SmartBlogs on Social Media

If you’re struggling to get to the “yes” when it comes to social media, you’re not alone. Lots of hard-working, smart marketers are facing this challenge and everything that comes with it: demonstrating the ROI, working with legal, collaborating across departmental silos, etc.

This is what Blair Klein of AT&T’s presentation from our recent BlogWell event is all about. And even if your program is up and running, Blair offers some great advice for earning buy-in for anything new you’re trying to implement.

A few of Blair’s key points:

• Focus on the low-hanging fruit. Few things advance buy-in and adoption like showing leadership the money left on the table by not allowing various business units to engage in social media.
• Try working your social media policies into your existing policies. AT&T already had a bunch of employee policies in place, so they realized they didn’t have to start from scratch. Instead, they simply used their social media guidelines to highlight existing policies that related to online engagement.
• Don’t scoff at legal’s concerns. When you’re struggling to get going, it’s easy to look at the legal department as an annoying roadblock. But in reality, their concerns are often legitimate and the Federal Trade Commission guidelines are serious. Blair recommends involving legal from the beginning.

If you like this presentation, check out our upcoming BlogWell event in Seattle on May 5.

Disclosure: AT&T is a Social Media Business Council member (of which I am the CEO). Learn more about it and our members: http://www.socialmedia.org