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Ever feel as if your boss, c-suite and colleagues just don’t “get it?” Do you have what you think is an amazing social media or digital marketing plan? However, you just can’t seem to get the budget approval nor the buy-in you need to be successful?
You may have even been hired or specifically tasked with creating this fantastic plan, yet it seems nobody wants to support you to make it a reality?
If this is you, you are not alone. You definitely landed on the right blog post today as I am going to help you. The good news is I have the answer for how you can get your budget and plan approved, guaranteed.
This blog post includes the following:
- Top 3 reasons your social media budget and plan are not getting approved
- Podcast with more in depth explanation of these top 3 reasons
- Replay of a webinar I recently hosted with 3 Easy Steps to Get Your Social Media Budget Approved and Boss on Board with Your Plan (grab a seat to the replay).
Here are the top 3 reasons your budget is not getting approved.
1. You don’t really have a solid plan.
You don’t have a plan that aligns to business goals and the needs of your audience.
Though you may think you have a plan, the truth is you don’t. Is it really aligned to the needs of your audience? Have you aligned it to tightly to specific business goals where it can have the greatest impact?
Are you able to clearly articulate to your boss and other stakeholders how the investment will positively impact the business? Do you know what success looks like and how you will measure it?
If you answer no to any of these questions, then you need to go back to square one and create a real plan if you ever want to see the light of day for approval and buy-in of your “plan.”
A social media plan is far more than throwing pretty visuals at Instagram or Facebook. It’s more than hopping on Facebook Live and hoping to get famous.
It’s time to get real with understanding exactly how your plan is going to help your business achieve the goals that have been established. You must get in the head of both your management as well as your audience. Your social media plans should include a laser focus on both of these if you want to succeed.
My recommendation is that you always take an audience based approach to any type of marketing on or offline. If you can’t clearly articulate who your audience is, how you are going to serve them and how doing such will help your business, then you missed the most important pieces of your planning.
2. You are not speaking the same language as your management.
It could be you are talking apples and your management is talking oranges. Are you talking in geek speak and your boss is talking in business revenue and performance numbers?
Too many new social media managers get all hyped up about vanity metrics such as followers, likes, etc. Even though Facebook may be pushing you to over focus on engagement, it doesn’t mean it should be a top key performance indicator for your business. You must clearly be able to articulate if and how these metrics will impact the business. Your boss and other stakeholders are likely far more interested in revenue, brand awareness, customer satisfaction, sentiment, word of mouth, share of voice, insights achieved from learning what others are saying about your brand on the social networks and the list goes on.
We have worked with 100’s of businesses and 1000’s of students to help them get their budgets and plans approved. I have seen marketers take the fast track in their social marketing and digital marketing careers as a result of proper planning and understanding of how the social and digital ecosystems of today can help support their business. I’ve also seen a fair number of marketers lose their jobs (get fired) for lack of this knowledge and ability.
You can’t afford to not communicate with your management and stakeholders effectively. You need to lead proper communication and ensure you are facilitating buy-in from day one. Complaining that “they just don’t understand” is not going to help you grow in your career.
3. Your management doesn’t understand social media and as a result is “afraid of it.
Could it be that all your management sees when they look at the social web is risk? Do they not understand the value or the real risk? Do they not understand that there is also risk by ignoring social networks where their current customers, dream customers and community is hanging out?
Often times executive management and organizational leadership may not clearly understand how they can use social media, digital marketing or even personal branding for business advantage.
Unfortunately, they are also embarrassed to speak up and ask what they think may be “dumb questions.” I always tell our clients and students “the only dumb question is the one that doesn’t get answered.”
Here’s the other tough part… An executive often does not feel comfortable asking a newly hired social media manager, “what is social media?” Or “how can social media really impact our business?” They know they have fallen behind but they don’t know what to do to fix it.
It is critical that you understand the skills and understanding of social media within your organization. Enhancing skills and shifting mindset may be a critical component to your success. Skipping this step is not an option if you want the proper budget allocation and support to implement your plan and ensure it is a success.
Be patient and understand that your management may be more comfortable working with a 3rd party consultant or agency that can help coach and guide them.
We have done this type of work with many executives and business leaders. They often feel more comfortable working with us as their partner than they do having a new college graduate teach them the social and digital ropes. Thinking you can be the one to teach them the world of social media may be a pipe dream so it’s time to get a reality check.
Take a listen to episode 250 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for more details on these 3 Reasons Your Boss is Not Approving Your Social Media or Digital Marketing Budget and Plan.
Register for Webinar Replay -> Three Easy Steps to Get Your Social Media Budget Approved and Your Boss OFF Your Back!
How to Subscribe to Social Zoom Factor Podcast
How do I know how to help you get your social marketing budget approved?
Stop trying to win as a team of one. You must get your team on board. Social media is a team game, not a solo, individual marketing tactic you can do by yourself.
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