9 Ways To Convince The CEO To Use Social Media and Enter The 21st Century

What is the purpose of using fear tactics to deliver a message to a CEO? To scare them into action or challenge their egos?

Here is a suggested approach if your goal is for CEO’s to embrace the idea of developing a social media strategy – which should be step one before implementation.

Align your social media discussion with the mission of the organization. Help the CEO answer in his/her mind, how is the strategic and tactical use of social media going to either increase profit, decrease costs and/or increase client satisfaction. Ultimately, a CEO cares about money in their pocket.

Communications people need to think like a CEO which is the target market in this scenario. Understand CEO’s true needs, align the discussion with these needs, and you will find yourself in stronger position to present a business case that has a chance of moving forward.

Communications people – you may be the expert in your field, but you are not the target market for your message in this scenario.

Love love love it. Hit on the struggles faced by those of us transitioning from traditional marketing to social networking and trying to bring the decision makers with us! Thanks so much. And thanks, again, to @ShellyKramer for sharing this via Twitter!

I loved this! Thank you! I think this is also good advice for those marketing social networking services.

Great article! I think this is a great strategy and makes a lot of sense.

@ted, the approach you suggest, as an alternative to “scaring” makes sense and in fact I think all those points are well understood and employed. The question is more about what to do when all these types of left-brain approaches are exhausted and there is no “go ahead”?

(I’m thinking about larger organisations here, both business and government.) People with real business and organisational experience, who should be the ones proposing and helping with a true social media strategy (meaning not the “smartest” person from the Agency) understand that getting buy-in is an art. For something risky, you want to just get to the CEO NOT SAYING NO. Expecting endorsement is generally unrealistic, that’s not how the politics work. Then, if you have an “ok” your success depends on the team and support and buy-in and motivation and rewards of the people you pull together to make it happen. This is the layer at which real buy-in has to happen.

FUD Fear Uncertainly and Doubt has been in existence as long as IBM to get an OK from someone who is wavering on the left-brain logic. In social media there is ample opportunity and even need for some shock and awe to get people across the line of not saying NO. It’s just part of a kitbag of tools to mobilise complex cross-functional projects, nothing wrong or sinister, and then if the facts and alignment and logic are asked for you must also have those on hand.

@jeff social media strategic results don’t happen in the short term. If you set that expectation you will fail. In fact by creating short-term “success” which is buzz, and then seeing the reality that nothing of value has changed to the business, you set the scene for business failure in social media. You do not create customer equity value in the short-term, nor build a compelling customer experience, not brand depth, not employee motivation, transparency, and skills in social media as an integrated business process and asset. It takes time. It can be measured, but it still takes time effort and resources – that’s why a proper plan is required.

If you are talking about a twitter campaign for dry cleaners, that CAN work quickly and simply, and can also fail quickly and ignominiously, so a little care and planning is also needed.

Walter Adamson @g2m
Social Media Academy, Australia
http://www.socialmedia-academy.com.au

CEOs who are not aligned to a social media strategy need data and facts to guide them to make an informed decision. Jeff, I think you are spot-on and agree that you need to provide compelling reasons for the CEO. But as an executive coach who as worked with man y many executives, I’ve seen up close and personal one very powerful strategy: alignment to their vision.

When you can show that a social media strategy not only can accelerate growth but also bring the CEO’s vision closer to reality, you’re in like flint! Great post!
Loraine Antrim, Co-founding partner, Core Ideas Communication

Would like to include your post on our site http://www.socialmediadj.com under business..
How could we do that?

I presented on this topic – “Why CEOs Are Scared of Social Media” – at IABC World conf in San Francisco in June 09. As part of a 2.5hr session, I used this clip to illustrate the rise in techs and attitudes of Web2.0 stakeholders – sure helps scare C-suite types:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LzR6pCdtoA
Good work, Gerry

Ouch! Thanks for a great post but I work for a Yellow Pages company.

Interesting post, the only thing I see missing is that it doesn’t address two key factors from the original post (It is detrimental to employee productivity and security risks). Of the two, the selling part I’m having a hard time selling is the addition of security risks. The weak response by sites such as Facebook and Myspace in failing to take responsibility for 3rd party apps and the possible inadvertent posting of company sensitive information are hard sells around here. Under employee productivity, it isn’t so much an issue of allowing them to do it on company time (because we already allow web access for a number of reasons), but the increase in costs due to bandwidth being spent on social media. If you could point to studies that deal with security risks and how to deal with them in social media and ways to ensure bandwidth isn’t taken away from critical projects by employee overuse of social media it would be great.
Thanks!

# Security risk

Well, this is all just bullshit, isn’t it? Of the 95% of businesses that are classified as small, how many have any need whatever for social media? Answer: virtually none.

Where is the thinking of writers like this coming from? Do they really think the local dress shop has any use at all for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or any of the other social environments when it comes to selling their local product? Again, the answer is: no.

All I ever see is copywriters, bloggers and speculators spouting the same rhetoric – get on the social bandwagon.. blah, blah, blah… bullshit.

For the time I would spend writing a stupid blog that no one in my town would read, or posting on Twitter again for nobody in my town, I could be out using traditional newspaper, local portals, email blasts to get a hundred times the response.

Great discussion here.

Great article encapsulating “ROI” as well as strategic steps for social media.
Interesting to see how simple “mini: case studies work well for making the case.
Still wondering about the numbers for social media i.e. smaller base but more influence or bigger base/more exposure/impressions. Does it depend on company type or content–interesting!
Thanks for article!
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/julie-schlax-patrick/1/709/424

Thanks for the great tips. I think that for most (70% or more) executive teams, these steps will absolutely work, but there is another group of executives who will–no matter what evidence–will have an opposition to social media that borders on religion. Just like I could never convert someone from being Catholic to Jewish, there are just some executives who are so stubborn in their preconceived notions about Social Media that nothing will convince them.

I wasn’t sure what to do when I ran into this situation, so I at least tried to joke about it–losing social media was kindof like losing a loved one, so I thought I would manage it the same way I would manage that sort of loss; I went through the five stages of grief. Maybe this post will make you smile if you are in a similar situation: http://internalsocial.com/what-about-when-the-executives-say-no

Thanks for another insightful post Jeff! Using social media will one day be a no-brainer, but until then, using information like you’ve outlined is a great strategy to get ‘the powers that be’ on your page. Ultimately, I tell people that social media channels are your tools for relationship management – they give you the platform to be where your customers are, when they are there! Oh, and thanks for the tip on Tweetbeep – I’m going to try it out!

I really like what you said “There are many other angles a company could take once the door of thinking like a customer is opened.”

I tell people that social media channels are your tools for relationship management – they give you the platform to be where your customers are, when they are there! Oh, and thanks for the tip on Tweetbeep – I’m going to try it out!

I am a communications assistant that works for an executive who is very resistant to social media and online networking. It’s taken several months of a forced Google Alert for him to even begin to submit to the fact that the internet has tons of content that he should really be aware of.

All very good points and generally persuasive.  The arguments remind me of the mid nineties trying to convince CEOs about the importance of the internet – ie the burning platform syndrome.  And like the internet you have to marry the benefits and flexibility of the capability to the big challenges that a CEO is currently facing.  Ask a CEO what their top 3-5 goals are and then create a vision of how Social Media can bring value to any one of them, obviously the higher up the priority the more likely you are to be successful.  If you cant gain traction on those goals, seek out someone on his staff responsible for Business Development or Strategic Planning and work on their priority lists.  You can only get traction when the value proposition is visible.

you have no idea what you opened my mind to. thanks a lot

Most meaningful, Jeff, (1) is all it took: I just showed the Marketing VP at a company what his 5 top competitors were doing with their web-site linking to Social Media…….I got a invite back to meet with his management team. THX