Social media is rapidly becoming a prime element for businesses. It's utilized to increase brand exposure, generate leads, and help create meaningful relationships with customers all with little to no budget. While this is great for marketers and sales representatives, what about other employees? Should any employee be allowed to tweet, post, or otherwise about your company? The common practice of many companies is to discourage employees from talking to the world about their company. Many employees are even banned from using any form of social media to discuss their place of employment. One communications company,
Mitel, has been in business for more than four decades but their name may not resonate with most because of their low profile. The company’s chief marketing officer, Martyn Etherington, is going against the grain and using social media to change that. In March 2014, the company had 30 employees actively engaged in social media, by November that number had grown to 1,600 people. That's 1,600 brand ambassadors who are actively engaged and growing the Mitel brand. Your employees can be your biggest brand ambassadors and having that "social trust" in them can result in big payoffs. Here are some ideas to help get your employees involved in social media while protecting your brand:
- Find an example to follow - Etherington followed the book “The Social Employee: How Great Companies Make Social Media Work”. The book argues that the company should “ensure that our employees understand and embrace that we are all stewards of our brand”
- Consider training - Etherington developed social training sessions for his staff to teach them how to use social media to support their business initiatives
- “Canned" posts and tweets ease the way - These would be Tweets or Facebook posts that employees can cut and paste whenever the company puts out an announcement. It takes away the fear employees may have about what to post and how to post it.
- Trust employees as ambassadors - Communicate to employees the importance of using their best judgment, don't put anything on social that you wouldn’t say to someone in person, be respectful of competitors, but most of all focus on understanding and serving customers as best as possible.
Mitel even started a program called “Mitel Champions” which issues social challenges for employees who publish via social media or complete a challenge to get points. The more important the message or challenge, the higher the points reward. The company has leaderboards and uses awards such as $100 gift cards to recognize successes. It takes a lot of trust and faith in employees to uphold your brand promise but it can be worth the risk.
Click here to read the 10 benefits of social media for business!
