sunnuntai 11. lokakuuta 2015
Engaging employees in social media marketing
Why is it important to encage employees, so that they will tell about the company and their work on social media?
Well, employees are often the ones who know exactly how customers behave, what they want, as well as what happens regarding the competitors. They get feedback usually directly from their work and are aware of developments in the sector and other general phenomena of what is happening around. They are able to react to it in real time, which is also one of the trends of the time. I believe that the encouragement towards employees and get them this way involved in the social media marketing is worthwhile.
The trend is on the rise at a rapid pace. But, it has not yet been long ago when some of the companies banned its employees from using social media during the workday. We all know this is already an old-fashioned thinking, related to fears that workers tell things that would harm the company or they do not do their work because employee’s individual social media communication is taking time from work. I do not think that these two things needs to be worried about nowadays, not at least so that it would prevent the development. Of course, these threats must strive to eliminate in everyday life itself. Now, when companies are already in social media (or at least they should be there), needs to focus specifically to encourage employees to use social media. And it's the place you can get ideas from and be aware what is happening around.
I think it is absolutely true what Jari Lähdevuori from Kurio told about the trends, that one of the new trends is that companies tend to commit their employees and thereby encourage them to tell about their own work in social media and in this way to participate in the company's social media marketing.
My opinion is that those companies, whose employees communicate in social media about their work, feels more familiar. You can this way kind of have a look "behind the scenes" of the company. It's fun and interesting to read these posts. I think that companies of this kind of transparency also make it easier to recruit new employees, the applicants may already know something real from the work itself and the company’s culture.
Paulig is one of the Finnish companies that have encouraged employees in social media marketing. Read HS's article.
And from this blog-writing you can read tips on how to engage employees in social media marketing.
Jenni 11.10.2015.
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Lähetä kommentteja (Atom)
Good points! I really don't understand the resistance against social media which still seems to be common in many companies. As you mentioned, the employees are the ones who know the business, but the problem is that their potential as marketers has not yet been realized. Maybe it's a question of not wanting to share responsibility, or maybe there's something shady about the company and they can't bear full transparency. Either way, these companies waste their potential and probably even lose customers because people trust more on businesses that interact with them on social media.
VastaaPoistaInteresting topic! I think that the problem might in some cases be that employees don't really know what to publish and maybe the employer haven't been clear about the company's brand. Like it was mentioned in that blogpost you linked, it is important that the company has a consistent voice and therefore everybody should understand the company's brand. This problem could be solved by increasing awareness, training and being more open.
VastaaPoistaGreat topic and relevant to my workplace as well. We had a short social media marketing meeting, and there we discussed about this. One of the key issues there was, just as Riikka commented, employees do not know what to publish or don't know what they are allowed to publish/say publicly about the company. But with certain guidelines this could easily work, and it would be extremely beneficial for the company.
VastaaPoistaThanks Jenni for a great blog post with good links. The forerunner companies in Finland are showing the way to go. Also thanks Kia, Riikka and Miikka for your comments. If there would be guidelines for employees what would be the three-four points to be included in them?
VastaaPoistaGood points Jenni! I agree that company's employees are the ones who know how the customers behave and the ones who see what happens on the field. Employees are closer the customers. And I agree that the social media is a good way to engage employees.
VastaaPoistaBut there is "a dark side" too. For example, I know companies where the employees are not available to take a position on the company's activities on social media. Because otherwise people might think that the activities are biased.