Many of my clients ask me, "Why should I invest time and money into all this social media stuff, anyway?"  What they also may be asking is "How do I sell this to upper management/the board/my boss?" 

Most businesses love statistics, so putting a well-documented report in front of the board of directors is never a bad idea.  A great place to start is the recent report titled, “New Media, New Influencers & Implications for Public Relations” published by the Society for New Communications Research.  From their findings, “Social media is rapidly becoming a core channel
for disseminating information. Fifty-seven percent of this group of
early social media adopters reported that social media tools are
becoming more valuable to their activities, while 27% reported that
social media is a core element of their communications strategy.”

The report's also got great case studies – something else bosses will smile upon – that illustrate how social media has directly benefited organizations such as the American Red Cross, the Mayo Clinic
and Quicken Loans. 

But the best reason to read this report is its case study on "Blendtec", which chronicles the commercial blender company's outrageously successful viral video campaign.  Blendtec, running on very small marketing budget, decided to make videos of their CEO, George Dickson, testing their blenders by pulverizing some, well, unusual items.  Each video, entitled "Will it Blend?" is less than two minutes long, takes minimal budget to film, and is posted for free on YouTube. 

If any of you have any remaining doubts about the power of social media, check out "Will it Blend? – iPhone" and take note of the fact that 5.2 million people have viewed it.

Also worth viewing is "Will It Blend? – Glow Sticks".  I dare you not to laugh out loud.