Why SAP’s social media strategy includes a dose of chutzpah!

It’s hard to keep up with the daily deluge of articles and blogs proposing to have the elusive magic formula for an effective social media strategy.

But when the man in charge of social media for global software giant SAP offered his personal thoughts, it seemed wise to take notes.

Ted Sapountzis, coming from a corporate perspective, spoke first and foremost about securing executive support. He advocated not even embarking on social media before having at least a few executives on board.

The marketing folk at Dell, for instance, are lucky enough to have social evangelist Michael Dell at the helm. It was founder and CEO Dell who first asked why his company didn’t run a business blog. Now with a stockpile of established blogs, this Fortune 100 company shows no signs of slowing, and in Dell’s words is “just getting started”.

Next into the mix is attitude: think carrots, not sticks. Sapountzis urged using creativity to get colleagues excited about social marketing and propel them to think beyond the persistent question of ROI.

At SAP, a funky, colourful infographic was created depicting how social channels work to inspire the entire company to get behind its social media programme.

There will always be some in a company who ‘get’ social more than others. Identify and leverage them, advised Sapountzis – have them tell your story.

Finally, don’t be afraid of failure. Think big, start small, fail fast. You may well slip up along the way, but you need to start showing results to get your company to invest in social media marketing. Remember, great things are often born from failures. With Facebook as their inspiration, the greatest success stories in social often required a hefty dose of chutzpah to get off the ground.