⚫️🟡 Getting Buy-In: How to Sell Social’s Value to Skeptical Executives
Look, I get why some leaders are still side-eyeing social.
On the surface, it can seem like a big brand awareness pool party––a hazy world of fad dances, vapid influencers, and vanity metrics galore.
To the uninitiated, hearing things like “We got 5,000 new followers this month!” or “That video hit 10,000 views!” sounds like relatively insignificant engagement fluffs.
Not anything tangibly impactful for the bottom line.
But we both know the savvy reality: When leveraged as a full-funnel marketing engine, an ROI-focused social strategy is one of the most powerful needles for moving revenue dials and forging true brand magnetism.
The C-suite just needs to be reprogrammed on its serious business value.
And we’ve got an increasingly impressive arsenal of data points to make that business case airtight. So ditch the shallow “Why social is important” fluff and start speaking in the fiscal language that gets buy-in and investment prioritization.
For example, a 2022 Gartner study found that the majority of customers now use social media as their primary source for product research and reviews—more than any other channel. Translation: Social media is the front door to your revenue funnel, whether you’re investing properly or not.
On top of that, Sprout Social’s data shows that 59% of consumers will make direct purchases through social media this year. It’s an always-on revenue opportunity that most leaders are still massively under-invested in.
The bottom line: Your brand’s social presence could very well be a make-or-break factor in both initial discovery and eventual conversion for the modern buyer. It’s time to start treating it as such from the top down.
But social’s ROI impacts go way beyond just upper-funnel demand generation. Its always-on community management capabilities are revenue drivers themselves by reducing costly service friction.
According to Meta, 66% of adults prefer using social media over any other support channel—more than email, phone, or knowledge bases. Brands that embrace this by investing in social customer care save an average of $8 per interaction compared to traditional voice calls.
In other words, maintaining an active social team to respond quickly to inquiries is a legitimate cost-saver that should have the CFO’s buy-in. It’s not just a nice-to-have service perk; it’s a smart fiscal move by your company.
Don’t believe me? Look at what customers expect from brands on social media regarding response times.
What about retention, loyalty, and advocacy?
Sprout Social’s data found that 59% of consumers will go out of their way to support brands they perceive as authentic on social media. Meanwhile, Gartner reports that companies generating strong brand affinity see revenue uplifts from 10% to 30%.
Those aren’t negligible vanity metrics. These are real dollars generated by having customers feel personally attached to your brand–all driven by well-designed and executed social media marketing strategies.
We’re just scratching the surface here. I could go on about socia media’ss role in recruitmen, or its unmatched ability to surface actionable voice-of-customer insights compared to traditional research.
The point is that there’s a mountain of proof that social media transcends just being a brand awareness channel when executed with a full-funnel, revenue-focused mentality. The C-suite just needs this reality reframed through their ROI-tinted lenses.
So ditch the fluffy “social is cool!” cases and get resourceful in modeling out social’s expected revenue impacts across your business, such as:
- New customer acquisition numbers tied to paid/organic campaigns
- Trackable sales lift from influencer collaborations
- Lower customer acquisition costs compared to traditional channels
- Quantified market share growth or voice share gains
- Hard dollar amounts saved through social care vs. voice
- Churn/retention rate improvements from sustained brand affinity
The more you can forecast social’s revenue contribution with credible numbers, the easier it’ll be to get prioritization and proper investment. Budgets flow to what’s measurably moving the needle.
Because at the end of the day, your scrutinizing execs don’t actually care if your viral meme hit 500,000 views or if you gained 10,000 new followers in a single day. What they want to see is how those social metrics translated to real business impact.
So, model it out. Quantify it. Frame all of your social goals and budgets through a revenue ROI lens.
If you can speak their fiscal language with bulletproof proof points, you’ll get the buy-in and prioritization this full-funnel revenue engine deserves.
It’s time social earned its seat at the biggest strategic tables as a make-or-break business driver. The data’s there to build the case. Now it’s on us to ditch the fluffy positioning internally and start having business impact conversations with executives.
