The Comfort Level of Employees and Employers with Social Media

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One of the issues that company executives are concerned about in this age of social media is how their employees are using it and whether it is potentially damaging to the business’s reputation. The approach should be cautious.

What is happening in the world outside should be reflected on a smaller scale inside your company. You, as the business owner, actually have an advantage in this respect because you have more control over the results that come from appropriate and creative use of social media for the success of your business. If you have the high-quality, genuine, integrity-filled employees whom you think you have, their being involved with social media for your business is an intelligent strategic move. Your employees have tremendous capabilities to spread the word about how wonderful and appealing your offerings are. Their network of connections can tell their connections, who can tell their connections, etc. Of course, it is important for your organization to stay on top of all of this social interaction so that it is leveraged in the most effective way possible.

Should you get your managers involved

There are different schools of thought on whether the managers in your company should get involved with social media for your business. One opinion is that they should not get involved in any way and should only do what they have been hired to do. As long as they are successfully completing the work that they are supposed to do, there is nothing else that they need to be concerned about.

The other opinion is that managers should get involved with social media. With the economy in its present state, all employees at all levels should get involved with anything and everything that will contribute positively to the success of the business. This can also help the managers to understand if there are issues that the employees have with the company that may be detrimental. If that information comes to light, it is much easier to nip it in the bud early on than to have to do serious damage control after it has escalated to something that will take a great deal of time and effort to resolve. On many occasions, the managers may learn important information about your employees through social media that they would never learn otherwise. The more understanding they have, the more smoothly everything will run. Of course, it is very important to make sure that your employees are using social media in the most appropriate manner for your business and that the content that they are sharing is business related and not personally distracting. Otherwise, they will be spending a great deal of time that won’t add any value to your business.

Which tool works the most effectively for your employees?

It is a great idea to prepare your employees through training for the approach that you want them to take for your business with social media. The upfront investment in the training will pay off in the long run provided that you have the best employees possible. If you have issues with your employees from the beginning, you may want to consider replacing them with more appropriate and suitable employees. Whichever route you decide to take for your company regarding your employees’ involvement in social media , it is very important to have a formal policy in place. Whatever policy that happens to be, it is critical that you make your employees feel as though their contribution to your business is invaluable. This will build strong loyalty and they will want to do the best possible job for you and for your business.

Conclusion

Being active, dedicated, and consistent when it comes to social media is essential for your business today. This means that, as a business owner, you must have a deep understanding of the social media policy, the way social media works, and the potential that it has for the success of your business. Social media will undoubtedly add a great deal of value to your business and will be a large contributing factor to its success. Your employees are the driving force behind that. If you empower your employees, you will see how important it will be for them to use social media in the most effective way for your business. If your business is successful, they will be successful too.

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Author

  • Carolyn Cohn

    Carolyn Cohn is the Co-Founder & Chief Creative Services of CompuKol Communications. Carolyn manages CompuKol’s creative and editorial department, which consists of writers and editors. Her weekly blogs are syndicated globally. She has decades of editorial experience in online editing, and editing books, journal articles, abstracts, and promotional and educational materials. Carolyn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.

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3 Responses

  1. Joost Boers says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Publishing and editing professionals
    Discussion: The Comfort Level of Employees and Employers with Social Media

    It is the often narrow divide between personal and business. For the business, an entrepreneur/manager want people to get involved in social media, but ideally it should not be too personal. In my opinion (correct me if I am wrong), branded (twitter) accounts are far less effective compared to personal accounts. On FB, this already is caught by the fact that you can just create an account as a person, but a page for the company. It gets problematic if your personal life is non-business according to the boss. I'm not talking about drunk pictures and the like, but just about personal activities or opinions (think of hobbies) that are not in the line of the business thought of the boss. This gets a bit more emphasis as more publishers want to involve Facebook in the daily operations. Then such an – primarily private – Facebook account can cause difficulties. I have solved that issue with a different FB account.

    Main question is in how far the manager/director/entrepreneur is understanding social media. Often the disconfort is caused by the insecurity of the manager.
    Posted by Joost Boers

  2. John Harding says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Facebook & Twitter For Business
    Discussion: The Comfort Level of Employees and Employers with Social Media

    Agreed. It should also be strictly limited to the person or team in charge of administering it. If that person/people are not qualified, the business should seek assistance with training, hire someone qualified for the task or outsource their SM strategy. Too many businesses right now are either dismissing SM altogether (mistake) or not taking it with as much gravity as any other major component of their business (mistake). Fact is, a poorly run SM strategy could undo years of building a company or shut it down altogether…
    Posted by John Harding

  3. Klaus Schliebe says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Facebook & Twitter For Business
    Discussion: The Comfort Level of Employees and Employers with Social Media

    Correct, and we experienced a similar situation with email in the old days.
    If a business doesn’t have an SM strategy and policy in place reputation and productivity will suffer. It is too easy to mix private interests and business obligations when being online.
    Posted by Klaus Schliebe