Change cannot be defined and shouted out in the confines of a board room. Successful change must be communicated in a clear, concise way to capture the minds and hearts of the entire organization. When getting started in social media, you cannot dismiss and ignore an organization’s fears about social media engagement. Social media success is dependant upon a drastic change in corporate culture’s thinking and execution process. Already we have addressed three out of eight steps as defined by leading change management thinker, John Kotter – increasing the level of urgency, building the guiding team, and establishing a relevant vision.

Now that urgency has been established, a team in place to lead, and a relevant vision is established to guide the way, how do you communicate the vision for buy-in?

1. Keep it simple – Speak the language of your organization…no, not the acronym or business lingo. Think of water cooler and coffee break discussions. Communicate concisely and establish an emotional bond by explaining how their buy-in will address their concerns and anxieties.
2. Cut through the clutter – In the same vein as keeping it clear and concise, communicate the vision in channels outside of the norm to help generate excitement. Go beyond the memos and form emails and find ways to incorporate their feedback. We are talking about social media integration, so consider how to incorporate these new tools within your organization first. Give your folks the warm and fuzzy of internal dialogue before opening up to external communities.
3. Sell solutions – Be wary of selling the tools you will be using to implement change because these tools will evolve. Sell the solutions and how these new principles and change of thought processes will aid their workflow and align with their business goals.

What has successfully worked for your organization to create buy-in? What hasn’t worked?

Stay tuned for the remainder of change management steps and tips every Monday through this month and February!