Championing Social Media with Help from SXSW
Apr
27

posted by: Bruce Floyd

Filed under Social Networking

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Last month, I was fortunate enough to attend SXSW in Austin, Texas and learn from top interactive media designers and developers. One of the more interesting panels I attended was called “My Boss Doesn’t Get It - Championing Social Media to the Man.”

Intriguing title aside, I thought this would be a great way not only to learn how to leverage social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, but help me articulate the importance of their use by those who are non-technical or unaware.

On the panel was Michael Wilson and Miles Sims of Small World Labs, Peter Kim from Dachis Corporation, Rebecca Caroe from CreativeAgencySecrets.com and Christian Caldwell from the American Heart Association.

Some major takeaways from the event:

  • “The man” can be someone with budget authority, but can really be anyone who you must have on board with the use of social media. For someone with budget control, they recommended developing a measurable ROI.
  • The biggest and most obviously measurable ROI is reach. Being Web Admin-centric, I considered campus web managers as our target for social media reach. Of course, it’s entirely possible, based on the power of social networking, to extend beyond UF to people like higher education web managers or perhaps even web professionals outside of academia. As a pitch, I would maintain that since our office works to advocate for best practices on the web, better reach means more frequent and meaningful engagement by managers, as well as building our reputation as an authority of such things.
  • Fashion your discussion of social media to that particular group. For instance, when talking to someone who is particularly resistant to the idea, find out what his or her goals are and show him or her how social media can align and assist those goals. One speaker marveled that this worked so well that in one instance, a former resister became a staunch advocate of social media at their organization.
  • Keep things simple at first. Trying to do too much too soon could be overwhelming. The panelist from the American Heart Association wanted to share video stories about cardiovascular heart disease in women. Once they mentioned this on Facebook, they quickly had over 1000 videos that they then had to review. A success, to be certain, but still daunting.
  • Good planning helps to ensure success.  Make sure you know who you want to reach through your social media efforts.
  • If “the man” is a communicator, find his or her peer group and show what others are doing. In other words, if one of your implementation hurdles is someone who is responsible for marketing or communications, make sure you use examples of respected people in their field who have succeeded in similar social media work.

For those of you who are considering using social media for your college, department or unit, what are your measurable goals? What challenges have you discovered?

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