There was one comment in particular that resonated with me after interviewing experts for Socially Minded: Convincing the C-Suite of Social Media’s Benefits, a recent report from The Conference Board (PR News, May 29). One expert told me: “You have to be a user of [social media]. If you’re not a user, you can’t possibly understand the power of it.”
When you consider that, according to CEO.com, 61% of Fortune 500 CEOs lack a social media presence, it’s unsurprising that social media can struggle to get the attention—and resources—of the C-suite.
That’s why the first step in Socially Minded suggests social media managers would benefit from helping their C-suite become social media users. I confess I struggled with this conclusion initially. I thought it would be too patronizing to tell successful business leaders that they needed to participate in social media if they already had decided that it wasn’t for their business.
But as I continued interviewing experts and exploring how social media is used at companies, I discovered that in some cases C-suite leaders were skeptical of social media simply because they feared the unknown. It’s a simple fact: The majority of C-suite leaders are part of a generation that uses social media less than younger generations. So I realized perhaps there was an element of this research that needed to outline several basic steps.
Why The C-Suite Should Be On Social
There are a number of reasons C-suite leaders should be on social media themselves:
•It elevates the C-suite as thought leaders in their industry and area of expertise, providing valuable exposure for the company, building reputation and helping top executives build a deeper relationship with important stakeholders who now are more than ever on social media themselves (journalists, for example).
•The executive will better understand what his or her teams are doing. For example, industry professionals widely acknowledge the importance of paid social media, yet many senior leaders continue to believe it’s a free tool.
•It gets leaders to start thinking about how social media can be used to elevate the business beyond marketing and communications: for example, to solve operational challenges or to encourage broader digital transformation.
•It helps leaders set an organizational culture in which social media is seen as a strategic business tool as opposed to a time waster.
I was also surprised to learn how much emphasis experts place on the influence of social media for government engagement. It’s not just about knowing what to do if the president mentions your company in a social media attack. It’s also about realizing that important economic, political and business discussions are happening on social media. Media relations teams that aren’t monitoring these news feeds in real time risk being flat-footed when a relevant story breaks. C-suite leaders need to be aware of this evolution in PR—and many are not.
Helping your C-suite become social media users and demonstrating the importance of social media for government engagement are key tactics. In addition, there is much to be said about how social media managers need to get into the heart of the business, figure out what the challenges are, showcase how social media can help solve those challenges and report back to the business in ways that matter to senior leaders (that means getting rid of the vanity metrics, such as likes, followers, etc., ASAP).
Spreading Social Through The Enterprise
To do this, I suggest looking to companies like Thomson Reuters, which developed a Digital Center of Excellence (DCOE) to increase the company’s digital capabilities, reduce risk and enable it to become a digital enterprise in support of its enterprise business goals.
To ensure the success of the DCOE throughout the business, Jen McClure, the savvy former VP of digital and social media, inserted herself into leadership groups around the company and, where they didn’t exist, established an advisory board with representation from around the organization. Having such a central function allows a company to clarify ownership of social media and demonstrate that it’s aligned with the business.
Other tips for getting C-suite buy-in for social include:
• Build an internal network that will help you find advocates who support your work at the highest levels. It will also help you ensure that you’re aligning metrics appropriately.
• Establish guardrails for social media use reflecting company culture and help instill confidence in leadership that risks are being mitigated, while also giving employees confidence that they know the boundaries.
Too often, social media is thought of only as a communications or marketing tool. While I acknowledge the importance of that for B2C companies, there needs to be a discussion about the broader benefits that accrue to B2C and B2B companies alike. These benefits include helping drive digital transformation by allowing the collection and sharing of data and information and by providing solutions to business problems by connecting people.
A word about ROI and social media. ROI necessitates a conversation about financial benefits and often the benefits of social media don’t have a direct financial consequence—but they have a business consequence.
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