How to write the decision memo for social media management software

Why write it down

By the end of a pilot the team usually has a feeling about the product. A feeling is hard for a budget owner to approve and harder to revisit a year later at renewal. A memo turns it into a record: this is what we asked for, this is what we saw, this is what we are committing to.

The five parts

Keep each part to a short paragraph or a few lines.

• What we needed. The must-haves, copied from the requirements page.
• What we tried. Which vendors answered the question sheet, which gave a scripted demo and which was piloted, with dates.
• What happened. Each success criterion, marked met or not met, with one sentence of evidence.
• What it costs and commits us to. The quoted yearly total, the term, the notice period and what we can take with us if we leave.
• Recommendation and risks. Buy, extend or stop, plus the two things most likely to go wrong and who is watching them.

Evidence a budget owner trusts

The person signing was probably not in the pilot. They trust what they can picture and check.

• Hours, before and after. How long the week's posts took to prepare before the pilot and during it. Use your own figures, measured the same way both times.
• A named example. One real post, from draft to approval to live, with the dates.
• Something that went wrong. A memo with no problems reads like sales material. Say what failed and how it was handled.
• The report itself. Attach what the product produced for the owner. It is the one output they will see every month.

What to leave out

Leave out the vendor's own claims, anything you were told but did not see, and comparison tables copied from review sites. Leave out forecasts of followers or sales as well. Software changes how regularly you publish and how quickly you answer. A memo that promises revenue will be held to it.

Three honest endings

A memo may recommend any of three things, and each is a good result if the evidence supports it.

• Buy. The must-haves were met and the cost is within the ceiling. Attach the rollout plan.
• Extend, with one question. A single criterion is undecided. Name it, set two more weeks and say what would settle it.
• Stop. A must-have failed. Say which, thank the vendor and return to the shortlist. Stopping here is the pilot doing its job.

Where Link AI fits

Link AI by Linkme is our recommendation, and its published design supplies two parts of a memo directly. Drafts are marked 'Needs review' and an ad draft shows who created it, so the path from draft to approval can be cited as a named example. Reports writes the owner report and sends it to the owner, so the attachment the budget owner cares about already exists.

The fourth part, cost and commitment, cannot be filled in from this reference. Pricing, term and exit conditions come from Linkme. Try Link AI in a demo and ask for those answers in writing. If the memo says buy, go on to the rollout plan.

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