How do you get staff buy-in to using social networking to build communities?

[MktgRob]

I read a question in one of my Linkedin forums about how to convince a company to get involved in Social Networking and community building. Here is a brief summary of what I did?

1. I established corporate presences on various social networking sites (Linkedin, Twitter, blogs, YouTube)
2. After linking all of them to the corporate website I presented the whole set-up in a meeting to show that by doing so you create a 'fishing net' to capture more prospects.
3. I identified who would be the most-likely early adopters and played to their ego's that they would make a name for themselves in the company by being pioneers for the company.

It took a few months but now they are running with it. Have any of you had to deal with a similar hurdle and if so what did you do to convince the company that social networking was importan

[InsightsDigital]

Yes I have experienced a similar hurdle and I now other colleagues who have to present length and labor intensive case studies in order to bolster their case. Another hurdle is how to justify your fees.

[MktgRob]

Yes I have experienced a similar hurdle and I now other colleagues who have to present length and labor intensive case studies in order to bolster their case. Another hurdle is how to justify your fees.

I think that if I did the studies your colleagues did I would have a hard time getting paid for the time to do that work. One of the ways I am making sure that I can justify my fees is by having one of the admins sit in on the meetings I have with the teams and have them take the minutes. Documented proof of institutional resistance is always best!