How to sell social media to your CEO

Increasing traffic, improving conversion rates and establishing thought leadership are among most corporations' main goals. The need to reach potential consumers has many marketing departments looking toward the internet. A company needs to reevaluate where its target audience spends most of its time and then develop a strategy to engage with them. Recently, social media has offered a solution by presenting a platform for businesses to reach consumers and receive feedback. However, due to the lack of proven evidence, many marketing departments are hesitant to devote much time or resources to this endeavor. Therefore, in order to effectively implement a social media marketing campaign for your company, you may need to speak directly to the CEO.

Without the CEO's stamp of approval, the productivity of an otherwise under-resourced social media campaign will begin to falter, and the program won't succeed. Taking the time to sell the idea to a CEO will help to solidify future footholds in the maturing industry and put a company slightly ahead of competitors. The downfall of this type of marketing, however, comes from a pervasive perception of social media as a business distraction rather than something a company can benefit from. In order to prove that social media can benefit a company, approach your CEO as you might a customer and think of yourself as a sales representative.

The best way to sell an idea is by doing quality research and being able to quantify success in terms that make sense to the buyer - in this case, the CEO. Understanding your boss and her career background can help make a better impression on her. A sales and marketing-oriented CEO will more likely be convinced by Hubspot's recent findings, which showed an average of 57 percent more visitors to sites that utilize social media. However, if she has a more in-depth finance background, discussing a recent McKinsey survey, in which 40 percent of businesses polled found that they noticed measurable advantages from social media (including lower costs of doing business), will help her see a use for it.

After getting a good understanding of what motivates your CEO, match the tone of the presentation to the goals of the business. By following the traditional 20-80 rule, of speaking 20 percent of the time and listening 80 percent, you'll begin to understand opportunities to clearly express the benefits of social media for a corporation. Taking the time to explain how competitors have utilized the resource and expand on how it can impact your company will put the information into perspective for even the least technologically savvy CEO.