Utilizing Social Media for Employee Engagement

Below are some tactics for bringing your employees into your social media strategy and the benefits it can have for your business.

How to engage employees with social media

As the CEO or management team of a large company, it can be difficult to reach each employee on an individual level. One way to make things easier and help your team feel connected is to use social media.

When everyone at your company feels connected, you can build team cohesion. Essentially, cohesion means that everyone in your business feels valued. This value will encourage them to have the motivation they need to accomplish their personal goals and the goals of the company.

Management can help to improve team cohesion every day by showing that every employee's contribution is valued and by resolving team conflicts quickly and absolutely. Connecting with the team is especially important after a major change, like a rebuild or unfortunate layoffs.

Let’s talk about using social media to engage your teams. There are many tactics you can use to make your teams feel included. For example, you could:

• Point out an employee's amazing contribution
• Share information about company events
• Post personal accomplishments achieved by the people on your teams

Some employees may feel like a lot of news is shared behind closed doors, and that can hurt team morale. By keeping your team in the loop, you can show your staff that you want them to be involved.

In addition to sharing important corporation information, management can also have fun on social media. Share videos, live stream a Q&A session with a company leader or feature a testimonial for when an employee accomplishes a major goal. Create inspirational posts, and your workers will be inspired to do their best work.

Create engaging content that your team will share

Management must remember that there’s more to this strategy than just creating random content. If the messages aren’t resonating with the team and the staff is not looking at what you are posting, then you aren’t really doing your company any good.

There are two results that you want to see with your social media efforts. One is that employees will desire to be a part of the conversation. The other is that they might share what they see with the outside world, and that could help to create awareness for your brand to the general public.

Send out a company-wide employee survey and ask the team what they would most like to see and the types of content that they like to share the most.

Once you know what they like, you can start creating posts. Even though the staff had their input, they likely aren’t going to share every single post. To capture their attention as much as possible, post a lot of different content, so you have a better chance of seeing some of it shared.

Sometimes, your employees may need a little incentive to start sharing your posts. Management could host a contest where the employees who share the most content in the most meaningful way get a prize. The idea is to get the ball rolling. Once your employees see how awesome your social media content can be, they are more likely to share without incentives.

Rules and guidelines to consider

While social media should be fun and engaging, there are tips and guidelines that your management team must keep in mind, to ensure that your social media posts are seen and that they remain professional.

When it comes to the best times to post for the maximum impact, you need to look at the data. Use the experience of previous social media users and follow their example. For instance, studies have shown that it is best to not post on LinkedIn until after 7 am. Keep in mind that those times may vary based on your company’s time zone and the habits of your audience.

The best posting times will differ based on the site. The best day and time to post on Facebook is Wednesday at 11 am and 1 pm, while Mondays are the best for Instagram. Conduct some research to see what is best for your particular needs.

If you do allow your staff to post and share the content, then set guidelines for what your employees should and shouldn’t say. Basically, teach them the importance of social media responsibility. This includes lessons about avoiding harassment, only posting accurate information, and that retaliation against others is strictly prohibited. Put these policies in writing and mention the ramifications if these policies are violated.

So, there you have it. The benefits of using social media for employee engagement and the steps you can take to implement this process today. Implement these tips to see an improvement in the morale of your teams.