0833-business-1100021594-10182013There are many companies – large, medium, and small – that fear the use of social media by employees. Many go to great lengths to block social media sites in the workplace.

They focus on the potential drawbacks of social media: inappropriate comments by employees, divulgence of intellectual property, risk of negative feedback from customers/clients, productivity losses, etc. All of these are potential issues and, interestingly, they all relate to disengagement.  Companies know that a majority of their employees are disengaged and rather than address those issues, they choose to throw up a firewall to try to prevent the spread of disengagement.

Unfortunately for companies, if an employee or customer wants to call you out for whatever reason, they have plenty of sites from which to select, i.e., Glassdoor.com, Salary.com, Angie’s List, Better Business Bureau, etc.  And, in most cases, they can do it all anonymously.

Why not embrace your employees’ use of social media and use it as an opportunity to engage and support them in their social media endeavors?

 

How companies can benefit from social media

Social Media can be a measure of employee engagement. Engaged employees will want to help promote the company. Employees who are Not Engaged will be focused on what’s in it for them without much regard to how it would benefit the company.  And the Actively Disengaged, well, they are the ones anonymously posting negative information about the company anyway.

Social media offers additional avenues for disseminating information and helps employees and customers/clients become more informed about the company. Here are a few examples:

  • Companies that offer ready-made, easily-uploaded content for social media sites will be able to monitor the number of downloads and/or page views in order to gain insight into what content employees are most interested.
  • Content developed for social media sites can be repurposed for company meetings and/or for use in team meetings. This helps support frontline mangers and helps to make sure everyone has the same information at the same time.
  • The employees’ networks can leveraged to gain broader exposure of a company’s messaging through trusted sources.
  • The company may be able to identify thought leaders, SMEs (subject matter experts), high-potentials, etc. This provides the company with employee development opportunities. By association, these influential employees can enhance the reputation of the company.
  • Employee referrals are becoming a larger focus in recruiting efforts. Helping employees build and expand their network ultimately expands the pool of potential referred candidates for open roles.
  • Employee postings on social media help reveal the company’s culture. This allows potential applicants to determine if they would fit into the organization and could increase the quality of the applicant pool.
  • Social media could lead to an increase in the company’s applicant pool for open roles. People want to work with companies that support their employees.  Increased exposure allows people to learn more about your company than they might have otherwise known and thus, increase the potential number of applications received.
  • Increased exposure can lead to additional followers on the company’s social media sites.

 

How employees can benefit from social media

Participating in  social media can help employees establish a personal brand and further engage them with their company. Here are a few examples:

  • Having a strong social media presence will help employees and customer/clients become better informed.  Most companies think they are communicating effectively and yet, employees feel like they are kept in the dark. Social media provides additional methods to disseminate information. Engaged employees would welcome any additional resources.
  • Employees can establish and build a reputation within their networks. This can be made easier for the employee if the company offers ready-made, easily-uploaded content for social media sites. When an employee’s reputation is enhanced, the company benefits by association.
  • Employees can establish themselves as thought leaders or SMEs and potentially be identified by the company as a high potential employee.
  • As employee referrals grow in importance, employees could benefit financially should they refer a candidate to the company that is eventually hired. Employees who are Not Engaged would see this as an option to put more referral bonus dollars in their pockets with the secondary benefit of helping the company.
  • A larger pool of referral candidates should lead to stronger, better skilled new hires that will help raise the expectations and productivity of current employees.
  • Based on the information shared through social media, employees could gain additional followers on their individual social media sites.

 

How companies should support social media in the workplace and beyond

Before any benefits can be realized, a company must have a Social Media Strategy in place and share it with employees in order to help them know what social media sites are supported, what messaging is appropriate for each site, and the rules around how to use them to promote the both the company and employee.

Companies should help their employees improve their social media knowledge. This must be voluntary; the employee must want to participate.  Forced compliance will only backfire and ultimately hurt the company.

While the supported social media sites may vary by company, LinkedIn should be at the top of the list.

LinkedIn. Companies should offer classes/tutorials on how to optimize an employee’s LinkedIn profile.  As the importance of LinkedIn grows, companies should encourage employees to use Linkedin to grow their networks, to stay up-to-date with industry news/information, and to contribute to relevant conversations. Better connected employees can increase your referral pool and enhance the likelihood of problem-solving since they can more easily leverage internal company knowledge and source  information/ advice from outside of the organization.

I know that some of you are thinking, “Wait a minute! Why would I help my employees become more discoverable/ marketable and allow the possibility that some other company will lure them away?”  That’s always a possibility. I would argue that the employees would be more loyal to your company because you are focusing on their development. Regardless, the key is that as a company, you must to continually concentrate on employee engagement.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. These social media sites are the most popular and can be used to for news, company insights, new products or services, conferences, speaking engagements, charitable work, etc. The more a company can help its employees leverage these sites, the more the company will benefit in terms of increased exposure.

 

Final Thoughts

Social media like employee engagement requires an investment of time and sustained effort. Supporting your employees in their social media endeavors can benefit your company and the individual employee.

 

What are your thoughts on employee engagement and social media? In what way does your company demonstrate its support?

 

P.S.  First time here? Welcome to the Agent In Engagement site. Thanks for taking the time to stop by!  I hope you’ll explore the rest of the site. Let me know what employee engagement topics interest you.

Other recent Agent in Engagement articles by Gregory F Simpson:

 

 

Let’s Engage!

I’m Agent in Engagement Simpson…Gregory F Simpson.

I’m excited about this opportunity to connect with fellow “Agents.” Subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive the latest updates and/or register  to comment on posts.

 

GFS site photoYou can follow me @agtinengagement.
Email me at g…@a…t.com.
Learn more about me at www.gregoryfsimpson.com.