Are We Pushing Our Clients Too Hard Into the Social Space?

The landscape of social media marketing changes every day—literally. That's not a revolutionary statement, but I find it helpful at times to step back and do what I tell my clients to do: listen to my customers and hear how their needs are evolving so that I can be the change they need.

In the past week, three different business owners have expressed the same frustration to me:

I know I need a social presence, but I don't have time to do it and I can't justify paying someone to do it for us.

A year ago, we were still trying to convince most of our clients of the first part of that statement. Now they're saying it to us. I'd like to first take a minute to sit back and be thankful that that battle has been won. *exhale*

And now I'd like to discuss how to begin finding a solution for the new challenge of resources in small businesses who want to participate in social. I believe that in another short span of time, that problem will take care of itself as social marketing continues to amass data and, if you will, social proof that will justify budget (both time and money) for social to even the smallest businesses. They'll find the time. They'll spend the money.

But for now, on a human level, how do we help them without letting our own passion for the project push them too hard and too fast? Again, how do we take our own advice and engage them rather than hard sell our services?

One of the three business owners that vented to me is not a client, which allowed me the distance to actually hear what she was saying without feeling a responsibility to fix it. (On a side note, it's ironic that sometimes our desire to fix things for our clients gets in the way of really listening to them.) This particular business owner is a woman who opened a thriving local restaurant two years ago. She actually touched my arm as she expressed her frustration, waving her free hand around the restaurant, "I just don't have time to do that stuff. I have to be here with my customers and my team." Her tone was guilty. Confessional. As if not participating in social testifies to her lack of passion for the success of her business. 

I found myself laying my hand on the one she had rested on my arm and using my other to point to the full restaurant she was waving at in frustration. "They're all doing it for you. People are talking about you because of the time you're investing on this floor. They're watching the owner pour water into their glasses and ask them about their children. You are participating. You're creating the story, and now they want to share it for you—to their own communities." 

She actually sighed, relieved. 

That doesn't mean I'm not passionate about what it could mean for her business if she could get out there on the virtual floor and engage with her community regularly. And that doesn't mean that's not my ultimate goal for her. It just means that I learned a few very important things about my business, my passion, by listening to her.

If we tell our clients that social provides a chance to be human with their customers and that it's not a place to hard sell, we have to teach them that by showing it—not through scare tactics and telling them that they must do it now or perish, full steam ahead. We have to remember that if we push them too hard and too fast so that they neglect their other responsibilities, then we're actually helping them create the wrong story. We have to create a plan that works with their existing priorities and restrictions. We have to stand on their floor with them, look around, pick up a pitcher and fill some glasses. We have to find them an intern, make them a daily shortlist, or do whatever it takes to create a doable strategy that can grow as they do. But most importantly, we have to inspire them in their move into this social space with our own visible passion for it, not by pushing them. 

 Jen Wright is a social strategist who lives in the Detroit area.