Selling Social Media to Your Boss: A Seven-Step Plan Cynthia Closkey Big Big Design PCPGH4,...

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Selling Social Media to Your Boss: A Seven-Step Plan Cynthia Closkey Big Big Design PCPGH4, 10.10.2009

Transcript of Selling Social Media to Your Boss: A Seven-Step Plan Cynthia Closkey Big Big Design PCPGH4,...

Selling Social Media to Your Boss: A Seven-Step Plan

Cynthia Closkey

Big Big Design

PCPGH4, 10.10.2009

1. Start Listening

Monitor what is being said online– About your company– About your competitors– About your market

Don’t react yet; gather information– Look for trends– See who is participating– Get a feel for what’s happening

How to Listen & Measure

Your primary tool: “dashboard” of RSS feeds– Google & Google Blogsearch Alerts– Twitter Search– Technorati– YouTube

Bookmark key articles & data points Choose a few credible number sources

– Alexa– Quantcast

2. Align with Your Organization

Choose one of your organization's major objectives to address– No formal objectives? Articulate some: “Increase

sales,” “Increase market share,” “Reduce costs”

Determine how social media could help fulfill the objective – Online-only discounts -> Increased sales– Passionate customers -> Increased market share– Online discussion -> Lower support costs

3. Match Your Idea with Data

Choose data & examples (from step 1) that apply to organizational objective (from step 2)

Assess which social network will have the most value & impact in reaching the objective– Use Quantcast

4. Follow a Model

Choose an example of someone else doing something similar: case study

Map to your organization– Situation– Objectives– Actions– Results

5. Create a Proposal

Develop a plan for a pilot project– Simple, low-cost, focused– Finite duration– Measurable results

Create a one-page proposal– Goals– Costs and resources (including time)– Schedule– How you’ll measure results

6. Anticipate Objections

Prepare to answer questions & address concerns– Risks to the organization– Past experiences and how this differs– Organizational culture

Don’t include them in the proposal!– Put on a separate page for your reference

Common Objections/Questions

It’s all people saying what they had for lunch. Our customers aren’t online. What if someone writes something bad? Who has time for this stuff? What if it doesn’t work? This needs to go through

Marketing/Customer Support/Legal/etc.

7. Make Your Case

Present in a short, face-to-face meeting Let her/him ask questions Be ready with answers Admit what you don't know Uncover the hurdles

– “If I addressed that concern, would you say yes?”

More Resources

“How to sell social media to cynics, skeptics, & Luddites,” Robin Broitmanhttp://www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com/blog1/how-to-sell-social-media-to-cynics-skeptics-luddites-tips-resources-advice/

“Social Media Case Studies Superlist,”

Robin Broitman http://www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com/blog1/social-media-examples-superlist-17-lists-and-tons-of-examples/

Fallback Plan

Send boss to our workshop: Social Media: What Every Executive Needs to Know (& your employees already know!)

http://socialmediaexec101.eventbrite.com

Contact me

Cynthia Closkey– Big Big Design (www.bigbigdesign.com)– [email protected]– @cynthiacloskey on Twitter