At first, conventional wisdom indicated that social media was important to attract customers. Now, we know social media affects far more.
Social media affects your company’s culture – probably as much as the employees who engage in gossip at the water cooler.
It’s true. Your company’s reputation is affected internally and externally by social-networking sites.
Why? You can be either respected or scorned on social media depending on the mood swings of your workers.
But surely, you want to make sure that social media and your culture bond well.
The trick is for human resources professionals and company executives to know how to enhance recruitment efforts and workplace culture with social networking sites.
How do social media affect your business? Not sure? Take prudent steps to capitalize on it.
Here are five HR-social media tips:
1. Learn how social media affects your company’s reputation among your employees.
You need to know what’s going on. You need to monitor social media to learn what is said and what isn’t.
For example, if you engage your employees and show the right amount of appreciation, positive comments will appear on social media.
However, bear in mind employees who are disenchanted are going to be relentless in complaining about your company.
Either way, employees who were previously unaware – of either their satisfied or dissatisfied co-workers – will be influenced by what they see.
2. Check the social-media sharing to develop image-enhancing strategies.
In effect, employees’ social-media sharing brands you positively or negatively. Scrutinize the employee social sharing.
There are about 300 social-networking sites. At the minimum, you need to observe Facebook, Glassdoor, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Develop strategies that will enhance your company’s culture and image.
3. Persuade senior executives to share on social sites.
Google the key phrase, “business leaders on social media,” and you’ll be surprised. Depending the day of the week, Google will indicate the key phrase has more than 100-million search results.
Surely, your executives will see an external marketplace benefit for their companies and for them, personally.
There are also benefits internally. Note that such executives appear more approachable to their employees.
Many employees will feel better about them as a boss. That is, if employees feel they can use social media to connect with company bosses.
Social media affects your company’s culture – probably as much as the employees who engage in gossip at the water cooler.
4. Develop social-networking strategies along with a new company policy.
Social media is a reality. You can either capitalize on it or suffer ramifications by not moving forward.
Join the social-media bandwagon with other successful companies.
By endorsing what your employees are going to keep doing – no matter what you think – you’ll enhance your organization’s internal culture, your image as a desirable employer, and your ability to sell products and services in the marketplace.
However, there are a couple of caveats:
The trend has caught the attention of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which can dictate your social media policy.
Your company policy also needs to guard against the unprecedented dangers from employees using your company computers for social-networking. Take appropriate safety measures to thwart social-network attacks.
5. Develop and implement an social-media intranet.
Take social media internally. Create a private group on Facebook where only company employees can join.
In this way, employee won’t be mixing their personal social-media sharing with your business.
Another option worth considering is to create another in-house social-media system.
If you do, your employees will be able to communicate with executives, offer tips for company growth, profitable ideas for efficiency, and to have professional-level communication with one another.
Bottom-line
You’ll be using social media to benefit the welfare of your organization.
Morale will be stronger. Employees will appreciate an open communication. They’ll become more aligned with your company’s mission.
Externally on the Internet, employees will be more likely to convey positive information about your company.
All of these are important ingredients for organizational growth.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are links to related articles:
UCLA Psychologists Tell What Triggers People to Share on Social Media — Buzz. Marketers, senior managers, business owners, and consultants crave it for revenue. Career-minded individuals engaged in self-promotion also want it. Another term for buzz is the “salesperson effect.” For the first time, we learn how ideas are spread, what messages go viral on social media, and how to predict it.
Understanding Customers — Social Media Humbles Companies — Marketing is the understanding of your customer for the cost-effective process of selling the right product or service at the right time and at the right price. Inexplicably, Verizon joins the list of big companies failing to understand how poor research and judgment would draw fire from their customers and social media.
Insights into How Twitter Users Can Forge Opinion — If you want to influence public opinion on Twitter, the trick is to get your message out early. Once your message is stabilized on the social medium, it’s too difficult for your competitors to overcome your lead according to research released in 2014. The researchers’ conclusions show how marketers and politicians can achieve greater awareness to influence public opinion.
Make Your Blogging, Social Media and PR Work to Attract Fans — Businesspeople have discovered social media is a work in progress. It takes huge amounts of time, not only to implement innovations, but to succeed.
“Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service to community.”
-Simon Mainwaring
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