weeks (which sounds shorter than 3 months!). Explain that you will do this as an added, incremental effort that will not interfere with your normal job duties, you will measure and re-evaluate at the end of the period, and together you’ll decide whether to continue or not. Once the effort gets going and gains momentum, it’s going to be difficult to stop unless you completely blow it. So don’t blow it. : )

Money really does talk. Whatever you do, don’t go into a meeting with a company executive explaining that you want sponsorship to measure your company’s “quality of conversations.” If you are still buying into the “it’s all about the conversation” hype, read this (measurement and ROI) and this (focus on money). Of course the social web is about relationships, but everything measured in an organization SOMEHOW relates back to money, whether it’s profits, donors or funding. Social media is no different. Be prepared to explain how your initiative ties to the company’s objectives. If you can’t, you’re not ready for this discussion.

The 140-character classroom. Most professionals truly want to do the right thing for the company … if they understand it. So you need to patiently, relentlessly educate your sponsor on the truths of social media. Here’s a good way to do it: Pretend you’re on Twitter … all the time. Begin sending your sponsor timely, 140-character emails with a link to an article and an explanation of why the information is relevant. If you use this discipline, you will send information that actually gets read. Follow up. Discuss. Repeat as needed.
The small victory strategy. Here’s another simple idea that is remarkably effective: Plan your social media pilot program around easy “small victories” (SV). An example: “By week one, we want to have 100 followers, by week 2 we want to have 25 mentions, etc.” Notice how different this is compared to “we want to increase our customer satisfaction rate 28% by 2012.” SV’s allow you to announce lots of happy news when you need it most — at the BEGINNING! People will get behind a winner. Establish a culture of support and enthusiasm by building easy wins into the program and promoting those SV’s every week!

Preach fear in the morning and redemption in the afternoon. Scare ‘em. Seriously. Fear is a great motivator: Fear of what the competition is doing, fear of being left behind, fear of missing a trend, fear of making a wrong decision. Then, after your boss is shaking in his boots, explain what you can do to beat the competition, keep your company ahead, and make your boss look great … for absolutely no investment!

Plan for problems. When implementing change in an organization, it’s important to have a counter-measure for every obstacle you’re likely to face. Literally write down every possible argument and reason people will argue against your social media proposal and then formulate a reasonable counter measure to address them. And the hurdles aren’t just money and resources. It could be politics and competing priorities. Get your supporters to help you think-through effective answers to anything your boss can throw at you and be well-prepared.

If your boss is intelligent and well-meaning, eventually they should come around. If they are not intelligent and well meaning, getting them to understand social media is probably the least of your problems!
What problems are you having with sponsorship?
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Three chronic problems emerging for social media professionals

Oct 27th

20 comments

Over the past two weeks I’ve had the chance to personally interview a dozen leading American companies on their use of social media. The SM success stories are starting to emerge, but so are the problems. Here are three chronic problems I heard in almost every interview:
Sponsorship. A true story: One of the most talented and successful social media marketers I have known recently got sacked because his boss thought his whole program was “stupid.” I have had many people ask me, “How do I explain this to my boss?” While individual or “grassroot” efforts can work under the radar for short periods of time, without executive sponsorship from the top, the effort will eventually wither.
Measurement Systems. Here’s the dilemma: Lots of free statistics are available, but who has the time to collect, organize and interpret all this data? Emerging “listening” platforms are too expensive for many small companies. What the world needs is an inexpensive, comprehensive, cross-platform social media measurement dashboard. Are there any out there?
Time. All of the people I spoke to have been in their traditional marketing jobs for some period and took on social media as an extra effort. Every single person is struggling with the time soak of social media. Companies typically aren’t hiring extra people to work on social media, especially in this economy. What are your strategies for social media time management?
Do these issues ring true for you? How are you coping?

Story behind the photo: This is a shot I took at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London a few years ago. I can’t recall the sculptor. Natural colors — no PhotoShop! : )

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Finally! A B2B social media success story

Oct 19th

10 comments

printer contest

At long last, I bring to you my valued {grow} folks, a true B2B social media success story that can really be measured by MONEY.  I believe this is the only one in the world.  ; )  And it is GENIUS!

Best of all, the success comes from one of our very own {grow}-er’s, Nathan Dube aka @DubiousMonk, a frequent comment contributor.

Nathan works in the marketing department of Expert Laser Services of  Southbridge, MA.  The company is a managed print services provider and provides printer/copier sales, service and supplies.  Nathan’s challenge was to increase awareness for his company through social media initiatives.

His idea was to let people release their technology angst by finding the most creative ways to destroy their printer — on video.  The “Destroy Your Printer Video Contest” was promoted through the company’s blog,  Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.  The oddball humor of the contest gave it a great buzz and more – web traffic more than doubled and the company gained more than 100 new inbound links. Recycler magazine did an Internet TV special about the contest as well as an article which was the most-read topics on the site for several weeks.

The submissions can be found here and they are hilarious.  The winning entry involves a backhoe (but I think the dynamite should have won: “We’re approaching the target!”).

Momentum for the contest picked up as people fell in love with the crazy ways people destroyed their printers.  One fan was an employee of nearby Telesian Technologies, who called up Expert Laser Services and asked them to be their new service provider.

That’s right.  New business. Money in the bank from a social media victory.

Nathan said getting a new customer was just icing on the cake. “The focus of the contest  was not ‘let’s get customers’,” he said. ” The focus was to drive more traffic to the website, build inbound links, and create good content.  The fact that we landed a new service and repair customer was not our goal, but it happened.”

And to make a happy ending even happier, the winner of the contest, Cottage Revolution of Wales, MA, donated their winning toner cartridges to Catholic Charities.

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Five reasons B2B companies should reject social media marketing

Sep 15th

19 comments

In yesterday’s post, I demonstrated that even in the case of the most extreme B2B sales situation (one customer, long sales cycle, few competitors), there could be a place for social media marketing. Today I’ll tell you why it isn’t that simple.

Does my schizophrenia seem strange? I’ve been around long enough to know that even when there’s a slam-dunk business case for something, it doesn’t mean a company will do it. This has been quite apparent in B2B where hard-dollar social media successes have been few and far between, despite a lot of hype. Here are five good reasons why some B2B’s should NOT adopt social media right now:

1) The economy sucks. Unless a customer is screaming for social media, it’s not likely a struggling company is going to voluntarily get into a brand new marketing effort in the teeth of a recession. Even though most social media is “free,” it still takes valuable time and resources many companies don’t have right now. (On the flip side, your competitors are in the same boat – why not get a jump start on this now?)

2) The strategy doesn’t make sense. In these economically-urgent times, the focus is probably on generating short-term sales through established channels. There is nothing wrong with that – in fact, it’s an entirely appropriate strategy. If your company is burning the furniture to heat the building, it’s probably not the right time to start an internal battle to create a Facebook page.
3) The resources simply don’t exist. If you’re working in PR or marketing for a large B2B today, it’s likely that you’re doing a job that used to be two or three jobs a few years ago. Who really has the incremental time to take on social media and do it well? Maybe when the economy turns your company can free up the resources, but in the near-term, you may need to stay focused on only the most important customer initiatives. Be patient.
 
4) You don’t want to be social. Let’s say you work for a defense contractor. You really don’t want to conduct business on the social web, do you? So hanging out on Twitter is not for every business situation. I recently put a slide presentation out on the web that was promptly picked up and copied by my competitor. Will it hurt me? Not really. Could a similar situation hurt a company like Boeing? Yup. It might be more prudent to establish internal, secure collaborative efforts instead using the social web.
5) Your customers don’t care. I was at a gathering of about 15 B2B executives last week. All VP’s or higher … very influential to the purchasing decision at their companies. None of them were involved in social media. Nada. Wouldn’t know a tweet if it poked them in the nose. If these folks are your customers, you’re wasting your time on social media, aren’t you? In fact, I would say this is the number one issue facing B2B social web marketing: The customers aren’t engaged. Yet.

OK, please let me pre-empt a few hot-blooded retorts bound to show up in the comment section … I’m not saying DON’T do social media. You know me better than that. I know that every one of these reasons I listed could be turned around as a reason TO DO social media marketing!

My job is to consult and help businesses, and I actively recommend at least some social media component to the marketing plan of almost any customer. But I’m also practical and sympathetic to the needs of businesses that are just trying to survive right now. While there is almost certainly a place for social media in even traditional B2B situations, we need to realize that resistance may make perfect sense in the context of a lousy business situation. It might just be a matter of timing.
And although there may be real business situations that could delay social web engagement, there are also plenty of lame excuses. I will continue my schizophrenic journey tomorrow with some of these beauties!
OK, your turn. Let ‘er rip!
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