Whether it’s divulging privileged information or mishandling an upset customer (every solid business has at least a few) social media mishaps can tank a business’s reputation. Fortunately, social media is also an easy and economical way to build a great image and build branding awareness.
We’re going to throw a dart blindfolded and guess your company has some sort of social media presence. Having established that, the question is how productive is your social media policy?
Here are 3 ways to implement a policy your new hires won’t groan about during their on-boarding training.
- Offer some (guided) freedom. If you don’t trust them, they probably shouldn’t be employees. Maybe you don’t want all of your employees to have access to your pages, but you could still encourage them to write or submit posts. Have them send their ideas to a designated person and let that person do the posting. This way, you are still allowing your employee to be creative, but you are able to implement some quality control.
- Provide great content for your employees to share. You have an army of employees with potentially thousands of social media connections on their personal pages. Encouraging them to share your posts will generate great traffic and buzz. But give them content to be proud of and that their connections would actually want to read. They will not want to inundate their friends and family with boring corporate jargon. Fun events, silly office photos, and employee accomplishments are all much more share-worthy alternatives for Facebook and Twitter. Company accomplishments and industry news works well for LinkedIn.
- Engage your employees. When a company gives social media guidelines, employees might actually feel more encouraged to use social media because they have some standards to follow. If they are not given any guidelines, they may not share or post anything work related in fear of getting in trouble. But if you do provide them with clear expectations, they will be able to post and share with confidence.
Too many companies have repressive guidelines and policies that hinder employee engagement. How can a business reasonably expect employee involvement if this remains the case? Many companies have an iron grip on their social media – and it shows in dull, lifeless branding.
Employing the right people you can trust to follow your social media policy is half the battle. Whether you’re looking for contract consulting or a permanent, in-house employee – Cutting Edge Recruiting Solutions has a solution. We maintain a large pool of IT talent in South Florida in diverse business cultures. Contact us today to see how we can help grow your business.
