Corporate communications has the double challenge of communicating internal messages while ever building the company brand. A third challenge presents itself when corporations implement company-wide social media initiatives because employees need more direction for a united, consistent result.
How can corporate communications help employees help their company by using social media in a united, consistent way?
Cydney Koukol of Talent+, a leading human resources consulting firm, advises that employees generally want to help the company promote itself in social media, but either are hesitant about how to start into the realm having never entered, or do not really know what the company would like.
Including employees in social media brand building efforts builds the brand amongst employees. Physically participating in social media to build the company's brand also increases employee commitment, and invokes a sense of unity and pride in helping their company in an alternative to the way than in their everyday jobs.
In order to move your employees forward in the social space, you can:
- Show employees the impact of social media today with some statistics or information in an infographic, article or video as you'd find on Econsultancy.
- Provide language and examples of what the company would like to see promoted in the social media other than shares, likes and retweets of company blogs and press releases.
- Share the impact of the employee social media activity with the employees if able and appropriate.
Companies can additionally relationship-build with employees by thanking them for their participation in supportive social media efforts and increase loyalty and goodwill in a cost effective manner.
Engaging employee social media use on behalf of the company goes a long way in building both the company brand as well as employee commitment and productivity and with the right guidelines in place, you can bring your brand to even more customers through your biggest advocates - your employees.
Reader comments (5)
7:09AM on 20th November 2012
Tools like HootSuite support "maker-checker" functionality so that companies can approve tweets created by their employees before they go out to social networks. Realtime social intelligence platforms like Radian6 and our own HEATMAP360 enable companies to monitor the content and sentiment of tweets posted by their employees. Many users have reported that they've been able to spot satisfied employees and engage with them to drive referrals for new employees as also identify disgruntled employees of competitors and entice them to join their own companies.
7:21AM on 20th November 2012
Really quality information, thank you so much. Reading this post was a great pleasure, thanks for your efforts.
Digital Marketing Executive at Koozai
9:04AM on 20th November 2012
I think your second point - "Provide language and examples of what the company would like to see promoted in the social media other than shares, likes and retweets of company blogs and press releases" - is particularly important.
Too often you see company employees on social media only pushing content from their own companies. After attending a conference last week I was educated about the 90/10 rule - where 90% of what you post should be based on your industry and 10% should be specific to your company in order to build an effective community around your brand. As contributing factors to a brand, I think it is a good idea to have your employees abide by the same rule.
12:09PM on 21st November 2012
If you are going to embark on any program that involves employees taking to the ethernet to promote your brand then you need to set them clear guidelines as to what is and what is not acceptable. Yes, you do want them to show their love for your brand but what you do not want them doing is tearing your competitors apart in a way that could potentially cause a backlash against your company.
Companies need to have a content management strategy so that employees are aware of what is expected from them and this in turn will give your employees confidence in what they are saying about their brand.
Gemma made a great point about using a 90/10 rule.
marketer at REDSteel
3:37PM on 23rd November 2012
Why is there a need to promote the company brand among employees? What if you give them the power to promote the brand, but they hate the company...what then? "You can promote the brand, but only in a good way" that doesn't seem natural and people on social media will see thru it. This is a very poor topic, and seems forced.
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