If part of your job involves building a business case and selling digital marketing initiatives inside organizations, you don’t want to miss this episode with Brian Solis, released on the eve of the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas.  

Over the last few years, Brian Solis has shot like a rocket to the top on the social media influence pyramid.  His Conversation Prism has become the de facto graphic for appraising social media channels. 

His first book, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations,” which he co-wrote with Deirdre Breckenridge made the argument for social media engagement, and his just released new book “Engage” provides practical guidance for piloting social media initiatives inside organizations.  

SHOW NOTES:  

01:24 – Brian talks about the “ah-ha” and “uh-oh” moments, which usually crystallize the perceived need for social media engagement inside organizations.  

02:49 – Using the Conversation Prism to collect meaningful research by searching the each of the different social media channels to uncover where the hot spots are for any given organization.  And based on the findings from those queries, Brian talks about designing social media initiatives that address tangible business needs.  

03:31 – Without the research that comes from a thorough investigation of who’s saying what where about a given product, brand or service, there’s no way to ask the right questions to have the “ah-ha” moment. 

According to Brian, it is important to understand that conversations are constantly occurring online that drive all kinds of business decisions.  And unless we actually seek out and gauge in the right conversations by listening through filters those decisions will be made without us. It’s the realization that there are not just conversations taking place across the social web.   

03:46 – “There are not just conversations taking place across the social web.  There are influential decision-making steps and processes and considerations that are taking place that are transpiring right now, without us. 

And when you can demonstrate the exact cause and effect of what’s transpiring and to what extent, then that “ah-ha” moment is pretty profound,” Brian explains.  

05:54 – Successfully implementing social media initiatives inside organizations requires that the projects lead ultimately transition from champion to diplomat, because it is critical to raise awareness of what needs to be accomplished and the required resources to pull it off among the executives who can fund pilots, and who or may not be directly involved in the initiative.  

06:33 – “What’s going to be important to these folks [decision makers with P&L responsibility] is that we apply information to them in a way that they’re used to measuring it.  Even though this is new medium, we have to help them learn by speaking their language, and then ultimately teaching them something new, almost like learning a new language through immersion,” says Brian.  

07:12 – Much as when ad agencies bid accounts on spec, in order to make the case for a social media initiative, it is necessary to invest the time and resources to figure out where the relevant conversations are taking place, and to try and determine which departments of the organization are most impacted by these conversations. 

Are the conversations surrounding customer service issues, engineering issues or marketing-related issues?  The idea is to collect and attribute online conversations to the specific business units or departments inside the organization that they apply.  For Brian, the key to winning buy-in is research,