Surviving the social media whirl
Many businesses are using social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, to interact with customers and promote their goods and services in an up to date and customer-friendly way.
Social media can provide a wide range of opportunities for businesses to communicate with customers, suppliers, employees and the public. But the very flexibility and freedom of social media carry risks as well, so it is important for employers to have a robust social media policy and a well thought-out strategy.
First you need to be clear what you want to achieve and how social media are relevant to your business goals and marketing strategy. Are you aiming to improve your brand presence, for example, or to increase traffic to your company website? Do your research by checking out all the potential sites you might use. Try to understand your target audience. You can also join groups and Twitter chats relevant to your business.
Using social media can make staff more productive by helping them to gather instant information and feedback from customers and prospects, but it can also be a waste of time and effort without an effective strategy. Your staff should understand what you are trying to achieve from social media strategy and a manager needs to monitor its effectiveness. Employees need training on ways to identify the best approaches to take, how to manage any negative coverage you receive, and on what is acceptable to post, both during and outside working hours. It is good practice for employees to have different profiles for their business and social use.
It is vital to let staff know that messages posted to social media sites will be monitored – and you need to have the technology to do this – and that employers can take disciplinary action against employees who post defamatory comments online that bring their company into disrepute, or disclose confidential information. A combination of training and enforcement should help you to make effective use of social media and protect your business from negative publicity.
A written and clear social media policy, which you can incorporate into your staff employment contracts, will strengthen your position if you need to dismiss an employee as a result of unacceptable social media use. Please get in touch if you would like any further advice on these issues.