Since joining my organisation, I've made a concerted effort to grow our following on social media. A number of our staff are active on social media and will engage with the organisation's posts. However, the majority either do not engage, or have little to no presence on social media.
In our organisation of more than 70 people, it would be great if we could engage more of our staff to participate in our social media channels. To this end, I am embarking on a social media awareness and training project and I thought I would share it here in case others find it useful.
Just a note - we are a not-for-profit service organisation in the life sciences sector. We use LinkedIn, Twitter and most recently, Facebook.
Why should staff engage with the company's posts on social media.
It strengthens our brand and extends our reach.
To drive people to our website.
To grow our network.
Ultimate Aim: to develop brand ambassadors.
Social Media is a great tool for connecting with our clients.
A large number of our clients use social media every day and with engagement and nurturing, they can become brand ambassadors for us.
How can staff help?
Your staff can get involved in a number of ways:
They can tell your clients about your social media channels, passively through their email signatures, and also actively, by engaging them in conversation: Did you see our post about xyz recently? It really highlighted our commitment to innovation and xxx.
They can actively like, share and comment on your posts on each channel. If this isn’t something that they are used to doing, they can try setting aside a specific time, such as while they are on public transport, or when they're at morning tea, or while they’re waiting for Game of Thrones to start :)
They can provide interesting content for you to share on your social media channels (eg client stories, client testimonials, new products, new techniques, tips and tricks). Let's face it, your sales team is the front line. They are the ones engaging with your clients on a daily basis and they are the ones who can report back on what's happening in the field.
Finally, they can share interesting content related to the services or products that your organisation offers, and tag your company when they do so.
Note - it is vitally important that your organisation has a Social Media Policy in place. This policy should outline expected behaviours and repercussions for not adhering to the policy. I could write an entirely new post about Social Media Policy. A number of templates exist online, or I would be happy to share mine with you.
Of course, it's not compulsory for your staff to be involved, and they can be as involved as they want to be. But if they do want to be involved, it's important that they understand what you need from them.
I have been approached by some of our staff who want to be involved but who don't know how to get started. This ranges from people who feel embarrassed because they don't know what Twitter is, to people who have social media accounts but aren't active users.
I've come up with a very simple survey to get started, to find out what level people are at, and to help me prepare the training.
Are You Socially Savvy?
Do you use Social Media?
If yes, which platforms?
Do you need help setting up your accounts?
Already got your account sorted and just need help figuring out how to engage?
The next phase will be to help the "newbies" set up their social media accounts. After that I will guide them through each channel and then finally, I will help them to come up with a schedule for interacting with our specific posts.
I hope you found this article useful. I'm excited to get started with this project.
Please connect with me here and on other social media channels if you'd like to see more of my work.
