I just came across this little piece at Dennis Wolff's staffing and recruitment blog. Although it is focussed on Canada and social media interaction there, it can be reflective of its use in Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK and Ireland.
So what does it say and what does it tell us?
Well the piece is entitled, 'How to use social media participation to turn your employees into ambassadors for your own brand' which kind of gives it all away.
What any organisation really wants is for its employees to become advocates for its services or products. This is as true offline as it is online.
Dennis states that
The lines between public and private, personal and professional have become more and more blurred; with Generation Y joining the workforce, this trend can only intensify.
Organisations need to learn to love the social media phenomenon or risk alienating their own employees who enjoy social networking. If done right employees can become enthusiastic brand ambassadors and feel much more connected to their organisation.
Social media is one more platform for interaction and relationship building, one that is growing. Facebook now has now hit 500 million.
Facebook, Twitter, google buzz, NING, etc are all ways to help build relationships. They should not be ignored as a fad. At one stage telephones, then mobile phones and computers were fads.
2 comments:
Unfortunately many organisations in NI are alienating their staff on a regular basis. Treating them like kids by patronising them, making all the decisions for them, watching them like hawks - all this carries over into social media sites being blocked. Many NI employers have a long way to go in changing their management style. Only when this happens will employees be given access to the full capabilities of the web.
You are so spot on Dawn. Organisationally, there is a recognition that there is a need to be on social media platforms, yet they compartmentalise that function. Employees can be a real boon in advocating for the organisation - especially if the organisation believes in its staff enough to allow some online leeway.
Many public sector organisations have social sites blocked, yet in the likes of media monitoring social media sites are just as relevant for monitoring - but they cannot be monitored because they are blocked!
sheesh.
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