Friday, November 13, 2009

Three Reasons why Social Media is still a Tough Sell

While there are many nimble and progressive organizations tapping in to the power of social media, some of the larger organizations move much slower to embrace change. Big companies have moved cautiously for generations. This is nothing new. What is interesting is the fact that despite the state of the current economy, and the economic benefits inherent in investing in innovative social media strategies and related technologies, many companies are slow to embrace this new frontier.

While many corporations and non profit organizations are certainly making forays into social media, there are countless numbers of large corporate organizations who for one reason or another are still sitting on the fence. While there is much discussion going on in the boardrooms and backrooms, many firms are grappling with how they can fit this in to the picture without losing the control they hold so dear. Instead of jumping in, they're still standing on the edge of the pool, dipping a toe in the water and trying to find their reflection.

Getting some companies — especially big, conservative and highly corporate entities to add social media into the marketing mix is still very much a hard sell. We have been wrestling with some of our best clients on this issue for years. Often, it is a classic battle waged between the old guard and the new. Eventually the X and Y generation will get their way, but it will take some time yet.

Here are three of the top reasons why some firms are not moving forward any time soon and perhaps a few suggestions on how you may be able to nudge things forward so you can get on with it once and for all.

1- Loss of Control
Consultants try make social media appear lawless and untamed.
Consultants, eager to prove the viability of social media in the marketing mix, are overwhelming some of the more conservative organizations by making social media sound more complex and more of a wild west free spirited frontier than it actually is. This creates a culture of fear around things they do not understand. Fear translates into discussions on how firms can protect themselves from this beast instead of how they can tame it, leverage its power and put it go good use on behalf of the organization. Fear based on erroneous perceptions about the realities of social media is hampering the firms ability to embrace it and move forward.

A lot of consultants are making the mistake of trying to make what they do sound like a cross between high art and nuclear physics. Their goal, I suppose, is to make their clients feel there is no way they could enter the social media space and tame this wildebeaste on their own. This is clearly short sighted and benefits no one.

Social media is not rocket science

Just like any comprehensive marketing strategy, there are some standard tools and a collection of elements that are necessary to bring together and focus  collaboratively towards achieving some common goals. It is not that complex once you know the component parts and how best to leverage them. And even if it was complicated on the surface, breaking things down to simpler terms and making it easy for the client to understand will win every time.

The best teacher I ever had in High School taught me physics. By breaking complex ideas down into terms that I could understand and then explain in real terms how these would apply in real world situations and why this knowledge would benefit me, he demystified it. He took the fear out of the equation. He made physics interesting for me to engage with, to pursue greater understanding of and inspired a keen enthusiasm for me to apply what I learned by myself.

As the Director of Marketing, or the person in charge of convincing the higher authorities of the merits of investing in Social Media—if you can do that for your boss, or the Managing Partners or the CEO, they'll love you for it. You just might see the light at the end of the tunnel and help the firm take those first baby steps towards embracing the change you have been fighting for for so long.


2- The bottom line is "Return on Investment"

All most companies really care about is whether they can hit their financial targets for the next quarter. Cool factor may be a added bonus, but it's not the goal for most publicly held companies or a privately held law firm. Especially during challenging economic times, maintaining or growing market share, improving sales and achieving bottom line results is paramount.

Social media becomes strategically viable when - as blasphemous as this may sound to many self-titled Social Media "experts"—the ultimate goal of its integration into the marketing mix is to go beyond being cool and hip and actually help to expand awareness of your brand, reach out to new markets, re-inforce market positioning, build new and lasting relationships, create new customers and ultimately, sell more products and services. Social Media can help you achieve all of that for a lot less than the traditional marketing channels. The top brass are always interested in finding innovative ways to cut costs and add new customers. Build a business case that shows a better comparative return on investment to traditional channels and your boss will pay attention.

3- Too cool for school:
Firms worry that cutting edge social media won't fit in to the corporate culture of the firm.
Changing the status quo can take time and cause quite an upheaval in a company that has been dealing with status quo's for decades. Social Media Consultants need to work together with the Director of Marketing and relevant stakeholders and prove to management that they will not look or feel inadequate because they can't embrace change quickly enough.

Young, hip and uber cool social media consultants worry too much about making themselves look good and proving how smart they are. The role of a smart consultant is to focus on making the client look smart for hiring you.

There is a reason large organizations are cautious and approach change with hesitation; they have more on the line than the consultant does, and will have to live with the outcomes of any social media project much longer than the consultant will. Taking chances on new technologies always involves risk. Seek out opportunities, contemplate best and worse case scenarios, openly discuss the risks, anticipate the negatives and plan contingencies to quickly overcome them and you will mitigate or manage the risk as much as possible.

Over my 20 year career I've seen companies described as "stodgy and conservative" when they didn't drop all their big iron mainframes for a client-server architecture that was oversold. I've seen companies described as "stodgy and conservative" when they didn't invest millions of dollars in online marketplaces which disappeared in a puff of smoke when their creators went belly up in the dot.com implosion.

If I hear someone call a company "stodgy and conservative" because they prefer to sip the koolade rather than chug it tells me that someone doesn't understand the business needs of that company.

If you would like some help de-mystifying Social Media to the people standing in the way of your progress integrating it to the marketing mix, then please do not hesitate to e-mail FRANK or give us a call. We love social media and are really good at taking complex subject matter and making it easier to understand.

To find out more about the amazing work that we do in print, pixels and social media, Please visit FRANK online.

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