Yesterday I took advantage of a great opportunity to hear from a group of people who not only know social media, but use it well. The folks at Molson (with the help of GasPedal) hosted an open conference call to recap their Blog Well Chicago presentation: “Molson & Social Media: Exploring, Innovating, Communicating”.

The call was hosted by Ferg Devins, Vice-President, Government and Public Affairs; Adam Moffat, Manager, Marketing & Brand Public Relations; and Tonia Hammer, Communications Assistant. Molson has been participating in the social media space for a few years now and has been quite successful with many of its initiatives including the Molson in the Community blog, the Brew 2.0 blogger outreach events, and its newest project, the Molson Canadian 2010 Mural Project. And while many interesting points were discussed on the call, one that really stuck out to me was Ferg’s observation that Molson tries not to get stuck in “paralysis by analysis”.

After working with a variety of clients now, and starting to see differing views on the use of social media in public relations, I have found it very interesting to see how many companies are reluctant to get involved in this space. When we pitch the idea of engaging in social media, we’re often asked to draw up a proposal to discuss at a later time. So we go away, do our research, provide measurement options and outline a budget. We’ll also look for examples of why they should be in this space – provide Twitter rants by their consumers, an interesting idea for a Facebook app, or maybe a blog post that they could have responded to. Then we’ll compile a proposal based on these factors.

Once submitted, sometimes the proposal is met with great enthusiasm, a thumb up and full steam ahead. But other times we’re met with some resistance. Clients want more information, or they want to think about it more, or they aren’t quite ready. All of this is perfectly reasonable; however, there is a trap that can occur if this goes on for too long. The situation can only be analyzed for so before a decision just has to be made. Jump in head first? Dip a toe in and see how it goes? Or just going to curl up on a beach chair watch everyone else play in the pool?

When you’re proposing a social media component to a client, it’s important to be sure of what their objectives are and how social media will help them achieve the results they’re looking for. And of course be respectful that the client will likely require clearance from a legal team as well as a protocol outline to show them the steps you would take in various situations.

But it’s important to keep in mind that every day the process gets delayed, more and more of their consumers are making waves as they cannon ball into the social media pool.

What you do to encourage companies to jump in and join the fun?