How to Get Your Group on Board with Social Media

Filed under Business, How To, NonProfits, Social Media |

According to Forrester’s 2008 Social Technographic Profile, three out of four U.S. adults use web technologies and tools to connect with people and share information. Since just the past year, adoption has grown 56%.

Businesses, organizations, and professionals, must ask themselves, then: How do we engage in the conversations that are already happening? How do we credibly and meaningfully participate in relevant online communities? How can we most effectively use this two-way communication and distribution channel?

You’ve seen the success stories. You know that you need to integrate social media into your branding and marketing strategies. You understand the value in empowering your customers and audience with a platform to voice their feedback and support, and in connecting with the people who want to know your brand better. You’ve embraced the importance of authenticity,  transparency, and meaningful communication and are working to incorporate those values into your company culture. You “get it.”

You’re ready to get into the game. The problem is, your Board of Directors, upper management, or the rest of your team, aren’t. How do you get them on board, so you can get started? How do you get everyone engaged?

1) Get Rid of the Jargon.

Social media is intimidating to many who haven’t already dipped their toes in it.. Words like blogging, Twitter, Facebook, community development, and social networking can still send shivers down executives’ spines.

When making your case the the brass, skip the buzzwords and focus on explaining social media in terms of their function and utility. Take Twitter, for example. Instead of describing it as a “microblogging platform that sends 140-character messages,” try describing it as an online customer service mechanism.

2) Get it Out of “Just Marketing.”

Truly effective social media strategy touches nearly every aspect of an organization, not just marketing. You can use it to improve and streamline customer service, like CoffeeGroundz has on Twitter. You can use it to gather feedback for project, product, or service development, like Dell did with IdeaStorm. You can use it to create dynamic, visible internal communications that lift employee morale, like Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation.

A big fear among companies when beginning to consider using social media is that they will have to reinvent the wheel or turn their current practices inside out. It’s up to you to dispel those fears: just as email came along to help facilitate communication between individuals, social media can help your entire team be more productive and effective internally among various departments or groups, and externally with your audience and customers.

3) Get a Reading on Your WWW Landscape.

Set up and actively use listening posts – like Google Alerts and Twitter Search – for queries on your company, relevant business and industry keywords, related organizations, and your competitors.

Map your results, including quantitative (number of mentions) and qualitative (tone, sentiment, or relevance) criteria. If neither your nor your competitors’ brands are being discussed online, you can illustrate the opportunity to enter the conversation early and lead your industry. If you’re being mentioned, but your competitors capture a greater share or the market conversation, you can discuss the need to increase your online outreach. And if you’re fortunate enough to have a significant online presence, turn the discussion towards how to maintain, enrich, and grow that for the future.

4) Get Your Goals in Line.

Don’t jump into social media just because “everyone else is”: employing tactics without defined strategy and goals is like shooting in the dark – you’ll waste alot of time and effort without a hit to show for it in the end.

You must know your targets in order to measure success. Spend time to understand what you want to achieve with social media: Do you want to build an engaged community around your brand? Increase leads and sales? Improve customer loyalty and evangelism? Increase subscribers to your newsletter? Decrease negative customer feedback? Think strategically, and map each goal to that strategy.

5) Get Proof That It Works.

Nothing drives the point home better than examples of social media in action. Round up case studies of similar organizations and competitors using social media who are doing it right. Peter Kim has a great list of companies who are leveraging social media to improve their organizations. Search Delicious.com or Google for “social media case studies” and related topics for even more examples to add to your arsenal…those two sites alone will unearth enough information to make your case for incorporating social media into your company strategy bulletproof.

Last but not least … Get Your Team to “Get It.”

Social media is not an “age thing” nor a “nerd thing” – it’s a cultural thing. Your group must learn to see beyond the technology and tools, and view communications through a new lens.

Moving from the controlled messaging of advertising and press releases to the openness and transparency of Web 2.0 communication is daunting for people who have done things “the old fashioned way” for years. As a social media advocate, fully consider the adjustments you’re asking peers and colleagues to make as individuals and in their particular roles within your organization. You may have to enlist social media professionals, workshops, seminars, webinars, or detailed discussions to help people evolve from traditional mindsets before the real work can begin. Be patient, reassuring, and stay focused on the ultimate goals.

By focusing on the overall value and benefit that social media brings to your business, organization, and team, not only will you be able to communicate its importance, but also encourage others to join you in discovering – and effectively utilizing – its potential.