Mark Clark, VP of Digital Solutions at .
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Many business leaders are paralyzed with fear that employees may damage their brand online while also too afraid to restrict social media participation. The result is that many companies have no policy at all for fear of making the wrong one. However, a clear social media policy is only part of the equation for a successful use of social media. Many companies trust their employees to be their brand ambassadors everywhere but online, and this must change.
Below, based on my experience in directing our social media team as well as mentoring our sales team using LinkedIn to reach clients, I will outline some key ingredients to a safe yet effective online social media presence.
Create social media training and certification.
I certainly don’t advocate for extremes of either no rules or completely restricting individuality. But training is a necessity in all parts of business. Let your employees know that in order to specifically use their social media presence for business development, they need a quick certification to protect your brand.
Keep this certification quick and automated if possible. Set up an expiration for the certification and interval for recertification. Make employees aware of the types of content that are allowed and what is not encouraged. These instructions should be as clear as possible but also allow for individuality. For instance, you may want to discourage employees from commenting on a negative post or engaging in an argument with their business profile. Many employees are careful to separate the profiles they use for work and the profiles they use for engaging with their immediate friends and family.
Keep it positive.
There is enough negativity in the world today, so I recommend that posts remain positive and upbeat on business profiles. Have your social media manager set the tone with engaging posts that your employees would like to share on their own timelines.
As a part of training, let them know what types of personal captions they should add to a post in order to engage their followers in a company post. Encourage them to share a short, personal experience relating to the product or service. Help them be an expert in your field by sharing relevant news and statistics on your corporate page. Their followers will begin to see them as a consultant in their market.
Tag employees in company posts.
Many social media platforms measure the engagement of a post within the first five minutes in order to determine where it will fall in the algorithm initially. The more a post is seen in regular feeds, the more engagement it will get. As the post receives more engagement, it will be shown in the feeds of people outside your immediate network. This can quickly add up to a fair amount of exposure. If employees have been trained to engage company posts and are made aware of when a post is made, they can supercharge your company efforts.
Throw out tired social media calendars.
I have a habit of looking to see how many followers a company page has on LinkedIn. It is no surprise to me that many companies have an extremely small following on their company pages. Tired, impersonal company posts from a social media calendar are often to blame.
Followers enjoy personal content and engaging stories. I have seen many terribly boring social media calendars being shared by B2B companies in which they encourage their customers to be as boring as they are.
Begin to think of your corporate page as a way to empower employees to make meaningful posts. Their reach may be far beyond your corporate page. Examine the elements of posts that are currently viral or highly engaged in your current feed. Write down the elements that made the post engaging.
Have a quarterly social media contest.
I have seen many contests created for end customers with little or no effect on the engagement of a page. This is a good idea, but slightly off target. Create a company social media contest in which employees can compete for the post with the most engagement. Since it is likely that one or two individuals may dominate this contest due to a large following, be sure to limit how many times per year the same individual is eligible.
The goal is to engage new audiences with your company message. This is accomplished best by having a variety of employees engaging with their audience. One reward to consider is a paid subscription to LinkedIn Sales Navigator for a period of time. This tool allows for greater levels of lead prospecting and connection.
Conclusion
Social media doesn't have to be scary for PR managers, and ignoring its potential power in the digital sales world can be costly. A well-managed social media strategy for employees can yield massive benefits for sales and corporate image.
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