DISQUS

HelloChris · 1 year ago

Great article. Now is the time for companies to get on board because the more time you allow for social media investing the greater chance of compound interest.

I would also like to see an article on the topic of how small businesses can creatively use twitter.

Stephane Lee · 1 year ago

Chris,

About n°3 : If it is free or cheap, why do you tell your boss ?
Boss usually care about real things, you know, things that cost a lot ;-)

Best,

Stephane.

Adam Singer · 1 year ago

"Cost of implementing a blog is free or cheap. No more than $100 for a year of hosting. And most software is free. (There are some benefits from professional blogging software, but for most people, free is plenty fine). "

Sure, but the hours necessary to contribute to make your site effective will cost far more (yes, plenty of returns) but do keep in mind there is more cost to this than purely hosting.

If you're trying to get the idea approved be prepared to come back and be honest with the time commitment - otherwise you may get yourself in something pretty deep and still have other responsibilities as well.

Niko · 1 year ago

gosh, its the hardest thing to do, while u wanna add some value to your company, there is a big obstacle front of u!
Boss!!!
i have been already rejected couple of times, but will try this advices....
http://greekmind.wordpress.com

Adrianne Machina · 1 year ago

Just the article I was looking for! And to answer Stephane, your previous commenter, the reason you have to get your bosses' permission/buy-in is because most bosses don't want their employees IM'ing and on MySpace all day. I'm going to forward this article to a couple of my clients who are "very corporate" and with my direction are just starting to dabble in the social media space.

Ari Herzog · 1 year ago

What is the value of having a blog in lieu of a quote-unquote Web 1.0 website, per #3 above? Shouldn't firms have both to both display non-changing data but also interact with people about the static list? Moreover, there will always be associated costs, e.g. owning a custom domain for your blog and not associating your business with company.wordpress.com; not to mention some firms may want to host their blogs on their own servers so they own the content.

paul merrill · 1 year ago

Thanks, Chris - some great ideas. I'm going to bring it to my work.

gregorylent · 1 year ago

social media will kill your company if your company is an idiot. the whole world will know it.

it is a tool of exposure, not of correction.

gregorylent · 1 year ago

maybe that is what you have in mind, though. i shouldn't presume ... :-)

natalieatDELL · 1 year ago

Great List! Very helpful for companies of all sizes thinking of heading the social media route. On number 2, I would recommend adding forums. Blogs are a great way to announce the fix to a popular issue, but forums can be a better place for users to help companies identify issues before they even hit the call centers (i.e. long before there is a fix to announce on a blog). In addition, customers will often resolve each others issues through communication back and forth in forum threads. This is a big support benefit you don't get from blogs.

Mike Volpe - HubSpot · 1 year ago

Great Post! I wrote something similar a while back, and I even created a PowerPoint presentation that you could give to your boss to help convince him or her that social media and inbound marketing is a worthwhile investment.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/292...

Zane Safrit · 1 year ago

As always, an excellent post.

One suggestion: quantify it. For each point, quantify its impact. Show that boss the cost savings or increase in revenues each way will produce.

Cash is king. Cash makes kings. Quantify how each of these ways will add cash and you'll be the king.

Tine Steiss · 1 year ago

In my experience it´s easy to sell it to your boss by the common "buzzword, buzzword, buzzword" strategy, which works for most bosses. Your list is needed to explain why to put real time and effort in it and you can´t do it in 5 minutes a day, which is the real hard part to me.

Joan Stewart, The Publicity Ho · 1 year ago

Here's another way to sell it to the boss.

Social media is a great way to spy on the competition. You can read the writing on their Facebook walls, see what projects they're working on over at Twitter, and learn what questions they are answering at LinkedIn. Also find out how many times their answers have been flagged "best answer."

GodMode · 1 year ago

Great article. Blogging is definitely a great platform for going corporate online. It is also a cheap yet effect way to go global if used correctly.

justin hunt · 1 year ago

Good advice and we need more in this area. I find a good way of letting organisations know they need to adopt social media is to show them examples of how their customers are talking about them online and also to show them examples of how other companies are using social media. I don't think it is worth emphasising it is cheap. I think it is more to do with focusing on the need to be part of social media. Media is social. It is by the people for the people and companies need to get involved otherwise they will be left to talk to themselves.

Michelle · 1 year ago

Agreed that social media is something many companies should be considering, but another step in the process of getting management buy-in is the drafting of company-specific protocols for social media communications. What can be said, when, by whom, where, etc.

It will probably be easier to get approval by at least acknowledging that this step will be taken.

Jim @ jaxtr · 1 year ago

I really like your point about how some companies are using tools like identi.ca to enhance productivity. I think companies have almost as much to gain in their interactions with customers on the Web as they do in being able to communicate more effectively internally through a number of these micro-blogging, wiki, and instant messenging tools.

Mark Harrison · 1 year ago

> Cost of implementing a blog is free or cheap. No more than > $100 for a year of hosting. And most software is free.
> (There are some benefits from professional blogging
> software, but for most people, free is plenty fine).

Of course, in order to be effective, blogs need to be updated and comments responded to.

Or have I missed something here - is the US Job Market so bad that "community managers" work for nothing?

If I look at the time I spend blogging personally, and look at how much that "costs" in my charge-out rate, then my blog "costs" several TENS of THOUSANDS of pounds each year. The reason I blog, however, is that it's led to exposure and indeed income that otherwise I'd not have had.

Andy Dunbar · 1 year ago

Good list. I wanted to add that blogging also helps create awareness for your brand by posting comments on other blogs which are leaders in your industry.

Romain · 1 year ago

Thanks for your post. But you seem to say engaging with social media effort doesn't cost much. Which is eventually not accurate. It costs time (as says Mark Harrisson above). And needs the company to get accompanied (you job right?). Which also costs. Tech doesn't make it all, we all know that well. To go through your points:
1. Social media isn't more effective, but would target more accurately your consumers. And it depends of the level of the Internet knowledge people in charge have. Can turn to be a waste of time if you need to manage and monitor all their actions (remember you're giving those people the company credit and reputation when they're speaking for you outside the box)
3. Implementing a blog is cheap or free. Right. And experience curve to well blogging? how much does it cost? Time to evangelize within the company to show blogging has added value. How much does it cost? Software and hosting does do nothing. Human being in front of the computer (when not outside being a representative) costs.
9. Blogging helps a company differentiate and establish a thought leadership position: ok but only if the company's mindset already like that. Blogging is about exposure, not changing mindset
11. Building Social Network Group increase retention rate: to do so you need a community manager to maintain and stimulate the group, which takes time (you know the rhyme)

Engaging with social media efforts takes time and needs company to get ready to jump. But then, it's all about ROI ;)

Yves Marie Danie Baptiste · 1 year ago

Social media is a great way to stay competitive. If you don't stay 10 steps ahead of your competition then you will surely DIE. They will swoop down hard on you and steal your customers if you still believe "twitter" is a delicacy in Mali.

Marti · 1 year ago

Those are excellent suggestions - thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much for stopping by - I love hearing from my friends!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Marti_L from Twitter

Maria Elena Duron · 1 year ago

A thought provoking post especially for the uses of social media it brings us face to face with. It gives some crucial ideas to survive and succeed in online business. We get the point very clear that social media is indispensable for every business and we can not afford to miss out on this relatively important business tool, otherwise, we may be left out. To stay competitive and keep our customers hooked to our business like never before, the tools of social media like social networks, blogging and social bookmarking come handy due to their global impact. Blogging especially is a great platform for going online as it is an effective way to create awareness about your brand and differentiate your business. We get information about what our customers have to say about our business so as to improve on our weak points and also get them acquainted about how other companies are using social media. Social networking sites come with the added advantage of providing best product marketing to a wider audience. So, all you corporates looking for ways to enhance your success, here is the recipe from Chris Brogan, use social media and get your business see new heights! Anyone listening….

Mahesh · 1 year ago

Nice post man....

Kelli Matthews · 1 year ago

Not just helpful for boss-convincing but also for student-convincing. I get a lot of "deer in headlights" looks when I broach social media for the first time with students, I think this is a great list for hitting some of the key reasons why it should matter to them, too. Thanks!

Business For Sale · 2 months ago

Social media is gaining fast attention, and the results achieved by many will be the good selling point for those who don’t see social media in a nice way.

Business Sales · 4 weeks ago

Great information. It's very intelligent to stay up with technology and to find new ways to reach out to your customers.

ukjobs · 2 weeks ago

A few days back, Chris Brogan did it again and put together a very insightful and helpful blog post, specially for those folks who are not so sure about how to sell Social Computing to their managers and whoever else up in the management chain. And to that effect he put together "Twelve Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss", which, in case you may not have seen it, is a very good read, indeed, to get plenty of good ideas on how you can bring up the conversation with your manager.


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