What Happens When You Don’t Have Executive Level Buy-in For Your Social Media Project?

by Alan Belniak on August 26, 2010 · 8 comments

in business, Social Media

empty podium - source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/evrtstudio/
Much has been said about gaining that critical element of support from executives on your social media plan, initiative, or campaign.  I believe (and espouse this), as do others.  Read any current social media blogger theses days (including yours truly), or just do a generic Google search on ‘executive buy in social media‘.  Surely this is an important step, because it gives the initative some credence, lets others know there’s a reason they should participate, too, and that the idea has been well-thought-out.

But what if your social media plan, initiative, or campaign doesn’t have senior-management buy-in?

What do you do?

  • Do you stop right there, knowing or hunching that it won’t go anywhere?
    • If so, then what?
  • Do you forge ahead, hoping to gain momentum along the way, and hope for a mid-campaign meeting where you can change the tide?
  • Or do you forge ahead, skip the mid-campaign meeting anyway, and just forget about that buy-in all together?
    • What are your responses to the detractors in each case?
  • What if your entire job is social media, and it’s not just a plan, initiative, or campaign?
    • As a pre-emptive reply, I’m not saying this is necessarily the case where I work at the moment – I’m merely raising it because I thought abut it today.

Please take 60 seconds and drop a comment – I’m really curious to see how we all handle this stuff.

image courtesey of http://www.flickr.com/photos/evrtstudio/


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  • http://virtualvector.com burhop

    OK, here’s my opinion. Like all things business, I think you have to show value. This is hard when you are more in the “visionary” stage and there is no track record to back you up.

    If you believe you are right, “stop[ing] right there” is not an option. The question is really how your forge ahead. “Hoping to gain momentum along the way” doesn’t sound quite right. Rather, I’d say, “forge ahead with smaller examples to begin to build a track record and show value”. Its an iterative process that either grows and builds confidence for everyone or demonstrates that sometimes management is right about these things :-)

    Like I said… just my opinion.

    Mark

  • http://www.facebook.com/john.chawner John Chawner

    It depends on exactly what you mean by buy-in. If social media is strictly forbidden at work, you can always create a social media presence for yourself as an individual. Just don’t give the impression that you’re doing it at work – do it at nights, weekends, during lunch. So yes, forge ahead. If by lack of buy-in you mean there’s a lack of enthusiasm, then it’s all about showing some results, some ROI.

    If your entire job is social media and you don’t have executive buy-in, look for another job.

  • Anonymous

    Mark, great point. Building the track record and showing little bits of progress is enough to keep the interest warm (or move it from cold to warm, anyway). This presumes, though, that said management can be swayed bu chunks of iterative data.

  • Anonymous

    By “buy-in”, I mean general support of the initiative. For example, take the CMO: does she believe in ‘social’? Does she think it has a natural place in a traditional marketing mix? Is she funding it? Is she challenging her reports to work it into programs and campaigns and such? Is she, herself, social? Or is she merely saying it because it’s the word du jour?

    With respect to lack of enthusiasm, I’m not sure showing ROI would work. Sure, for some. I think others are generally just uninterested in it, and when they see their senior managers (in the example in this comment, the CMO) not engaging, it’s easier for them to not engage.

    To your last point: I agree. It will either be a sisyphean task, or a job that is short-lived.

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  • Rachel Nislick

    Lead by example is what I say. Be consistent and repetitive in the things you say and do WRT to social media. Speak up and be an advocate for SM. Wherever possible cite ROI although that is harder to do. (i.e. citing the number of twitter impressions and reach vs. let’s say an in person event is very convincing if you say it again and again.) The lead by example thing is really important. You and KR turned me on to Foursquare, for example. So much of social media is try-it-out. Once unconvinced CMOs see masses doing participate, s/he has to eventually catch on. It’s a slow process. Think globally, act locally!

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