The question of how to get the C-suite supporting the use of social media is still a fairly common one, and it’s no surprise, really — while adoption rates are ever increasing, many organizations are still in the early phases of social media integration, and executive teams aren’t yet convinced of the benefits of these platforms.

Before you go any further with your social media program, make sure you’ve got these pieces in place to ensure your C-Suite is clearly seeing the impact social media is having on your internal teams and on your brand. Without them, you’ll be hard pressed to get continued support of your work.

1. Clear Goals We continue to drive this point home because too few folks get started in social media with any end-goal and reason for (social media) being in place. Why do you need to start a blog? Why do you need a branded community? Why do you need a Facebook page? State as concisely as possible why your organization needs to get involved in social media, set reasonable goals to reach, and amend those as necessary.
2. Allocated Resources One of the hurdles of social media adoption is the belief that if employees are given the chance to access social networks, they’ll abuse their privileges and spend all day on them. To allay that fear, provide a thorough list of who will be participating in social media on your company’s behalf and the hours they’ll be spending doing so to your executive team. Include in that list steps you will be taking to streamline your social media processes and draw timelines to those steps so executives will know when to expect budget requests for platform implementation or changes to team tasks.
3. Timeframes In some instances, you’ll have to test the social media waters and prove their value to your executives before going full steam ahead with a fully integrated social media plan. Create a short-term plan and set a timeframe around it in which you’ll show your executive team specific goals reached, additional findings that could be capitalized on in the future, and any drawbacks that might have shown up in your efforts. Essentially, you’ll be doing a timed experiment, so develop your hypotheses and timeframes, and deliver an experiment analysis at the end.
4. Exit Door Have a plan developed and ready to show your executives for gracefully exiting the social media space if necessary. People inherently don’t like feeling locked into a project or plan, so give them a way out. You can exit social media without a ruckus if you do it gracefully and with candor, and your executives will want to see that’s possible. Give them your clear and detailed plan for doing so.
5. Tailored Reports Rarely will there be a situation in which your executives will want to see the results of every single thing you’re tracking. Establish early on what, exactly, your C-Suite needs to see, and keep it fairly short. In your report, give them a glimpse of what is working, some of the challenges your facing, and how you’ll be handling the positive and negative results moving forward. Also identify a reporting schedule that works for them. The key is to not overwhelm them with data; show them what matters and move on.
6. Tailored Listening Dashboard Sometimes your executives will want to peek into the stream, but if they’re not totally familiar with social media, that peek could be overwhelming and time intensive at best. If possible, create a “personalized” listening dashboard for your C-Suite that offers them a chance to see what’s happening around your brand and industry on the social web without bogging them down.
7. Encouragement Sound fluffy? Human nature indicates that the best way people understand and “buy into” something is by experiencing it themselves. Encourage your executive team to participate in social media, at first on a personal level. In time, if they show the desire to interact on the social web on behalf of your brand, work with them to create a general plan for interaction. Provide training if needed, and be available to answer any questions.

Like with any new platform, adoption and support of social media takes some coaching. What else would you add to this list? Would you amend or take any of these suggestions off the list? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

Tags: social media and the C-suite, social media business case