A popular saying goes thus, “where there is no law, there is no sin.”
All companies under each industrial sector have laid down policies governing employees on the use of social media.
Why?
This will help them understand their work ethics and conform to it when using social media platforms.
For large scale enterprises, when employees are very active and have a strong foothold on social media such as social media influencers, it is an added advantage to the company regarding their marketing plans and makes them one step ahead of their competitors. Employees with a strong digital presence and promoting the company’s brand or product is just like creating a win-win for both employee and brands.
How? Among many advantages of employee participation, the two main and immediate advantages are;
- First, you get to market your product at no extra cost.
- Secondly, it will have a positive influence on sales, if leveraged properly.
Why do you think big companies prefer to use celebrities as their brand ambassador?
Think about it!
Most employees are enthusiastic about using their online presence for the best interest of the organization. Simply provide the necessary guidelines they need to follow.
As the face of a company, no employee will go public about anything to pull down the company’s reputation. For instance, the chance of getting penalized for such is high in regulated industries, if an employee breaches regulations.
In light of this, many organizations have strict regulations governing employees about the use of social media. Some go as far as restricting employees from posting any information about the company. Although this might be beneficial regarding breach of contract or social media disaster arising from an employee’s post, sometimes the positive outweighs the negative effect.
You can’t eat your cake and have it too!
Do you want to take advantage of the online presence of your employees to boost your company’s brand? Then you must provide them with right tools and training so they can help you. Too much restriction will cause them not to participate at all.
Build a Social Media Friendly Environment
As stated earlier, restricting employees from social media can cost you a social media barrier. What does that mean? Let’s take a sneak peek into the few facts below.
Don’t underestimate the word of the mouth, brand texts are reposted in multiple folds if it comes from employees and its reach capacity surpassed the one shared from the company’s social account.
- People tend to trust recommendations than personal promotion. That means when your employees post about the company, they are also recommending the company products or services.
So, imagine the honey candy you want to throw away just because of your insecurity about them posting something negative about the company. Employees on social media is a golden opportunity, leverage it! You employed them because they are competent, then it is high time trust their ability to make decisions and allow them to take charge. Don’t suffocate them on social media, let them feel confident but guide them on what is right.
Ways to Communicate Social Media Policy
Communicate your fears
Make ensure all your employees understand the company rules about the use of social media. If they are all aware of the pitfall, it will be easy to avoid social media crises.
Communicate your expectations
Telling them what you expect them to do, will make them feel relaxed on social media instead of getting to worry about not messing things up.
Build a Flexible Social Media Policy
It is imperative to have a social media policy flexible enough to accommodate your employees’ activities.
An ideal social media policy must allow employees to feel free, post about the company, other things related to the company, and their day to day activities outside the workplace. A strong social presence must be significant and reliable. Therefore, employees must be themselves on social media while disapproving posts that can affect the reputation of the company.
Problems Associated with Social Media Policy
Restrictive policy and lack of policy
One of the problems associated with social media policy is too much restriction and to the other end absence of policy. While some companies have a restrictive policy, others don’t have any policy at all. Research studies revealed that a lot of organization does not have a social media policy. Nevertheless, that does not give employees the liberty to misbehave on social media. The aftereffect of restrictive policy is that employees will be bothered about posting content detrimental to the image of the company. Hence, they avoid social media completely which is not the ideal.
Lack of policy review
Another problem of social media policy is keeping the policy up to date. You must review social media policy from time to time. A good social media policy should be modified and updated as the company advances.
Fear
Employees avoid social media because of over restriction. As much as they want to promote the company’s product and services, the fear of making a mistake will not allow them to proceed. They are not aware of the company’s social media policy, so they need to be guided on the appropriate things to do. Proactively reach out to employees and educate them so they can participate confidently.
Conclusion
You must inform employees about social media policy and in the absence of none, you must create a non restrictive social media policy that will build their confidence to post appropriate contents about your brand on social media.
Visit MarketBeam
Do you lack social media policy or have a restrictive social media policy?
MARKETBEAM is your best plug.
MarketBeam is designed to offer a safe and compliant environment for all employees to promote their employer’s brand, build their thought leadership, and progress in their careers.
We adhere to all these requirements to ensure the maximum safety of customers. MarketBeam provides complete end to end workflows that are compliant with many industries including for the life sciences.
What to expect from MarketBeam
- Publishing to multiple social media channels
- Auto sharing of content on multiple social media platforms. This is very important for consistent employee participation.
- Social media drip campaign (check our website to learn more about this feature).
- Executive branding (check our website to learn more about this feature)
- Organic like campaign
- Security and compliance features like GDPR, Data retention based on compliances, secure storage, and approval workflows
