My take on the kerfuffle with National Rental Car and Chapstick and theory that the blame lay with management resulted in some good, interesting feedback.  Thanks, guys. I postulated that likely, with MAJOR consumer brands, the fault lies in bad decisions made by higher-ups that overrule or ignore the advice of the internal social media evangelist(s).   I can’t imagine that a major brand would pick someone out of his mom’s basement or elevate someone who is completely compliant or clueless about listening and building social media-based dialogue with stakeholders.  I could be wrong, though, because you can’t fix stupid.

So with that out of the way, like many of us who have worked in social media before it was called social media, what do you do when you run into roadblocks and brick walls- mindsets on the part of clients, or harder, internal bosses that either ignore the good advice you have given them, are afraid of it, ignore it, or simply veto it?

There are zero easy answers and perhaps the clearest answer depends upon how much you are invested in your job, your brand or its place in your corporate or client’s communication program.  In short, how hard do you fight, and how?  Having found myself in this situation many, many times, I’ve come up with some suggestions that may help you from going insane when you know you are right but simply can’t get decision-makers to listen.

I covered part of this is a much snarkier post I wrote in November 2008 entitled “How to Sell Social Media to Your Dumbass Boss.”  Some of the precepts I laid out I still believe are true, but having gone from client work to in-house, my views have evolved somewhat.  Here’s my advice when you hit the social media reluctance brick wall:

1. Like any good social media program, your first task is to listen.  Before you tip your hand too much in the direction you want to go, give a “soft sounding” to the person who can either be an ally or an obstacle. Determine what her objections are likely to be and think carefully about how to refute them.  But like a good lawyer, when you are building your case, think carefully about the evidence presented and how you will react to this.  And this is only internal listening.  To the extent that you can, listen to those who are important to your clients or your organization, and find out what they are interested in and from where they get their information.
2. When and where possible (and this is perhaps the most important point of all), get a commitment/dedication to social media as part-and-parcel to your organization’s efforts from the most senior person you can.  Think about it:  legal will want to own it, IT may well want to own it if you are building in-house tools, your communications shop will want to own it, and higher-ups will want to parachute in at the last minute and offer meaningless advice (and I have gotten this one day prior to a site launch) “Black just isn’t really a business color. Change it.”   All of this means that there will be some refereeing that needs to take place and the more senior level commitment you have, the better chances you have to move in the right direction.  Frankly put:  if you are going to get into a pissing match with people who want to own the social media function, have a big person who has your back.
3. Be a teacher first and an evangelist second.  My experience has been that the more senior people are in an organization (and I mean internal and external clients), the more removed they are from truly understanding how you can augment, extend and improve your organization’s communications efforts through a good social media program.  This is not true in all cases, but (insert eye-roll here), “my daughter has the Facebook” is actually a teaching moment.  This is an opportunity to point out that personal and business social media accounts have different objectives, purposes and desired outcomes.  This may not always work, but if you find a generational gap, you have the opportunity to have what we used to euphemistically call a “teaching moment.”  Not all teaching sticks, however.Also, when you are teaching, remember to use benefit-oriented statements and language that people will understand.  When you introduce or explain Twitter, an explanation of “a micro-blogging platform with a 140 character limit” will ultimately result in a glazed over look, especially if you are dealing with a knowledge or generation gap.  Something that may lead to more success would be a statement like “Twitter is a place online where people can follow us and hear what we have to say.  And we can link back to our Web site, drawing more traffic.  Plus, it’s free.”
4. Know thine enemy.  You know it’s coming.  You have seen it.  Like a monster who hides in the closet or under your bed, higher-ups who either are afraid to try or expand on or begin with social media, don’t understand it or are just plain obstructionist, you are going to get the “What’s the ROI on this?”  Suppress your instinct for the eye roll and try explaining that some things can be measured while others cannot.  ”Return on investment” is in and of itself a vague term.  What is a return?  A sale?  An impression?  A plate of pasta? Once that is out of the way, one of the hardest conversations to have and get across is that not everything can be measured. Listening, creating feedback, engaging in dialogue may or may not be measurable. This is tricky.  If you are pressed,  and especially working in-house, I use the (ducking here) metric of cost per contact.  I take the total expenditures of something that I measure divided by the number of measureable interactions.  This is a slippery slope because a Web site visit does not mean engagement – you know it and I know it- but if someone wants a statistic, give them a bone to chew on.  And gently suggest that in something like marketing, it’s also very difficult to make a direct connection between building awareness and relationships – and making a connection to sales.  When I was teaching, I hammered home the point that the difference between public relations and marketing is that marketing is about generating revenue.  Both are about building awareness, but marketing, like social media, is hard to tie to a statistic.
5. Begin with baby steps.  If you don’t already have a big-time social media program, start small.  Try a Twitter account (easily measureable for those who crave statistics).  Nothing succeeds like success, so find a platform that works for you that is discreet and upon which you can build success.
6. If competitors and doing it right, point this out as well.  Competitors mean competition, and if your competition is building a online profile that demonstrates success, this is a good argument too.
7. Finally (and I could go on and on on this topic), know when to say “when.” Sometimes, you are simply not going to make headway.  This is something that I hear from my friends all of the time who have tried the above tactics and more and are left with an empty arsenal and a gun in their mouths.   You have a couple of choices.  You can bear it and try other ways (other internal clients or other agency clients to focus on), or you can go nuts.  And if you are going nuts from frustration, go home and look yourself in the mirror and ask if it’s worth it.  I get that it’s still a bad economy and that changing jobs is risky, but there are enough studies to show that stress causes illness.  Is it really worth it?  Ask yourself this very difficult question and consider getting the hell out of Dodge and on to somewhere will you have the resources and support you need to be successful.

Like Porky Pig said, “that’s all, folks.”  Please feel free to add more of your suggestions in the comments.

Mark

©2012 intersection of online and offline. All Rights Reserved.

Before writing word one – asking you to donate a measly five bucks – I have a confession to make that will hopefully convince you of the mental journey that I have been on that has brought me to a place in which I am hitting you up for money.

• I have social media donor fatigue.  I am probably (no, likely) a selfish jerk, but I have one or two people a week hitting me up on Facebook or Twitter asking me to help with this cause, that movement, or said anti-campaign.  I am more skeptic than philanthropist.  And I have donor fatigue.

With the preceding disclaimer, I hope to convince you that besides my overall jerk-edness, I am asking you to participate and give five bucks to the Blue Key Campaign.  Your donation gets you a blue key pin or pendant supporting the USA for UNHCR, which is a US-based 501c3 that supports UNHCR’s work.  So while you are supporting the UNHCR, you should know that they lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees.

Here’s why it’s important:

My friend, Shonali Burke brought this campaign to my attention last week, and using the words from the Blue Key Web site, you will learn that there are millions of refugees around the world without places to live, clean water, many of whom are even missing family members.  And they are assisted by UNHCR.

There are more than 6,000 UNHCR staffers on the ground, in more than 128 countries around the world. These are the people who help 26 million refugees cope with life after they’ve been through unimaginable trauma.

We’re asking Americans (since USA for UNHCR works to raise awareness of the UN Refugee Agency in the U.S.), to get their own Blue Key; for just $5, you’ll show the 6,000+ UNHCR staffers all around the world, that their work – which many of us never see – is appreciated.”)

How do I connect with this?

First, Shonali is a friend and others that I admire like Kami Watson-Huyse and Geoff Livingston are involved, that tells me a lot.  The second reason is more personal.

I have a lot of stress in my life and have dedicated myself to near-daily meditation.  One of the exercises I do is to envision sending kindness to people I like, to difficult people as well and especially to those in circumstances of poverty, war and distress.  So I hear these meditation words several times a week while I am sitting my nice recliner in an expensive house in a top 10 county in the United States.  I do this, while others wonder not even where their next meal is coming from, but if they can flee a region or country where people who want to kill them for who they are or what they are – this screams for attention.

This is a big, personal disconnect and is probably also pretty selfish.

Second, I do an annual fundraiser for a charity called St. Baldricks, one that raises millions for childhood cancer research ($24 million last year alone).  But really all I do is hit friends up for donations so I can show up at a pub in Washington, DC in March, get my head shaved and get drunk.  I raise money for a wonderful little girl named Lauren, but I feel a little guilty compared to what others do to raise money.

People like Doug Haslam, who has been raising money for the Pan Mass Challenge by going on a very, very long bike ride to raise money for pediatric cancer research for years, people who really put their bodies where their causes are.  And this year, it has to be more personal for Doug, who lost his dad to pancreatic cancer on May 14.  You can also help sponsor Doug’s ride here.

So I, the cynical, donor-fatigued UN skeptic am asking you to help by donating five dollars to the Blue Key campaign – show some love to the USA for UNHCR, which is a US-based 501c3 that supports UNHCR’s work.

Think – and donate.

Mark

©2012 intersection of online and offline. All Rights Reserved.

Like that scene at the end of “Independence Day” when Randy Quaid flies into the alien mother ship to save the earth, I’m baaaack.

I found out yesterday that I have been nominated to an adjunct faculty teaching position at my alma mater, the University of Maryland University College.  Beginning next Spring semester, I’ll be back to teaching, most likely for a PR techniques class.  I’m returning to a wonderful place where I got my Master’s degree a long time ago – and began my teaching career as a TA even longer ago.

I am absolutely thrilled to be going to back to the classroom.  I missed it because of all of my wonderful Georgetown students whose own intellect and wit challenged me to be at my best each and every week.  I miss you all terribly but am lucky to keep in touch with so many of you.

Thank you Theresa and Julie for bringing me home!

W00T!

Mark

P.S. -  This will be a part time gig, so SEC colleagues:  don’t start eying my office furniture just yet.

©2012 intersection of online and offline. All Rights Reserved.

Last week, I did a Q&A with Smart Blog insights about crisis communications in general and associations in particular.  I want to expand on that this morning a bit.

I used to teach crisis communications at the University of Maryland and have done a frequent bit in the private sector (let’s not even get into government – ugh).  It never ceases to amaze me how many organizations just plain mess up crisis work.

I have listed five tips below, but want to put this is perspective for associations.  What I think is unique to associations is that they are caught in a vise.  They are expected to be the leading voice for many controversial companies and industries (read: they take the hit), but need consensus in an organization made up of members who compete with each other on a regular basis.  Bad, bad recipe for success.

And tomorrow, I’ll talk about this on a panel at Buzz 2010 in Washington, DC.

A few of the crisis communications basics I mentioned in the Smart Blog Insights  piece (and a few more) include:

• Rule #1:  Avoid the crisis to begin with. Many companies (see Nestle), without even realizing it, take a communications mole hill and make it a crisis mountain.  Some crises cannot be avoided, but this is the step that most people just plain forget.  You need to help define an issue with your stakeholder groups or you risk having others define it for you.
• Rule #2.  HAVE a crisis communications plan. This is the “duh” rule.  Think about this.  If you are in the midst of a crisis, responding to media, operating under enormous pressure, are you going to be able to craft and deliver compelling messages?  Create stuff that will convince people not to blame you (best), or at least to accept an apology (second best).  This is why having a plan (updated at least quarterly) is critical.
• Rule #3:  Make the crisis plan easy to access.  When I did crisis work, I consistently advocated for putting a crisis communications plan online. Again, like the Nestle example, opponent driven crises are often propagated during weekends or other times that companies are not in the office.  You get attacked when nobody is manning a desk. And if your CEO or VP of Communications is at the beach, it makes things a whole lot easier when the plan is not a huge, written document sitting on your shelf at work, but is online and you can access it 24/7. And  you can better coordinate with others as well.
• Rule #4.  Tell the truth.  Period.  Full stop.  If you lie, people will find out, bust you and you will lose all credibility.  And it’s ok to tell people that you don’t know the answer – just tell them when you will tell them.
• Rule #5.  Segment your audiences. A lot of crisis plans are based upon talking to the media – and this is important.  But also think about employees, stockholders, retirees, elected officials, federal officials and even law enforcement people.  Bottom line is you need to have custom-tailored messages for ALL of your stakeholder groups that matter.

Again, for associations, this means something even tougher. You have to develop all of the above in conjunction with the member companies – the ones who pay your salary.  And deal with lawyers. And gain consensus under stress.

Oy, vey.

Mark

©2012 intersection of online and offline. All Rights Reserved.

I am currently at the keynote address of BlogWorld Expo 09 – “The Death and Rebirth of Journalism.” Participants are Brian Solis (Moderator), Don Lemon, Hugh Hewitt, Jay Rosen, Joanna Drake Earl.

• Don Lemon of CNN talked about how CNN uses Twitter and how he liked that it provides immediate feedback when they run a story.  In the past, you would send in a letter or even wait to call in a radio show, but now, within seconds, he reads tweets that provide feedback to stories.
• Hugh Hewitt said that when you are pushing out a message, you can test it within one or two news cycles and you will have instantaneous feedback.  He also said that journalism school are now turning out students with “completely irrelevant skill sets.”
• Jay Rosen talked how social media has made patients  learners, partners, and an educated audience.  When you think you have a medical condition, the first thing you will do is to look it up on the Web.  This has forced doctors to be more responsive, nimble, and expect more informed questions of their patients.  This is the equivalent of thousands of fact-checkers for a news organization.

More to come.

Mark

©2012 intersection of online and offline. All Rights Reserved.