How to convince skeptical managers to invest in social media
This post is by Kaukab Jhumra Smith.
If you’re in the middle tier of your organization and having trouble convincing senior leadership about the wisdom of adopting social-media tools for your mission, consider the following techniques put forward by Allison Fine and Beth Kanter at the recent Nonprofit 2.0 Unconference in Washington, D.C.
“Organizational change is the most difficult thing you can do,” said Fine, who co-authored the book, “The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change,” with Kanter. “You’re going to need courage and patience to do this well.”
Here are some steps they suggested trying:
Identify people who influence senior management. Who are the people respected by your company’s top leadership as a source of ideas or guidance? Help them understand how social media can further your organization’s mission. “Looking at individual board members as influencers is a good strategy,” Fine said. Influencers may even include younger family members who are into technology and who can convince managers to try new tools out of personal interest, Kanter added.
Draw attention to your competitors’ social-media activities. “The C-suite gets influenced by stories about peer organizations. If you say rivals are doing this, you get their attention pretty quickly,” Fine said.
Take a test flight under the radar. You could try a “stealth” approach and share content on social-media sites without running it by senior leadership in advance. Watch your numbers grow and prepare a case for how they add value to your organization before taking the experiment to management, Kanter said.
Become a guide instead of a guerrilla. On the other hand, Fine said, “I’d love to see young people switch their mindset from doing stealth social media to becoming internal guides and teachers for organizations.” She suggests organizing weekly brown-bag lunches to show skeptical colleagues how Twitter can add value to their work and to share examples of how other companies are using social-networking sites.
Be patient — this could take a while. You have to think of this as a process of social change within your institution, Kanter said. “It takes years to change a culture.”
Image credit: CDH_Design, via iStockphoto
Posted by Tweets that mention SmartBlog On Social Media » How to convince skeptical managers to invest in social media -- Topsy.com on August 12th, 2010 at 5:54 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sarah Davis, Buckeye Innovation. Buckeye Innovation said: RT @sbosm: How to convince skeptical managers to invest in social media http://bit.ly/9SJJr5 [...]
Posted by Lindsey Sparks on August 12th, 2010 at 7:08 am
I think the tip about sharing what competitors doing is especially helpful. In my previous position we pushed for putting more of a focus on social media for several years to no avail, but as soon as our competitors started using it social media suddenly became a huge priority. While it was a little frustrating to go from hearing "No, social media is a waste of time" to "Why haven't we been doing this?" it was nice to finally have a focus on it. And we actually did the under the radar thing to, since it didn't require any budget approval we just started in. That was nice when responding to the "why haven't we been doing this?" question, since we were able to show that we had in fact been using social media!
Posted by @PlayOffense on August 12th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Perceptions Rule and Everything Communicates:
Whether it is dealers, customers or regulatory officials, you must recognize that their perceptions create your market reality. And you must also recognize that every detail is important in communications. A brand is the sum of thousands of tiny details; every aspect of operations and communications … every interaction with every constituent group—and they all count.
In almost any contest of any kind, speed wins. This is why discipline is so important; because it creates speed and focus on the right things. We learned from successful political campaigns that one core strategy must drive all others. One set of proven themes and messages (the “3X5 Card” in political campaigns) drives all communications to all audiences. Put simply: Strategy is boss of every action and interaction. This is the discipline it takes to win.
Posted by @rcopacia on August 12th, 2010 at 11:50 am
I have seen people get burned by the stealth approach to social media so be very careful. I like risk takers personally though.
Posted by 40deuce on August 12th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Great tips!
It may take some time, but if people think that it would really be worth it for their organization to get involved in social media then it probably is a good idea. These are some great steps to try and get the c-suites on board with them.
Cheers,
Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos
Posted by clair2010 on August 12th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
The online shop of high fashion brand likeherve leger,moncler ,chrisitian louboutin and so on.We are pofessional on the best online
herve leger sale,moncler sale,chrisitian louboutinsale.You can all the fashion products on our website.we will try our best to offer our perfect service for you!
Posted by clair2010 on August 12th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
The online shop of high fashion brand likeherve leger,moncler ,chrisitian louboutin and so on.We are pofessional on the best online
Posted by How to convince skeptical managers to invest in social media « BIS Competence Center on August 13th, 2010 at 12:32 am
[...] http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2010/08/12/how-to-convince-skeptical-managers-to-invest-in-social-... [...]
Posted by Courtney on August 13th, 2010 at 11:06 am
I have to agree with Lindsey that competitors are a huge touch point for most companies on getting into social media. It also can help if you have some customer service issues as well, you can turn the situations around very quickly or at least try.
I saw a blog post about customer service today on White Horse. It talks about how companies need to act like people in social media and not too business like because otherwise people may feel like they are talking to retweet robots.
Here is the link if you are interested: http://bit.ly/9AS1Jf
I should say I work for White Horse but I thought you might be interested in the related information.
Posted by Beth Kanter on August 13th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Thanks so much for writing about the Networked Nonprofit. The bottom line is that change is hard – so it is natural for organizations to resist change and it comes in different ways including skepticism. My position is that many organizations treat social media skepticism as if it was the Black Smoke Monster on lost – or the killer tomato plants or the blob (pick your boggy man) And, people shut down, they get afraid to have the difficult conversation to address the skepticism. I think we need to treat skepticism as conversation starters, not stoppers.
Here's a post with some more suggestions http://www.bethkanter.org/wallow-in-fear/
My recent post By- Social Media Fears Midnight Son Designs Design Solutions for a Digital Age
Posted by Beth Kanter on August 13th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Thanks so much for writing about the Networked Nonprofit. The bottom line is that change is hard – so it is natural for organizations to resist change and it comes in different ways including skepticism. My position is that many organizations treat social media skepticism as if it was the Black Smoke Monster on lost – or the killer tomato plants or the blob (pick your boggy man) And, people shut down, they get afraid to have the difficult conversation to address the skepticism. I think we need to treat skepticism as conversation starters, not stoppers.
About showing what competitors are doing – here's a methodology that helps you do that http://www.bethkanter.org/action-listening/
My recent post By- Social Media Fears Midnight Son Designs Design Solutions for a Digital Age
Posted by @nancimurdock on August 16th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
I am in the process of convincing a large corporation to start a corporate blog (they don't even have a marketing department!) and it's been a great experience. I am guiding them to see how they can reach their customer base and future clients, employees and future prospects. Proposed interviews with senior Management for the blog has also been a strong selling point, as has interviews with our top clients.
My recent post First Blog Post
Posted by uggugg on August 27th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Moncler have earned popularity among today’s leading fashion brands since it has the most stylish design .Moncler jackets offer to consumers. These jackets keep the fashion sense alive within a tasted person. These Moncler jackets are having beautiful colors like pink white, black and blue which provide prominent look to your appearance.Now you can have the moncler sales on our website easier,and you can also get a big discount for moncler kids right here.Just com e and find whatever Moncler clothes you like.
Buy 2010 vertu cell phone from us at a big discount .
Posted by iloveugg on August 27th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
It is very difficult to choose from the vast variety of choices available to your clothes. Parents want comfortable clothes while children are easily bowled over by trendy looks and hot styles.Moncler Sale in the markets is the best chooice for you in this season.Not only will you get quality Moncler , but you can also get yourself huge discounts while shopping online. You can also compare prices of brands and compare prices offered by different retailers, and shop with our Moncler clothes shop ,that is offering you the best deal.,
Posted by Kenneth Forrest on September 16th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Nice list of information. Thanks for sharing . It is nice indeed. Social media is the fad today but the power to convince all people that are skeptical with it would be a very difficult task. But with this post and the helpful article you posted, I don't think that it would be hard considering that you have all the tools of giving us more information.
Posted by The_Mike_Johnson on September 30th, 2010 at 9:03 am
Great article. I attended a book event for The Networked Nonprofit back in June and here is video: http://themikejohnson.com/2010/06/30/allison-fine…
My recent post Stats Time – US Internet Users Who Use Social Media- Top 10 Social Networking Sites
Posted by 5 ways to turn skeptics into social-media true believers « FCEdge Powerful Marketing Communications on October 1st, 2010 at 4:09 am
[...] 5 ways to turn skeptics into social-media true believers Skeptical bosses are the bane of any social-media effort, but with a little determination it’s usually possible to win people over, say Allison Fine and Beth Kanter. Identify the people who have influence with key decision makers, highlight your rivals’ social-media successes, and don’t try to rush things, they say. “It takes years to change a culture,” Kanter says. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Social Media [...]
Posted by 5 A’s to Your Q’s On Great Social Media Marketing | WhizBang•PowWow on November 15th, 2010 at 9:13 am
[...] Jhumra Smith has a good post on how to persuade management to invest in social media using principles from Allison Fine and Beth [...]