About seven years ago, when we were just beginning to focus on social media marketing, we started working with lawyers and HR consultants on one sensitive area that needed addressing: social media policy. In fact, we even built a social media policy course.
Social media policy is the set of rules that every company must have. These rules dictate the extent and manner in which employees and consultants can access the Internet during work hours and the limits of what they can say (online) on behalf of their employer. It also often provides an employer with the right to view all online activity of company accounts. If an employee is fired primarily because of their online postings, having a social media policy in place and verified in writing by that individual could be the difference between a very long, expensive legal battle and a minor skirmish that ends quickly.
With the rapid growth of social media, it no longer remains a question of whether employees are using social media but rather, the extent to which they use it. This use has been further augmented by the rapid rise and increasing popularity of mobile and improving integration between different social media platforms.
It is up to each company to decide whether or not it wants employees to act online on its behalf and if so, to what extent. However, given the widespread use of social media and with the proper policy and education in place, empowered employees and consultants can provide a strong and inexpensive boost on its behalf.
Social media is all about interacting with people. Whether it is for customer service, new product announcements, encouraging customers or prospects to discuss products or services, or a host of other purposes, the main goal of social media is to start ”“ and sometimes continue ”“ the conversation. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, FourSquare, Twitter and literally thousands of other sites are designed ”“ or have been modified ”“ for this purpose.
Most small companies assign one person or an outside agency (like ourselves) to do most of their social media marketing. And yet, they often overlook the ease and benefits of enabling their own employees (with the proper training) to also use social media for their company”™s benefit.
Here are some ideas:
Ӣ Train employees how to respond and comment to posts on the company pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Ӣ Encourage them to begin and continue public conversations among themselves and with customers and prospects. Utilizing some gamefication goals and incentives as a part of company encouragement are often effective strategies.
Ӣ Have employees talk about upcoming events, the latest posts and even funny happenings at work. (Make sure they are authorized in writing, first.)
Ӣ Relate their areas of expertise online. For example, if theyӪre in a printing company, show some examples of some really difficult job that they did. DonӪt just depend on a company announcement or video. (Incidentally, if your company does release a video on YouTube, make sure all of your employees watch it in its entirety and comment on it. This will help your search engine optimization.)
”¢ Customer service. Let your customers know that they are being heard ”“ quickly and capably. This type of simple action can make a big difference in their perception and future buying actions.
Obviously, there is a risk to this strategy. That”™s where training and a social media policy can make a big difference. It is up to every company to determine whether the benefits outweigh the risk and any additional overhead. However, considering that employees are already online and that they provide a unique insight into the company that can readily be relayed to its target audience through social media, in most cases, the benefits of employee advocates are overwhelming.
Bruce Newman is the vice president at The Productivity Institute L.L.C. He specializes in content creation and digital marketing. Most of his time is spent in the creation of content for webinars and their promotion, email marketing, education and social media campaigns for clients. He is also the creator of the highly popular The Complete Webinar Training Course. He can be reached at bnewman@prodinst.com.
