“Be able to throw someone a cookie once in a while. I’ll tell them, ‘Okay, I’ll try it this time, but let’s touch base and see if it does work based on the data.’ That might help you prove that you are able to build relationships, but you also have data that maybe it doesn’t work, because social is all testing and learning,” he says.
Use A/B testing as a means of compromise
If someone insists on an initiative, you can propose an A/B test to see which content performs the best. This shows your openness, but also allows an opportunity for the data to show if it’s an effective approach.
If you find something doesn’t resonate with your audience on one network, then maybe it would fit better asia mobile number list on another network. You can select which audiences and networks would best suit different initiatives. It lowers the lift on your end because you’re not creating content for every network, while still supporting an important stakeholder.
In some cases
Rachael recommends not viewing it as pushing back on a request but examining the opportunity as a way to educate the stakeholder. Explain why the task isn’t high priority in terms of the team’s brutal penalty of a website workload, or consider providing an alternative that would enhance the opportunity. It’s a proactive measure that will help both parties down the line.
“If someone’s like
‘I want to post about this webinar,’ but it doesn’t really make sense for us to do…It’s less about pushing back and more about educating on why something would work or something won’t work, ” she says.
If you don’t decline completely and end up compromising, she urges social media marketers to further this education.
“You can say, ‘Here’s what we could have done had we had more time,’ or ‘Here’s what we could have done had we had more information or more context or more images.’ Just be straight up about that so people don’t repeat the behavior in the future.”
She also encourages being honest about your time commitment, adding “You can even say something along the lines of ‘Hey, I know social looks easy, but it can take three hours to pull a story together. And it’s not something I can have up by 11 am.’ This is actually a really good educational way to approach social management and mitigate that type of behavior from other people.”
The more educated stakeholders become in the craft, the more confident you will become in standing your ground.
3) Be a resource of truth for other teams
Since social media marketers have a better understanding of social, use your expertise when managing requests from stakeholders.
“Have strong reasoning why you are pushing back or why you can’t do a certain project. Social ends up being the catch-all place for a lot of organizations. I’ve experienced that in the past in my career, but nowadays, that’s not the case because we are b2c fax building more sophisticated strategies and have a better understanding of our audience. Making sure that you understand what your strategy is, what your goals are and who your audience is will give you a way better case of why something’s not going to work and why you’re pushing back,” Jonathan says.