Selling Social Media to Executives

7/29/2019 Selling Social Media to Executives

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/selling-social-media-to-executives 1/8

social marketing software

Selling Social Media to Execuvesfrom Awareness, Inc | Creators of the Social Markeng Hub

@awarenessinc | awarenessnetworks.com

elling Social Media to Execuves:ow to Pitch the Benefits and Get Buy-In

Social Media Marken



Introducon

Since the rise of social media, we’ve been faced with countless ways to connect and interactwith our customers. Established companies using tradional markeng have integratedaspects of social media into their markeng strategy. If you’ve picked up this eBook, you’velikely heard of, are interested in or are involved in some type of social media markengprogram.

Social media has become a major part of markeng strategies and programs because of themany benefits of engaging with consumers. If everyone is jumping on the social mediabandwagon, there has to be a reason, right?

You may think so, but it’s not always an easy sell to those in charge of markeng budgets.

Here, we’ll equip you with the informaon you need to show decision makers that socialmedia will be a powerful addion to your markeng mix.

Why social media and markeng?

Before you begin to present a social media plan for your company, it helps to understand whysocial media has become so widespread from a markeng and product perspecve.

Several aspects of social media use from the markeng perspecve are similar to how youmight think of using social networking tools for personal use. Aside from the peer-to-peeraspects of social networking, the fundamentals are the same: real-me interacon,reinforcing es between exisng relaonships while also creang new ones, outpunginformaon and receiving informaon.

Social media plaorms are popular with consumers, transcend all age groups and have plentyof marketable value built in:

- You can listen to what people are saying about your brand

- You can find communies of target customers on a number of social plaorms

- You can engage with current and potenal customers, increasing your brand image andloyalty

- You can offer customer service where people want it

www.awarenessnetworks.com

Social Media Metrics

“Social networks are now used frequently by your customers, your prospects, andyour competors. Connect with people, learn their business needs, and respondmore simply and flexibly."

- Chris Brogan (chrisbrogan.com), on 12 Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss




Theory vs. Reality

For a large corporaon with millions of expendable dollars in markeng budget, it may be easy to getthe green light for new, non-tradional markeng efforts. But that’s not always the case, especially in

companies with limited resources.

Despite some of the theorecal benefits of social media and the list of successful case studies out there,when deciding whether or not to bring new markeng methods in-house, most marketers encounterresistance. There are sll many execuves that are hesitant to enter the social media space.

One of the biggest problems people have is in drawing the connecon between the social mediamarkeng they’ve been hearing about, and how it can directly benefit their actual organizaon.

There are several items you can prepare before a conversaon with upper management that may helpin bringing this to the forefront.

Inial Conversaon Points

It’s nothing new It’s helpful to think of and posion social media not as a brand new concept, but as an extension of yourcurrent markeng and business goals. While there are some new ways of thinking about reaching youraudience through these channels, they should be viewed as enhancements of your current markengmix. For further informaon on teh value of adding social media to your markeng mix, download “ AMarketer’s Guide to Social Media”

Up-front benefitsIf you start your conversaon by highlighng the benefits of social media, as opposed to answering thequesons of what social media is, or how your organizaon is going to do it, you’ll be able to focus theconversaon on those benefits before you start your selling the process.

Suggest hypothecal goals

At the inial stages of implemenng a social media plan, your team will need to determine your goals.When you’re selling the concept of social media to execuves, it’s helpful to suggest a list of hypothecal but realisc goals your organizaon could reach if they were to implement a program. Thisprovides a direct and relevant example of what social media can do for you.

Examples of commonly used goals are drivingtraffic to your website, geng your brand infront of as many people as you can, collectqualified leads for your sales team to follow upwith, encouraging people to interact with andshare your brand with others, or customerservice.

Demonstrate your current “social media status” One of the best ways to hit home on how very

relevant the social media space has become isto compile a list of where your brand cancurrently online: tweets, blog posts orcomments, Facebook menons, websites. Thisshows very obviously that your brand alreadyexists in social media. If you’re not actually menoned anywhere online, the next best way to show thisis give the stats of some of your competors – either menons of them online or where they’ve actuallyset up a presence on a parcular social media plaorm.

Once you’ve done this inial informaon gathering, it’s helpful to look at some of the most commonconcerns of using social media for markeng, and understand how you can beer frame the issues forthe decision makers in your organizaon.

Social Media Markeng Strategy

"Present the raonale backwards. Start withthe benefit of social networking (interaconwith brand, profit generaon, lead generaon,etc.) and leave the execuon to the end. Mostpeople can get bogged down in explaining howsocial networking works which can be a heavylearning curve for some non-tech savvy people.”

-Ed M., Hoboken, NJ, via Aardvark

http://info.awarenessnetworks.com/Guide-to-Social-Media-Registration.html










How to handle points of resistance

There are several aspects of social media markeng that havecaused hesitaon or even fear for markeng andcommunicaons teams in every industry.

Reputaon hits “What if people backlash against our brand in

public?”

You have to prepare to be hard-hit. The reality is that whetheryou are present in social networking channels or not, there willbe people voicing their happiness – and unhappiness - with yourbrand. If you’re listening in these channels and addressingoccurrences quickly and professionally, you’ll to at be able tohandle negave comments in a way that actually benefits yourbrand, rather than leaving them unanswered in public for othersto find.

Most recently to the publishing of this eBook, Taco Bell had taken a backlash over quesons of the quality of its beef products. Because the company was listening, it was able to pick up on negave senments immediately. They respondedwith a YouTube video, Facebook posts and Twier interacons, resulng in an overall reverse of senment, write-ups inmajor publicaons, and an addional 6K Twier followers in support! They made their case heard and it worked.

Transparency and control

“Won’t pung ourselves on social plaorms give too much control to our users, and leave us open to showing more than wewant to about our brand?”

In many cases, issues of how transparent you want to be as an organizaon and how much control you want to leave in thehands of your audience can be crippling. Whether it’s a comment about a brand on a public forum, or a customer serviceinteracon on Facebook, having conversaons about your brand on plaorms that are visible to a larger community isinmidang.

A related concern is using social media as a customer service outlet. Your brand will be the receiver of both good and badpublicity, and if someone isn’t happy with their experience, they may make it known. As suggested above, if these negavecomments or customer inquiries go unanswered it only makes maers worse.

With both of these issues – reputaon and control - marketers wonder if it’s wise to proacvely provide social plaorms forpeople to interact on. In general, pung the following three items in place beforehand will help you engage publically ineffecve and posive ways.

- Have a person or team dedicated to listening and responding in these channels is a necessity

- Use a Social CRM tool to listen to social media channels and provide a central place to manage your assets is a greataddion

- If your organizaon has a PR team, coordinaon between them and your social media team will make the experienceeven beer

Shelf life “Isn’t social media just another fad?”

Another concern involves assuming social media is a short-lived trend, and to invest significant me or resources would be a

waste. Recent studies show there was a 50% increase in the number of small businesses using social media last year, andcurrently 70% of small businesses have implemented social media markeng programs. This is one of many stats suggesngthat it’s on the rise, and doesn’t look to be slowing. Collecng numbers not only on social media markeng use, but alsosocial media use in general would make selling the idea sound more legimate. For instance, did you know 20 millionFacebook users become fans of Pages every day?

It’s also worth looking at specific organizaons similar to your own that have successfully implemented and used socialmedia in their markeng, as well as examples outside your industry. This laer list is especially helpful if you come from amore tradional space.

Whether they’re direct competors or not, use these organizaons to highlight the acons they’ve taken, how they havebenefited, and how key parts of their process can and should be replicated in your organizaon.



ww.awarenessnetworks.com

cial Media Markeng Strategy

Addional Discussion Points

Direct feedback One of the greatest benefits of using social media iscollecng unfiltered feedback from your user base or

prospecve markets. This isn’t form data that hasbeen collected, organized, and analyzed by internalteams and presented to upper management in thebest light possible.

It’s an opportunity to gain raw feedback, straightfrom the horse’s mouth. No maer what product orservice you offer, you need to appeal to yourconsumer base…what beer way to give them whatthey want than to listen to what they have to say?

Social media allows a direct connecon to yourconsumers. As a consumer, it’s enrely frustrang totry and reach customer service, only to find a website

form which bumps back a generic “Thank you for your inquiry, if necessary a Customer Service Representavewill get back to you within 7-10 business day…” message.

Being able to respond in a more personal and mely fashion is reassuring to the customer. Even if the issuecannot be resolved, as an organizaon you’ve reach out to them directly, given them individualizedacknowledgement, and addressed their problem.

Customers aren’t expecng magic, and most realize that mistakes do happen, but there is a benefit given to acompany that will publicly address problems, and also make it known there is an aempt to recfy them…it’s notalways about prevenng 100% of all mistakes, but taking proacve measures when there is one.

Scalability Social media outlets allow a real-me flow of informaon that can grow exponenally. For instance, Zappos.comhas very proacve customer service. If you search “Zappos customer service” on Twier, there will be numerous

results of people tweeng their praise about the high quality of their experiences. As a result, all of thosesubsequent tweeter’s followers are now exposed to the Zappos brand in a posive light.

We menoned the concept of “reach” in our eBook “The 9 Social Media Metrics Marketers Need to Know.”Reach is how many people your brand gets in front of, or how many opportunies your brand has to incite aconfrom potenal customers or clients.

It goes without saying that when you start out in social media, your presence will be limited. One of your moreimmediate goals should be to expand that presence both within a parcular channel, and, if your resources allowfor it, to expand to mulple channels. This increases the number of places that people can interact with you, andtherefore expose your brand to their own networks.



ww.awarenessnetworks.com

Social Media Markeng Strateg

Low-cost

Another big selling point is the low cost of social media. Aside from having someone responsible for managing the brandpresence, the infrastructure is already there. You do not have to build your own proprietary soware and then build upemail lists, and so forth. Whether you’re using Twier, Facebook, or another plaorm, most of the accounts are free to setup, and the technology is already in place, all you have to do is sign up and commit your resources in terms of me andmanpower.

There are also situaons where social media is an extremely effecve and low cost way to send a message to a broad userbase. Recently in Boston, Comcast internet servers were down for a lengthy period of me. Instead of waing 30 minutes onan customer service call, those users that checked Comcast’s Twier page quickly learned that the service was temporarilydown and they were already working on it, thus relieving the customer of needing to wait on hold, and also saving Comcastthe me and cost of a team of customer service representaves by reaching the masses with one fell swoop.

Measurability

Measuring ROI is a crucial part of markeng programs, and one that’s heavily relied upon by execuves as a measure of success. ROI measurement in social media markeng had been difficult to pinpoint when the field first started, but it’smatured significantly. Sll, quesons arise such as “how are we going to measure revenue and profitability from a Facebookpage?”

You can address this upfront when you’re developing your set of goals and objecves for social media use. Make sure that

each one is not only aainable but also measurable. Luckily, it’s oen mes easier to measure social media componentsthan it is to measure tradional markeng plaorms. Nearly every plaorm has built in its own measurement capabilies.This is one place where a Social CRM tool with built-in analycs becomes helpful, as it will centralize this process for you.

Once you access this informaon, it’s your job to line that available data up with your overall goals, but you won’t be at a lossfor logical data points to line up with your objecves.s and familiarity with your audience, which ulmately leadsto a higher level of brand image and loyalty.



Conclusion

Social media can be an extremely accessible and powerful tool if your plan is executed well. Companies that shy

away from social media and other forms of emerging new media will find it hard to be on the forefront of markeng

success.

Presenng the concept to the decision-makers of your organizaon is your chance to demonstrate this andulmately introduce a new but highly effecve way to reach many of your markeng goals.

There are a few things to remember when entering the social media space, and they’re issues that you should be

prepared to address with those decision-makers:

- Create a plan that starts small, scales up, and has measurable goals

- Think about any possible risks you are taking on, financially and brand safety-wise, and have a plan of acon for

each of them

- Be careful. Once it’s out there, it’s out there

- One of the most frustrang things for users is believing that their input or suggesons will never be considered.

Even the simplest acknowledgment makes users feel more connected

When aempng to get your execuve team on board for a social media plan, remember to directly address the

concerns and doubts we’ve discussed, as well as present the beneficial points.

When all is said and done, social media can go where many other tradional markeng strategies cannot in terms

of direct feedback, scalability, and measurability. All you need to do is sell it to your organizaon’s execuves, and

you’re on your way!

The Awareness Social Markeng Hub

The Awareness Social Markeng Hub helps marketers publish, manage, and measure their markeng across key social

media channels, and helps marketers engage with users around that content. The Hub has support for the most

important social markeng channels in use by enterprises today, including Foursquare, Facebook, Twier, YouTube, Flick

and branded online communies.

The Awareness Social Markeng Hub offers some groundbreaking benefits to enterprises that are looking to get serious

about social media markeng. Benefits include:

• Control your social media publishing with enterprise-grade permissioning, workflow, and audit controls

• Centralize your social media strategy and execuon to coordinate product, business unit and corporate

messages• Use social media to engage throughout the enre customer life-cycle

• Engage and interact directly with the people who are talking about your social markeng campaigns

• Measure success across social media channels

For more informaon see hp://www.awarenessnetworks.com/why-the-hub

www.awarenessnetworks.c




© 2011 AWARENESS, INC.

Awareness, Inc.

25 Corporate Drive, Suite 390

Burlington, MA 02451

United States

Tel: 1 781-270-240

Contact Informaon:

Awareness Canada

5050 South Service Road, Suite 100

Burlington, ON L7L 5Y7

Canada

Tel: 1 866 487 5623Fax: 1 905 632 4922

Awareness builds social markeng management soware for marketers leveraging mulple social

channels to engage with customers, build their brand, and increase revenues. Built upon Awareness’

deep experse powering the social media strategies of over 200 brands including Sony, Brish Telecom,

Comcast Sports Group, Fairmont Hotels CurrentTV, Kodak and AIRMiles, the Awareness Social

Markeng Hub helps marketers publish, manage, and measure their markeng acvies across key

social media channels, and engage with users around that content. The Hub has support for the most

important social markeng channels in use by marketers today, including foursquare, WordPress,

Facebook, Twier, YouTube, Flickr, and branded online communies. For more informaon and to

request a demo, please visit: hp://www.awarenessnetworks.com

About Awareness

social marketing software

Documents

Selling Social Media to Executives