In the May 2010 issue of SES (the search engine strategies magazine), Robin Neifield, CEO of NetPlus Marketing, Inc. writes a decent article on Tips for Talking to Your Boss About Social Media.

I’d like to extract nearly exactly her tips because everyone eventually finds themselves at the boardroom table trying to lure the C suite into social media engagement. Perhaps it’s your client, perhaps it’s your own extended staff, virtual team, or peers…it matters not, these strong suggestions are worth a review.

Homework

• Create an organizational chart of various divisions/departments where social media may touch. Might be HR, PR, legal, marketing, customer services, or elsewhere.
• Create a best-practice approach to a successful social media program that meets needs.
• Create an audience profile; then spend time understanding how your audience uses the Web and social media. This becomes the foundation of the social media effort.
• Check out the competition among those who share your audience. Estimate the budget associated with this effort, and DOUBLE it! Social media is not free – strategy, creative, outreach, internal training, and many other items come into play.
• Bring in the creative team.
• Develop a content strategy and a content plan with resources outlined.
• Identify a monitoring and listening tool. (Jayme suggests Radian6 or Trackur.)
• Create a set of guiding principles that strongly state “Our social media program is about our customers – not about us.”

Conversation

• Build relationships over time; ask for engagement internally for two or more years.
• Determine what your company is going to offer i.e. programs, content, tools, discounts, entertainment, access to members, etc.
• Talk goals.
• Remove “viral” from the vocabulary.
• Set regular check-in meetings to review program performance against goals.

Regardless of when you engage in social media, ensure you have a plan in place. Use these tips above to develop your own that are suitable to your situation, business environment, or service offering. Remember, the tips above came from NetPlus Marketing, a top 50 interactive agency established in 1996.

What tips might you offer to further the conversation?