Social Media Marketing: How to Get Your Team’s Buy-in

In my last column, I mentioned that your team is one of the best sources for creating sharable content. You cringed a little when you read that, didn’t you? (See “Where to Turn For Quality Social Media Content”, July 9, 2012.)

Team cooperation is not necessarily easy to achieve when it comes to social media marketing. People resist or don’t feel like it’s their responsibility. Others just plain ignore it.

Here are a few ideas to get your team sharing and caring about your online success.

Give your team a reason to care
Your social media marketing efforts will benefit immensely if you show your team that their contribution is worthwhile.

Start by celebrating successes regularly with everyone. When you achieve massive “likes” on a post, make a sale, get a positive customer endorsement or similar, let your team know that good things are happening online and give them a chance to celebrate with you.

If you want to kick things up a notch, create friendly competition around the content submitted by team members. (A free lunch for the most-liked post submission of the month?)

Make it a habit of rewarding good ideas that move your efforts forward.

Empower your people
While it’s a great idea to have one person “own” your social media marketing plan, you will get more participation if you make your strategy a team effort.

Start by identifying goals and putting together a rough plan. Then, share it with your team and ask for input. Brainstorm during staff meetings, ask for ideas on specific challenges or provide a “social media suggestion box.”

The important thing is making everyone aware of your goals and getting them in the mood to contribute.

Provide training and support
Many travel consultants don’t participate in social media because it seems hard to grasp or they think it will be time-consuming. Turn those thoughts around by providing learning opportunities and giving your team time to take advantage of them.

You can hire an expert to conduct a workshop, sign up for online programs or provide a library of readable resources – whatever works best for your group.

Create a space where anyone can ask questions freely without feeling stupid. This can be in the form of email access to a resource person, question periods during staff meetings, or a Q&A space on your company’s intranet.

Make social media an integral part of your business
There’s an agency in Vancouver, British Columbia, that encourages every team member to blog and network online. They allot time for this during the day and then promote their efforts.

As a result, the agency receives a healthy amount of bookings, referrals and new leads from the collective effort.

This shows that your team members will accept new things more easily when they become an organic part of your business.

Case in point? Think about the early days of email in business. You can facilitate a similar integration with social media by: including it in staff performance goals, integrating it in office policy and requiring share-worthy content from people who go on familiarization trips.

Make it clear that their contributions are not only appreciated, but also expected.

Most importantly: believe in it yourself
You can try as many tactics, tips and internal policies as you want. The fact remains that your team won’t believe in the importance of social media if you don’t.

So, before you attempt any of the ideas mentioned above, make sure you are convinced. Have a plan you believe in, share your goals and lead your team to success.

Sophie Bujold is a social media coach who helps travel professionals achieve online success. She speaks at industry events and works individually with travel agencies across North America. For more insights from Sophie, visit her website and sign up for free weekly email tips.