I like 1)find someone successful 2)show what they are doing 3)”this is what you are missing out on”. I love Zappos.com and EROI.com for being such great social media examples.

http://itwofs.com/beastoftraal/2009/02/03/social-media-for-the-web-1-web-0-and-web-10-generation/

I particularly like the handshake analogy.

Like@Tabitha, I’ve had personal success by showing people a live stream of web conversation about their product or brand.

Let them peer into the zeitgeist and help them understand that it’s both ok, and easy, for them to take part in those conversations. This stuff can be alienating and confronting. A safe, dynamic real-time example communicates more than any siloed pitch could.

And always, a focus on the people, the personalities – or – the practicalities (how is this thing relevant to my need, right now), is critical in messaging. Avoid spouting obtuse marketing dogma through shiny new megaphones. Over zealous ‘social media’ spin will likely further distance you from your client and their needs.

Recommend to clients ringfencing an SM R&D budget (usually expressed as a time investment).

Set a hypothesis (e.g. tweeting about my new XXX will net more RT mentions that XXXX channel). Use ‘Search RT @brandXXX’ for quant evidence

Clients are taught to understand results are not guaranteed.

Learnings and benchmarks are applied for next round of iterative testing.

Simple!

Great article. We face this challenge everyday: illustrating how social media can help the client gain a marketing edge. I have found that the most effective way to “sell” clients on the necessity of a social media marketing strategy is to compare social media tools to old school marketing techniques. After all, social media networking is really just about building relationship, dialogue, branding and ultimately being “memorable” as an authority on the respective area of expertise. Traditional marketing techniques have now simply gone digital.

I try to steer the conversation away from advertising terms and back to sales/customer service terms. That’s what makes the lightbulb go off.

However…

There are a few things I’d try to focus on:

1. Focus the discussion on action and tactics, not strategy. Keep reinforcing how easy it is to do, not how important it is. Sending a Tweet is as easy as leaving a business card is more convincing to me than any kind of argument about how important it is.

2. If the client is technophobic, and you can’t find success stories in their industry, then forget the idea. They are not going to be leaders in getting their industry to adopt new technology. Late adopters and laggards don’t change their spots.

3. Try to make “social media” the punchline rather than the headline. Starting a sentence “social media is…” to a technophobe puts you on the back foot immediately. It’s like saying, “please ignore the rest of this sentence”. ;)