At this point, almost every business understands the value social media brings to their business. Whether it is brand visibility, web traffic, or lead generation, social is typically a main strategy that is included in marketing and sales.
With the growth and importance of social media over the years, another important strategy that complements marketing is employee advocacy. The concept is simply getting employees of any department to advocate and share the brand messages to their social networks.
Getting more than your marketing or sales departments active on social leads to exponential brand growth and a way to tap into new markets or more prospects at a quicker more effective rate.
A Nielsen study showed that 84% of people trust recommendations from friends, family, colleagues over other forms of marketing. Just one stat that shows why getting employees involved in sharing content and your brand online makes sense.
Yet, even if your company makes it easier for employees to get involved and share with employee advocacy software, many still feel intimidated or not comfortable with getting involved.
It can be a natural feeling and totally understandable. In order to prepare employees better for social media marketing, you’ll need to follow a few of the tips below.
Don’t block social media from employees
Although a pretty obvious point, surprisingly there are still a lot of companies that block access to social media sites (besides those working in marketing) for fear of distractions or lack of productivity.
Certainly, social media can be a time suck or time waster. But if your goal or interest in getting your brand messages to further audiences, blocking is absolutely not a good option.
As a manager or executive, it’s easy to get concerned that employees will just ignore their work and get lost in their social media accounts.
However, according to a survey by Microsoft, 46 percent of workers say their productivity has improved because of social media and social tools. Additionally, 37 percent wish their organization’s management would embrace social media tools in the workplace in order to increase productivity.
Research by the University of California, Irvine team mentioned in this Forbes article found occasionally visiting social media sites can work as a mood booster and can give your workforce a “mental palate cleanser.”
Have a simple and accessible social media policy
Of course, there could be some employees that stray and spend maybe a bit too much time on social media while at work. However, to defer that, it’s important a clear and easily accessible social…
