If you missed the first Social Media Seminar of the DC Chapter of the Black Public Relations Society, you didn’t get a copy of my whitepaper “Selling Social Media”. But fear not: I’ve compiled the main points here for you.

If you’re like me, you are in charge of convincing business owners why social media is important to their bottom line; and you’re probably also trying to get them actively  engaged in it.  It’s a process to truly win over those who are extremely private or just simply averse to telling the world what they’re doing.  Here are a few tips to get those you’re working with on board.

Sell It. Before you can expect your client or boss to buy into the virtues of social media, you must first answer the obvious questions: “What’s in it for the company? Why should we invest our resources here?” As your client or company’s social media ambassador,you have to do your homework. Offer up clear examples of where social media worked for a similar company. Show where a direct competitor saw results and you’ll get and keep a client’s attention.

Educate the Gatekeepers. Consider hosting a half-day social media camp for your client or Marketing Director to go over the basics. Make your presentation fun, interactive and easy to follow. Remember: those who don’t use social media are often intimidated by it or at the very least, don’t understand how far-reaching it is. Hold your boss or client’s hand and let them know you understand their apprehension. Repeat your belief that social media is a worthwhile investment.

Offer a Roadmap. What good does it do you to create an incredible plan that can’t with real ways your client or boss can begin using social media immediately. Set up accounts on social media sites for them and hand them a username and password.

Set Metrics. Be sure that you set goals that your client can really measure. Give them participation goals (i.e., two blog posts per week, or 1 Twitter update a day) as well as goals for the newly implemented social media program (i.e., 200 new Twitter followers by [date], or an improved online brand image by [date]). If you set goals, you can chart your progress easily. Knowing your progress allows you to change course if your strategy isn’t working.

Build It In. Developing your marketing and PR calendar for next year? Build social media into the plan so those in charge can
see exactly where it fits, and exactly how it complements the work you’re already doing.

Communicate the Commitment. While implementing a social media program may seem to have no real associated costs, developing quality social media programming can be extremely time-consuming. Communicate this fact to your client or director to be sure that you are well-compensated for your time.

Welcome to the first Test Drive My Job-a column that will profile marketing, public relations and social media professionals at various stages of their careers. Test Drive My Job is meant to do just that-allow you to test drive a job before embarking on a new career or industry change. Use the experiences of your colleagues to find out what careers may be a good fit for you. Feel free to connect on Twitter to learn more about each of their experiences.

I recently caught up with Peter Corbett aka “Mr. Social Media DC,” whom I met at the One party a few weeks ago.

Name: Peter Corbett,28

Twitter: @corbett3000

Current City: Washington, DC

Company: iStrategyLabs

Company Size: 2 employees + 20 something contractors

Job Title: CEO

Time @ Job: 17 months

Mopwater: What are your typical work hours? PC: 7am – 2am (yes…i average about 19 hours a day)

Mopwater: What’s your typical workday like? PC: I move client’s business forward with smart marketing programs that deliver results. Tactically speaking that means I spend a lot of time thinking about their brands and customers and then provide creative ways to deliver value to that audience. Once ideas are on paper, I usually get involved in executing digital builds or physical programs of some kind.

Mopwater: Where and how do you work? PC: I work everywhere. I have an awesome LAB in Dupont Circle and a home office. I travel a lot so I do a lot of work in hotels, coffee shops, book stores. I love this way of working – I’m a digital nomad!

Mopwater: What type of clients do you take on and what do you do for them? PC: We work mostly with consumer brands but also work with some non-profits and the government. We provide interactive strategy, experiential marketing and content creation services. Here’s our capabilities deck. We recently did this project. And this project and this one, too.

Mopwater: How many co-workers/employees do you have? How do you best collaborate with your team? PC: I have 1 employee, my COO. We have 20+ contracts that work with us both in person and virtually. We use wikis, blogs, twitter, facebook, Basecamp, conference calls and all manner of collaboration tools to do our work.

Mopwater: What are your favorite things about working at iStrategyLabs? PC: The most exciting thing is that iStrategyLabs is not definable and ever changing. We’re morphing with the market as we go and are batting a thousand with regard to delivering results for clients. Providing marketing services for clients is what we’re known for, but increasingly we’re an incubator/community developer/innovation company. It will be an exciting year in 2009!

Mopwater: What do you wish was different about your job? PC: I wish I didn’t have to think about internal operations at all – my COO came on board 3 months ago and soon that part of the puzzle will be completely off my plate.

Mopwater: Do you see yourself in this job in 5 years? If not, where do you see yourself? PC: Yes. This is a company I plan to run and keep for the rest of my life. There is no exit strategy. Being an entrepreneur is the most rewarding and challenging path in the world. If you plan to start you own thing remember this – it’s all or nothing. You’ll either be success or you’ll crash and burn. Be prepared for both!