Lately in the association sphere, rather than being asked "why would we ever do that?" in reference to social media technologies, I've started to get asked, "how do we get started?" YAY!
Here are two strategies (not mutually exclusive) to read up on if you're taking the conversation in your organization from why to how best to leverage social media.
PREP
Jeff De Cagna explains his PREP approach which stands for Purpose, Readiness, Experiment, Practice.
POST
Josh Bernoff explains Forrester's POST approach which stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology.
I like both approaches. The PREP method is great for getting yourself up to speed fast and it keeps you open to learning about new and better ways to leverage emerging technology. The POST method implies a certain maturity with your understanding of social media. To make POST work, you need to already have the PREP under your belt.
As marketers and communicators, it's our initial instinct to try to drive this process and control the message in these new spaces. Fight that instinct. It's better for us to come into these conversations completely open to new voices and shared ownership of this new communication space. This is our chance to let the behind-the-scenes experts and accidental spokespersons speak up and add depth to what used to be a one-way conversation.
Let's all stop talking to ourselves!