April 28, 2020

A quick and effective way to increase your presence on social media and to increase your employee brand is to ask your employees to share more about your business on social media.

But, to do this you need guidelines.  Below are the steps to think about when you embark on company-wide posting:

Create a clear social media guideline for your employees to follow

As a marketer, we consider social media a second home, but the same may not be true for all of your employees.  They are great at posting on their own social media profiles, but posting from a business/professional perspective is totally different.  Research has shown that a significant number of employees feel that they haven’t been given clear guidelines for approaching social media. And, with an increasing amount of stories about employees being fired for something that they have posted, it’s one of the many reasons why it’s a good idea to create a social media guide that will introduce your employees to social media from a professional point of view.

Having your employees engaged in the social media activity builds on your brand and it makes business more personal and human – all media presence should reflect that.  They should be an important part of your social media strategy.

The guide can be as extensive as you wish, but should cover the following areas:

Give engagement guidance

Once you get your program rolling, you’ll be encouraging employees to jump onto conversations about your brand online, so one part of your social media guideline should be listing the rules your employees should adhere to. Here are some key points to address when engaging with customers on social media:

• Identify the types of customers employees should not engage with online. Teach them how to recognise and avoid trolls and other negative comments that don’t warrant a response.
• Share your most frequently asked questions (FAQs) and official responses as a guide. Having this will give employees the confidence to jump in. Reading the answers to FAQs will also familiarise them with the tone of voice used in each situation. However, you don’t want everyone to simply repeat the same sentence from the guide. Instead, encourage employees to use their own words when possible.
• Make sure employees only promise what they know they can deliver.
• When it comes to the actual response, employees might struggle with striking the right tone between professional and personal. When in doubt, their responses should be factually accurate, polite and respectful. And of course, correct spelling and grammar!

Give branding guidance

Identify key brand elements that employees should pay attention to when communicating with customers on social media. While each employee should make those interactions their own, they should also be mindful of your brand persona and voice, and the feel of your messages and responses online.

If your brand persona involves using business language, you might not want employees taking a casual tone. On the flip side, a trendy brand, like Innocent Drinks (who have got it so right btw) might not want their employees to use a stiff, professional voice while communicating with customers on social media.

Give platform behaviour guidance

If you want your staff to feel confident enough to share content or engage in conversations online, you have to teach them about the rules of communication on different social media platforms. How often have you seen people sharing content on LinkedIn that’s more appropriate for Instagram? There are differences between all platforms so, to avoid confusion, give platform-specific guidelines to your employees

Create a branded hashtag to curate employee posts

Creating a unique branded hashtag is a clever way to use hashtags to your advantage. A dedicated hashtag will make it easy to round up the posts your employees have published and to re-share them on the company’s official account. When someone clicks on your branded hashtag, they’ll see a combination of posts that show the other more personal side of your brand.

Encouraging your employees to use the company hashtag will also make it easier for you to monitor what they’re sharing. Despite having the best intentions, sometimes they may not always represent your company appropriately. Regularly reviewing their posts will help you quickly spot content that may be perceived as negative.

You’ll also be able to identify employees who have the potential to do more in their role as brand advocates.

Remember to share day-to-day moments at work

People are much more inclined to engage with social media posts from friends or acquaintances than from brands. Content that isn’t heavily branded—not just an advertisement—and that displays the human side of your business is more likely to resonate with your audience.

So how do you achieve this?  Encourage your employees to share moments from the office that made them smile or brightened their day.  Ask them to post photos from events like office birthday celebrations or memorable days such as ‘bring your dog to work day’. Also, make sure to capture meetings & events that present a positive brand image overall.

Having your employees actively participate in building your company culture and sharing snippets of it on social media platforms will improve brand awareness and boost your company’s image.

You can also use your employees to gather your social media content.  Create a shared file for interesting photos. This will allow you to create a feed filled with candid photographs, capturing all of those small moments and interactions in the office or in your place of business that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Share Employee Posts on Your Company Social Media Channels

The best way to signal to your employees that they’re a welcome part of your social media presence is by taking that first step and including them and their content on the company social media platforms.

Posts that like this, which are a little imperfect from a technical standpoint but quite heartwarming from the human standpoint, are bound to win the hearts of both your audience and employees.

Conclusion

To better connect with their customers, more than 90{75f288e9ca768cce955a9bb5791c151328b004b83ccd83e596fac878249828cc} of all brands consider social media a trusted tool. And while an official profile of your brand on a social media platform is a great place to start, you can get better outreach and increased brand awareness by tapping into an asset your company already has, your employees.

Employee advocates on social media can give your business a much-wanted boost but you must communicate what’s in it for them throughout this process. Many will appreciate the opportunity to build thought leadership. But for those who aren’t comfortable sharing work-related posts on their personal profiles, don’t pressure them to do so.

To get better results from this initiative, it’s important to produce a guide that addresses engagement, branding, and platform-specific interactions and make it available to all employees.

If you need help producing your Employee Social Media Guideline, just let me know.