Adam Burns
Barriers to Corporate Social Media Adoption
V/O
If social media really is a revolution, then a lot of businesses are still fiddling while Rome burns. But why? What are the real barriers to corporate adoption, and how can you make your company a social media success? We asked a series of experts for their two most common challenges, and their solutions. This is what they said…
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1. Fear of Public Complaints
Nick Baker, Executive General Manager Marketing, Tourism Australia
I think one of the biggest problems you get with large corporations and social media is fear and that fear is born out of, I don't necessarily want – how am I gonna deal with people when they're saying bad things about me – and I think the reality is that people are saying bad things about everybody and the philosophy is if you have a chance to answer that, you have a chance to turn things around. It's an old philosophy but it's the right philosophy. It is there, so adopt it and be part of it.
Matt Hehman, Director of Sales, Facebook ANZ
When it comes to the individual users and the people that can engage with you, it's about planning and understanding, you know, what is your brand comfortable with? What kinda conversations do you want to allow? And then what kind of conversations do you want to take part in because not everything that's written about your brand on any social media site needs to be responded to but there are ones that lend themselves to great conversations that they should be a part of.
MeetTheBoss TV Fix:
YouTube.com – Adam Brown, Exec. Dir. for Social Media at Dell
Mashable.com – Stellar Social Media Customer Service
V/O
In 2005, Dell was in hell. Today it wins award after award for its social media powered customer service, reputation management and sales process. Search for Dell’s Adam Brown on YouTube to find out how they turned things around. Talking of awards, one of the world’s largest websites is social media blog Mashable.com. Its ‘stellar social media customer service’ awards provide plenty of case study inspiration.
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2. Education
Greg Savage Global CEO, Firebrand Talent Search
Definitely the biggest barriers are lack of take-up by senior management. I mean I think for a company to truly adopt social media for marketing or recruitment or anything else, it has to be from the top down.
Tom Skotidas, Director, Skotidas
I think that only a few understand social media and as a result, it can't proliferate within organizations. Senior executives, at some point, will have to trust middle managers and junior managers, all of whom have a voice and all of whom can become ambassadors for the brand. They will need to invest in training and policy to help the entire organization, really, even down to the receptionist, understand how to communicate through social media, promote the brand, build the brand, and help the company grow in terms of its market share.
Mike Hickinbotham, Senior Advisor for Social Media, Telstra
I think the barrier is education. People are still trying to figure out what they can use it for. So there's a lotta hype but people are still trying to figure out how to align that to achieve your business objectives, particularly since the people that are in the senior positions and decision-makers in general have probably come up through the mass media top-down approach and this is very much a bottom-up, organic growth areas or medium. So there's an education process as well as the fact that you're not going to get the mass numbers like you would through television or print or any other sort of paid advertising.
MeetTheBoss TV Fix:
Mashable.com – 5 Surprising Social Media Business Success Stories
Alisterpaine.info – An Executive’s Guide to Social Media
A reputable digital media conference
V/O
If your senior team don’t know what social media can do, they need to find out – and fast. Start by reading 5 surprising social media business success stories on Mashable.com, and then an executive’s guide to social media on Alister & Paine. Or you can get yourself to a really good conference, like we did.