As more and more employees get involved on social media sites, its important to know how to explain social media to them, as well as encourage their use of social media in a way that also considers proprietary information, and speaking positively about the company. At the same time, it’s also important to respect that each employee has his/her own voice and that s/he will be talking about every day life, including work, on social media. So what can you do to help your employees with social media?
1. Don’t tell them to talk about the company all the time, unless they happen to be your social media manager. Do ask them to be positive about the company, fellow employees, and clients of the company, or refrain from saying anything.
2. Don’t micro-manage everything they do on social media. Not only is it weird to have a boss looking over your shoulder, but chances are they’re mainly using social media to stay up on what’s happening with friends and family. Respect their privacy, as you would hope they would yours.
3. Make sure employees know what they can’t do on social media, but also encourage them to be active participants. For example, you may not want an employee to set-up a company social media account without checking in and explaining how it’ll be used, but it is good for that employee to actively comment and participate on forums as him/herself.
Remember that your employees do represent your business. Trust them to represent it, but also provide guidelines that them. You could include suggestions for how they can use different social media sites successfully, or tips for how to blog better…but most importantly encourage them to be active and be themselves instead of trying to repress their voices.
What do you do to help your employees with social media?
