My Social Media Proposal in Five Simple Words (and they rhyme!)

1. Fascination.
2. Presentation.
3. Conversation.
4. Implementation.
5. Celebration!

A strong FASCINATION in social media

led to the PRESENTATION of a social media proposal

and the CONVERSATION that followed

and the now fast-approaching IMPLEMENTATION of a social media strategy

and finally, a CELEBRATION!

OK. That was really cheesy. Sorry.

I spent weeks preparing for yesterday. I scoured social media to pull research and analytics pertaining to the activity (or non-activity) of medical societies in social networks. I Googled for hours to pull examples of existing social media conversations about topics related to our industry. I interviewed the people managing social media for similar organizations. I’ve spent at least an hour a day sorting through my Google Reader to find relevant and valuable blog posts with the latest news, tips and observations about social media, marketing and nonprofits.

I did all of this happily. I love social media and technology – and it was more fun than I ever imagined to be tasked with truly applying my current knowledge of social media to my organization. It was even more fun to tackle the challenging questions that came out thinking from a business perspective of social media.

Because most of the conversations I have about social media are with . . . well, you – I would have moments of insecurity that some elements of the proposal would appear to be common knowledge or a no-brainer. My biggest fear was that after absolutely giving my best effort and all of the background research that my proposal would be just . . . “meh”.

Don’t get me wrong, as many moments of insecurity as there were, there were an equal number of moments where I was excited and confident. I told myself that everyone has that battle when they are working on something that is really important to them. I don’t know if that is true – but I have a feeling it is.

Moving on.

Yesterday at 10 AM, I presented my social media proposal. I was nervous, but not as nervous as I was afraid I would be. Despite my best efforts, my voice was tellingly wobbly for the first few moments – which is always very annoying. However, my nerves calmed as the presentation and meeting evolved into a collaborative discussion and finally a blueprint of the organization’s immediate plans for social media and potential next steps.

In the end, the meeting was extremely successful in my eyes. Decisions were made and we have officially started down the path to strategize and implement a presence in social media – and I have gladly accepted the opportunity to continue to be a part of these efforts.

So basically, remember when I was initially asked to write the proposal and it took just about everything I had to not jump out of my chair and run in circles? Multiply that feeling by 140.