Despite social media’s deep influence on global affairs and business, the communication gap between social teams and corporate executives persists. Here are the key points:
1. **Trust and Resources**:
– Social teams often feel untrusted and lack resources despite achieving their objectives. Only 41% of social marketers express fear about company leadership not trusting them to publish effective content. However, more than half of marketing leaders believe executives completely trust their social teams, with 74% of executives sharing this sentiment.
– Social teams need to prove their value with compelling data to secure more resources and approvals.
2. **Aligning Social Content with Company Goals**:
– Executives should push social teams to address business needs, but also give social teams the space to be creative. This balance can drive engagement and ensure alignment with company priorities.
– For example, at Sprout Social, a series showcasing how marketers use the platform to influence business goals was developed, which surprisingly drove two to three times the engagement of traditional trend-centric posts.
3. **Improving Data Storytelling**:
– Social teams need to measure success with metrics like engagement, audience growth, and social interactions. They must make a clear case for additional headcount or resources using compelling data.
– Data storytelling is crucial. It involves weaving a narrative that illustrates the value of social data and how it drives company-wide impact. This includes using metrics tied to business value, competitive context, and multi-touch attribution to show the full impact of social media on the sales funnel.
4. **Enhancing Collaboration Across Departments**:
– Stronger collaboration across departments is essential for harnessing sophisticated social insights. At Sprout Social, this included reimagining reporting approaches to align with critical business priorities, integrating with other marketing teams, and using data visualization to highlight channel and content impact.
By implementing these strategies, brands can bridge the communication gap and transform social media insights into powerful tools for driving business growth and fostering trust across the organization. For more information, visit [this link](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-executive-gap/).