Today's blog post deviates from our regular content to share some hints and tips regarding social media interaction in the workplace.
In an era where digital marketing is steadily becoming the new normal, employee participation in social sharing is more crucial than ever to help maximize company brand awareness, engagement and conversion rates. But what happens when schedules are too hectic, other priorities are in the way, and while they see and appreciate the value, they just 'don't have the time'.
So how can we change this dynamic in the workplace?
Here are a few tips to help get your co-workers on the social media bandwagon:
1) Start a weekly 'Tweet Chat'
This is a unique and fun way to entice your colleagues to take part in contributing content for social media.You collectively decide on a theme and relevant hashtag, and then everyone begins sharing relevant content with that hashtag, including the posting of a blog surrounding the theme.
By the end of the week, have a short 'tweet chat' using a platform called Crowd Chat- a service that lets businesses have real-time group conversations about topics based on hashtags. It's a great way to pull the team together and focus on one universal topic. Consider doing this once a month centred around a topic relevant to your organization.
2) Create and Circulate Pre-Written Content
I personally endorse this as being a very effective method having used it myself. Give your team members pre-written content optimized for major social media networks, (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) in the form of a 'Share This' email or newsletter on a weekly basis. If the work is already done for them, chances are they will make the time to simply cut and paste or personalize the content into their own social media channels. Better yet, you can incorporate social media share links directly beside each post in the body of your communication to make it even easier to simply 'click and post' directly to individual social channels.
3) Encourage Friendly Competition
This strategy always seems to work wonders with motivating team members to get more involved. Sweeten the pot by offering a tangible reward for the person who shows the most social media engagement participation in the last month. You are guaranteed to get the attention of your team when there is some kind of incentive in it for them at the end of it. There is a service called GaggleAMP which enables the automatic scoring of social activity to eliminate manual tracking. This can help in determining prize winners, awarding recognition, etc.
4) Organize a Lunch & Learn
Get all your colleagues in a room over lunch for a brainstorming session in a relaxed atmosphere to open up doors to good conversations regarding the importance of social media. If you have a team of sellers, they might be surprised to learn that companies are increasingly turning to social media to help generate more of their opportunities. That alone will likely pique their interest enough to learn more and begin contributing. If you have a handful of colleagues who are engaging, consider highlighting their efforts by having them share their success stories as a way of motivating other team members. Another option could be to invite a speaker to the meeting to discuss their best practices.
Bottom line: we live in a digital age where the importance lies in sharing engaging content, expanding its reach to a wider audience, and strengthening the relationships being developed through your organization's social presence - and the best way to achieve this is through a collaborative effort. As the saying goes, more heads are better than one.
If you would like to learn more about maximizing digital interaction in your organization, please don't hesitate to email me or call 1-866-610-8489 x311.
Regards,
Sarah Warsi
Marketing Coordinator
Sentia