Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day.

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4 :

Month 1: Create the Plan a

nd Get Started

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Friday: Present the Plan

You’ve spent most of the last two weeks gathering information, negotiating with stake-

holders, and preparing a plan to help your company take better advantage of Facebook

and social media. now it’s time to sell it. We’ve talked at length about the value of

metrics and the importance of communication to get cooperation from your colleagues.

here are a few other potential potholes that you should consider as you summarize

your thoughts:

Management/mitigation of unintended consequences Good executives at major corporations

are trained to mitigate risk wherever possible. You’ll need to show that you’ve thought

through all the potential negative situations that may arise from your effort and that

you have a plan for dealing with problems and unintended negative consequences.

Organizational fit are you the right person in the company to run the project? Would this

cause a political problem in your company that will create problems for the manage-

ment team? have you reached across organizational lines proactively to make the proj-

ect run as smoothly as possible? Will the project be at odds with other major initiatives

inside the company? You don’t want to compete with your colleagues unless there are

good reasons to do so.

Fit with corporate culture/norms are the things you are proposing a fit for the way the com-

pany communicates with customers, partners, and so on? If so, is that a good thing?

Management may have a different perspective on this than the rank and file. Be sure to

understand how superiors see the opportunity in advance of your presentation.

Future commitment Will this project cause the company to take on a future financial or

head count liability that it currently does not have? do you have a handle on the costs

associated with the effort and how that may change over time? Could backing out of

such a commitment cause customers significant consternation and create negative per-

ceptions about the company or brand?

If they are balanced and fair, your superiors will likely ask you for a good bal-

ance of metrics that you can control and stretch goals that will make you really work.

that’s ok. remember, you are trying to learn what will work and what has worked

on Facebook. roI is certainly the toughest metric to guarantee today—more on that in

Chapter 10, “organizational Considerations,” when we talk about what managers and

executives should demand of employees who run social media projects.

One Final Point for the Day of Your Presentation

Be sure to keep your cool when you pitch your ideas. Not all of your ideas are going to necessarily

work. That’s OK. React calmly and professionally to feedback. It’s the best way to make people

confident that you can take feedback and you can do the job!