Flickr Photo: martinenoThis week in We Are Media, we're addressing a topic I'm guessing many of you have had some experience with: resistance.

When I speak on social media around the country, no matter what I'm talking about, or who's in the room, I know that when Q&A time comes, we'll spend a lot of time talking about how to address resistance to social media. I usually give a lot of general advice about educating leadership and demonstrating value. This is more or less correct, I think. But if we're going to develop a curriculum about social media, we need to get more serious.

We have to define resistance.

Most of the time, when I hear that word, I assume it's the BOSS who's resisting -- the Executive Director or the Board. But I've also heard stories from communications staff members that IT departments love to hate social media, and fight its use tooth and nail. And of course, staff throughout the organization may resist for a variety of reasons.

No matter what the source of the resistance, the reasons for resisting generally fall into one of a few categories:

1. Fear of the Unknown (or, lack of understanding)
2. No Clear Return on Investment (or, this will cost more time and money than it will create)
3. Privacy/Legal Issues (or, user comments will get us sued)
4. Does not Apply (or, this has no relevance to our work)
5. Network/Security Issues (or, this will compromise our vital data / I don't want to support that)

The Communitelligence Social Media Resistance survey explored social media adoption in business. Here's a great slide about the issues that affect the rate of social media adoption at for-profit companies. Look how nicely they align with my 5 categories! (That's one advantage of social media: you can always find evidence to support your claims!)

Lack of understanding is the single biggest hurdle to the companies surveyed in adopting social media. Not surprisingly, corporate liability/legal issues and cost rounded out the top three.

Now that we know the most common reasons social media projects encounter resistance, we can start to think through a strategy for addressing them. Here's my revised advice for folks encountering resistance.

1. Target. Map out where the resistance is or will be coming from. Identify all the people in your organization, from the board to the executive assistants, who will have to deal with your project in some way.
2. Listen. Pitch your project in a very soft, "I've been kicking around an idea and want your feedback" kind of way with each of your stakeholders. Listen. Don't talk. Let them tell your all the reasons they support or resist your project. Don't try to provide any counter arguments -- you're collecting intelligence here! Take copious notes.
3. Interpret. Look back on each conversation and identify the single biggest objection of each of your key individuals. Remember that while leadership may say "It will cost too much", they could really mean "I don't understand what all this crazy stuff is about." Your notes and listening skills will help you hear the difference.
4. Respond. Once you know what kind of resistance you're dealing with, you can craft a response. How you respond also matters a great deal. Know your targets and how they will best receive your feedback. You may need to write a memo to one stakeholder, but start shoulder to shoulder training with another.
5. Repeat. Changing anyone's mind is not easy. You will not win converts overnight, so keep in mind that you may address one area of resistance, only to encounter another. In this case, you'll have the pleasure of starting all over again!

What resistance do you encounter at your organization? What are you doing to counteract it? Leave a comment, write a blog post (tag it with "wearemedia"), drop your ideas or edit pages in the wiki, or point to a fabulous blog post or article that answers these questions.