Well,

If the client can see the value then they can see the need to hire someone to do it. If they cannot see the value or need in hiring someone, then they have not been convinced of value. One thing I learned from my brief stint in sales: purchases are made (triggers are pulled) when value exceeds cost. So That might be where you need to go.

You know the daily tasks needed. So perhaps you need to lay it all out for the decision maker and tell them what hiring someone to do them all will do for the company?

What current standards should be sacrificed? None. SM is something you have to do in addition too. It is a new frontier on which business must be done, not in place of anything. But again, you know this.

A problem that a lot of companies and individuals have is that they think social media is an instant effort = instant reward equation. It isn’t, it takes time. It can have some immediate results but over time is where the real benefit lies.

What kind of cost benefit analysis have you done for the decision maker?

@kristi-hines

Most clients are doing nothing in Social Media and don’t care about competitors so much because they are not for profit. I don’t know many for profits that have done much with social media. But I WILL look into this approach! I’m in Philadelphia which is a big city, liberal in politics but conservative in business. I always say, We’re educated by the Quakers and fed by the Amish . . . so what do you expect!

One way to look at it . . . it spells O P P O R T U N I T Y.

@judithgotwald  I too work with a niche similar to yours. Most of my clients are churches and small local non-profits. Especially pastors, are the hardest to “sell” on the need for social media. They don’t have time, skills, or energy. They are very careful about content management and are generally unwilling to relinquish that kind of power to someone else in the church. They don’t have it in thebudget to hire anyone, so they get a volunteers who are hit and miss with the commitment. But I’m not really answering your question am I?

What I do, is when I install their website I bundle an initial Social Media service into the package. We give them our stand alone product “Your Social Grid” installed free and I teach them some very basic SM 101 do’s and don’ts. I add share buttons, and sign up forms, I do the registrations to over 50 of the major SM networks and populate their profiles for them (normally a $199 stand alone product) I don’t ask if they want it, it comes automatically as a bonus to the website. Then once they are past all the initial shock, I let the hook of social media do its work. Just get them on Facebook and Twitter, (get their wife on Pintrest) and then offer them services to maintenance them or to expand beyond with additional training and management. 

This has drastically increased our income from management products.

I work day job at a not for profit (a credit union) and believe me I understand. They were not willing the commit the time or money for it but wanted it done none the less. It’s not happening….

I try to explain to them that yes, the ACCESS to the social media networks is free, doing them right isn’t…

@judithgotwald Competitors do not necessarily have to be competition.  If it’s a non-profit that raises money for pets, the Humane Society would be a similar site to look at to see what they do in social media.  

@judithgotwald

Its all about effort.  The most you can do is open the door for them.  If you they dont want to walk through it, then its their loss.  Social Media isn’t a fad, its here to stay and progress.  Even if Facebook and Twitter fade away, something will replace it.  Technology is here.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. ” – Charles Darwin
Also, the evidence and proof is out there.  Companies grow because of exposure.
Tweet @GoOmnibeat

This is why I do social media management. Instead of telling the client that they need to find the time to do SM, I do it for them as part of my services. That way they do not have to worry about time.

The formula I use is how much is their time worth?

@anitacohen-williams I can appreciate your approach. Managing a client’s SM efforts is going to produce much better results for them than simply setting up a few profiles and telling them they need to find the time to do SM. But how do you scale that? Managing a business’ SM marketing program so that it produces tangible results is time intensive. What advice do you have for a one-person shop that’s looking to take on multiple clients?

@glengorham You took the words right out of my mouth.  People will always find time for what they think to be important.  The problem I have found is a lot of people just want to do social media for their business because a friend told them it could help.  Then once they find out what is involved and that time and resources have to be invested, they become reluctant.  If someone really wants to do it, they will make the investment.  If they want to cut corners and just dip a toe into it, it’s never going to work anyway. 

I’ll just piggyback on @kristi-hines good advice.

I think the thing is to figure out what it is your clients want/need the most. What is a major point of pain that social media can alleviate? (Is it fundraising? New membership? Recruiting volunteers?) How does engaging in social media solve a big problem for them?

Draw a very explicit direct line between their problem and social media as the solution to the problem. It helps if you can demonstrate that social media is cheaper and less time-consuming that alternative solutions.

Then find some case studies/examples of similar organizations who have solved the same or similar problem using social media. They don’t have to be your own current or previous clients. They can be clients of big PR companies or of services like HootSuite. Anyplace you can find case studies of org’s that are similar to your clients. Everybody loves a good “before and after” story.

When I was in sales, the good experiences were always when I was able to make a client feel like I “got” them and their problems and that I had arrived with the best solution to the problem.