By: Matt See
Online Career Tips StaffÂ
There is a new battle within social media.Â
No, this battle doesn’t have to do with the Winkelvoss Twins. The battle is whether employees should be allowed to be on social media sites during work hours.Â
Many managers shutter at the thoughts of their employees posting on Facebook all day. What if they spend all of their time on the site and never accomplish any of their tasks? What if they are posting negative things about our company? These are all scary thoughts to any manager, but after today I hope to show you that the benefits outweigh the risks.Â
See my five ways to set your employees up for social media success in the workplace:Â
- Your Employees Are Your Biggest Asset – Empower your employees to be your voice. Your employees can help build your fan base and strengthen your company’s loyalty and voice in the social media space.  Â
- First Thing’s First, Set Expectations – How do you want your employees to interact with your company via social media? Ask your employees to help you build your social media presence online. Growing a brand via social media is the latest and hottest trend. Good employee involvement will help you catch fire and grown your brand via social media. Ask your employees to tweet or post sales, events and promotions.
- Guarantee Freedom – Let your employees know right up front that when commenting on your business you will not be hovering over their shoulders 24/7. A good manager won’t analyze every comment etc. Treating your employees with respect. You would like for them to present the company in a good light. If they don’t want you to see their personal photos etc., that is fine. Just have them update their account settings. Â
- Assign Responsibility – Empower your sales and marketing teams to attack Facebook and Twitter and other new and upcoming social media sites. Have these employees create events, promotions, communicate with fans etc. This is one way to actually give your brand a voice. Also make sure they always respond to fan inquiries in a timely manner. Â
- Draft a Policy – Put a social media policy in place. Employees do well when they know what is expected of them. So let them know what is expected of them when it comes to social media. Don’t want your employees uploading personal photos all day? Then tell them in the policy. Are you afraid they will spend most of their time on Facebook or Twitter? Then only allow access to these sites in areas like the break room. This will cut down on abuse while they are to be working. Â
Empower your employees to be your brand’s voice on social media. It is a win/win situation.Â
[Extend and Expand Your Role]Â
Stay tuned for more management tips from me on our new feature, Manager’s Desk.Â
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