Who knows your company inside and out? Your employees. Employee participation in social media is an influential way of building trust with your customers. When employees are active on social media, they promote your company culture by providing insight into your business. Company culture can often feel intangible, but your company culture is what keeps employees loyal to the brand, and you can capitalize on that employee loyalty.
Your employees are already using social media, and as more Gen Zers enter the workforce, the use of social media will continue to rise. Employee social media engagement helps promote culture by giving employees more insight into company goings-on. The trustworthy and authentic voices of your employees build brand credibility and improve brand image.
Why You Need Employee Social Media Engagement
Your employees have followers that you don’t. When your employees act as trustworthy voices for your company, they have a greater reach than corporate accounts, and their followers are more likely to convert. Their social posts build authenticity and work to improve your brand’s image and credibility.
A survey from Global Web Index shows that the average adult Internet user spends over two hours a day on social networking and messaging platforms, and that usage is only increasing every year. Leverage the time your employees are already spending online and let it benefit your company. When you let your employees have a voice for the company, it makes your business a more attractive place to work for future employees, improving the culture, and giving your followers a peek inside. It can even improve employee retention, making employees feel more connected to each other and the company as a whole.
It’s likely that your employees are already sharing about your brand, whether you have a formal employee social media engagement guide or not. When you provide guidelines and resources, it standardizes how employees share brand content and makes it easier for them to do so. Employees might share company events, holiday celebrations, volunteer outings, or company press releases. In addition to re-sharing what the company page is posting, employees frequently create their own original content. Employee advocacy doesn’t just benefit your brand; there are rewards for employees as well. Employees who continuously share high-quality content will demonstrate themselves as thought-leaders and influencers. Their posts can enhance their industry credibility and position themselves as experts in their fields.
Employee Social Media Engagement Guide
In order to be successful with your employment social media efforts, you need a well-thought-out implementation strategy. You can start building your own employee advocacy strategy with these important steps:
Update Your Social Media Policy
Updating your social media policy is something that you don’t want to do haphazardly. Mitigate any risks to your company by providing employees with a sound social media policy. Start by updating any social media policies you currently have. At a minimum, your social media policy should include details on sharing confidential business information, posting content that is illegal, or sharing any information that is defamatory, derogatory, or inflammatory. Review your company’s business objectives and align them with your social media policy. Clearly-defined goals make it easier for your employees to reach them. When you are finished with the updates, recirculate the policy to both employees and executives.
Train Your Employees
While your employees are likely already using social media, social media skill levels among employees will vary across your company. It’s important to educate your employees and teach them about brand advocacy. Create a training program for teaching employees how to use the various social media platforms as well as how to write social posts for your business. Share your company’s social media strategy and let them know their part as an employee advocate. Help these employees understand why their outside connections are valuable and how they can help the company reach a new audience. Provide employees with examples of the kind of content you’d like them to share, but never mandate when or exactly what they share. Encourage your employees to share what naturally excites them about your brand. Your goal should be to instill confidence in your employees as you train them on how to best use social media.
Remember that not every employee has to, needs to, or wants to be part of an advocacy program. You might start a small pilot program, filled with employees who are already promoting your brand. You’ll simply need to identify these enthusiastic participants. Once you have trained your first group of employees, you can continue to refine your social media policy and training and then roll out a full-scale employee advocacy program. Keep in mind that employee training isn’t a one-time event. In fact, training your employee advocates should be ongoing. Continue to update your policy and company goals as you go.
With the right planning and training, your employees can become one of your most effective marketing and sales tools. Enthusiasm is contagious, so make your employee social media engagement fun and easy. When your employees are excited about your company, they’re more likely to share brand content on social media.
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