Resistance is Futile: How Not Using Social Media Might Kill You

Chris Brogan, a blogger I find to be quite astute when it comes to observing social media and its role in society and business, wrote a post called "Bridge Strategies for Social Media Adoption." Essentially, the post discusses how you can introduce social media and technology to companies (and executives) who might otherwise be resistant.

If you frequently read blogs and use social media as a tool (you Digg articles or visit Technorati regularly), you probably get the benefits. But what about those change-resistant higher ups or clients? You know the type: they prefer calling and snail mail to email, they have no involvement in the company website, and they have no clue what a blog is. If the immediate "what's in it for me" isn't apparent, it's unlikely they will be interested in moving forward in an area they don't understand.

This is a shame, because while they cower under their executive desks, hiding from their computers, their competitors are indeed moving into this technolosphere. Ironically, it seems that consumers or end users are more embracing of social media and technology when used in marketing than businesses are. Here are some reasons I believe businesses are afraid to adopt new technology in their marketing efforts.

Businesses think starting a blog or podcast is harder than it really is. Without real understanding of the technology, no decision maker ever wants to take on integration or implementation of a new technology.
Executives don't have time to learn the technology. If they don't understand it, they won't advocate it.
No one knows whose role it is to implement a blog or podcast. Is it the IT manager's job? Marketing? Secretary?
The benefits aren't apparent. If it doesn't net new sales right now, many businesses can't see the big picture.
They fear the company-wide learning curve. Afraid that training everyone to utilize the new marketing tool, decision makers often elect to remain stagnant rather than take the time to get everyone trained (including themselves) on the new technology.

So how do you help your business overcome these obstacles and join the growing number of companies who are already using Marketing 2.0?

Dumb it down. Pretend you're talking to fifth graders. The simpler something is to understand, the more likely a company will adopt it. For instance, to a group of women networkers, I recently described blogs as a source of information. That's all they needed to know initially. If they won't be involved in the technical detail, why bog them down with it?
Show them the money. You may understand the tools, as Chris says, but business owners and execs are only interested in the results. Explain in detail the cost savings, increase in brand recognition, growth in sales, whatever it takes to pique their interest.
Prove that implementing the new tool won't be time or cost-consuming. Blogs are cheap to start, and don't take too long to get up and running. Explain this, and compare to other marketing strategies that take longer to show reward and are more expensive to implement.