How to persuade leaders to embrace social media—5 simple steps

One out of three organizations hasn’t adopted social media marketing for business objectives based on the 2010 State of Social Media for Business conducted by Smart Brief for Social Media and Summus Limited. While there are two major obstacles to social media usage, there are some relatively simple steps that can overcome these challenges.

Two hurdles to adopting social media

1. Lack of social media marketing support by decision makers.

One third of respondents cite not being the decision maker as the reason that social media marketing isn’t used in their organization. Additionally, 15 percent of respondents noted management resistance (Note: Survey allowed multiple answers.)

Given that senior management may be reticent to admit their lack of social media savvy, one way to get them on board would be to offer special one-on-one social media support with an expert or to train a group of senior managers together. Getting management comfortably using social media would help expand the firm’s use of social media as a business tool.