What to Do When Your B2B Company Rejects Social Media
Tue, Dec 1, 2009
We have written about uses of social media in B2B where passionate people took risks and leveraged their corporate capital to launch creative and innovative social media plans. But that’s not you. You have tried to convince management of the value of social media to no avail. There aren’t the resources. You just can’t get buy in. No matter how many blog posts you share showing large and small companies succeeding with social media, the bosses just won’t bite.
“Our customers aren’t on social media sites”
“Our competitors aren’t on social media sites”
“Only my kids use Facebook”
“I don’t want my employees on LinkedIn”
And you can’t even convince your boss to let you try a small pilot project. If you work at an agency or are a consultant, this is the point where you just walk away. There are some clients that you just can’t help and you move on.
But if you are a company employee, then you are operating under a different set of circumstances. You know, in your heart of hearts, that social media can help with lead generation, reduce costs and improve customer relations. It’s one thing to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, but this is a situation when everyone has said no. Forgiveness will not be forthcoming. What do you do?
You need to embark upon a stealth social media campaign using personal accounts on behalf of your company.
Did you just read what you thought you read? Yes. Sometimes the only way to prove something to management is to actually prove it. Since you are doing this against corporate mandate, the stakes are higher. If it doesn’t work, and no one finds out what you are doing, it’s no big deal. But if your plans are discovered before you can prove success, don’t point to this blog post. You are on your own.
Warning: Continue to read this post and follow its advice at your own risk. We are not responsible for red-faced, stapler-throwing bosses if you get caught practicing social media on your own time for the benefit of your company.
So if you are still interested in pursuing this course of action, here are some suggestions:
1. Set up a personal Twitter account
Follow others in your industry. Do not include your company name in your profile. Create some searches for industry terms that you can periodically check for relevant tweets. To keep this even more stealthy, only check Twitter on your smartphone, not on your company computer.
2. Create a blog and write about industry topics
Again, do not include your company name in your profile. As you connect with others, or you share posts with industry contacts (at your own risk), people will assume you are acting on behalf of the company. There is no need to tell them otherwise.
3. Leave comments on other blogs
This does not have to be stealthy, unless you link back to your secret blog. You are free to interact with others in the digital world as an employee of your company. It’s not really social media to leave a comment on a blog, right?
4. Answer questions on LinkedIn
Since your LinkedIn profile is current and up-to-date, you are representing your company when you do this. Pass along positive and helpful information to others on LinkedIn. This one is pretty easy to talk your way out of since it won’t appear like a coordinated plan.
5. Pass leads along to Sales
As you interact online, you will encounter prospects that you will want to get into the Sales funnel. This one is harder to disguise because you will be interacting with the Sales department. You can’t really lie and say you found these leads on the sidewalk out in front of the building, but you have to say something. Again, if it is not too many, you can just brush it off as you were doing some online searches and came across people asking questions. But remember, the point of this whole exercise is to demonstrate the value of social media. Too much subterfuge will make it harder to make your case later.
6. Test drive monitoring tools using free trials
Many monitoring tools have free trials so you can find the one that works best for you based on the results. Here’s a list of tools that you can review. These tools will allow you to show some data when you make your case.
Would you be willing to risk the ire of your upper management to prove the value of social media? Have you already done some of these things in a less stealthy manner?
Jeffrey L. Cohen is the Managing Editor of SocialMediaB2B.com. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @jeffreylcohen or on Google+.
Tags: blog, Blogging, linkedin, secret social media, Twitter
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It has taken a while, but one of the companies I work with is starting to take social media more seriously. What happened? Point 5 in your list. Being able to send leads to Sales (and pretty warm leads, after all the communication in forums and on Twitter) spoke more volumes than all the presentations and market research that I could put before anyone because they pretty much wrote my business case for investing time and effort into social media channels.
Fabulous article! I totally agree that stealth social media is a necessary “evil” for some businesses. However, there is that underlying “I told you so” that will probably never sit well with management no matter how many sales you generate.
Great job, Jeff!
Rochelle: It really is all about the leads. Social media must either generate sales or save money. The best way to demonstrate it’s value is by showing real ROI. The kind that is measured in dollars. The only way to show that is by doing it.
Janelle: Thanks for the comment. Sometimes you have to be stealthy to get things done. But the real point is that sometimes you just need to take action.
One of the big complaints I hear when discussing the topic of B2B companies and social media is “All of the examples people use are technology companies, of course they use social media.” Because of this common concern I like to use examples that are as industrial and non Internet technology focused as possible. I will not be the 1,000th person to write on Cisco’s newsroom, instead I am going to examine the Scania Group’s social media newsroom.
Jeffery:
This is EXACTLY what I did for my current employer on Twitter. After I showed what we were missing in terms of reputation management and what might be possible with customer service. I was able to receive approval from my manager to start using the company account that a previously set up. The tipping point for me to go to my manager was when one customer asked what was going on with the inactive “official” account.
I agree that we need to explore Social Technologies for B2B oriented businesses and that most of them will have no choice to sooner or later adopt SM.
BUT I think it is rather ill-advised to suggest that employees should embark on a “stealth” mission after their SM pitch got turned down by their supervisor. This could dramatically back-fire and lead to a conflict situation that make matters just worse.
My suggestion is to rather spend some time on the weekend and use trails of SM2 or Radian6 (as well as other tools) and run a solid assessment on SM media activity for your industry.
Where are your clients online?
How many post?
Where are the influencers?
What is your competition doing in SM?
How could SM activity impact your SEO strategy (work together with that team, they will love you)?
Take the results back and demonstrate that your clients are active in SM and that it is a competitive advantage for your business to be the best in that field.
Make an offer that no-one can refuse: Use trial accounts for tools that have no expense attached, use personal time to run a test and offer metrics that everyone agrees to…. You need top level buy-in to do this.
In my view this is much better than to run a “stealth” campaign and later have to explain to your boss why you acted against his/hers direct instruction.
B.
Stephen: Thanks for your comments. Of course, technology companies are easy examples for using social media. That’s why we try to find non-technology companies as well.
Rob: Some would say that my advice was a bit out there, so I am glad to hear that someone did something similar and managed to kick off some social media.
Boris: I absolutely appreciate your concerns about a stealth campaign, and I agree with you. There could be career damaging repercussions to taking that approach. Sometimes we write blog posts that take an extreme point of view to spark conversation and make a point. You suggestions for approaching this from a safer position are great. Thanks for contributing to the conversation.