Do you want to make your brand resonate with your employees? Most companies start by using their recognition program to reinforce and explain the desired values and behaviors. But if you want to make those values come alive—–go deeper.
The reality is that employee behavior is a big reflection of your business. It speaks volumes about the authenticity of your value proposition. If employees don’t understand or don’t believe in what your company says it stands for, why should your customers? Give your employees a reason to live the brand and your organization will thrive in the marketplace. Read the full post >>
IBM’s goal is to promote the vision of social business by embedding it into the digital activities and everyday thinking of employees. The challenge is to inspire already technically savvy and digitally motivated employees to become ‘digital citizens’, enthuse them about the value social media can add and motivate them to start exploring the online world.
With this objective in mind, IBM BeNeLux enlisted the aid of global marketing agency, Ketchum Pleon, to help them transition from not just doing social media, but to transform their daily business through social technologies. A pool of best technical minds and leading innovators – who believe in building a smarter planet – decided to move IBM and its clients well beyond social media into a new era of collaboration they call Social Business. Read the full post >>
I recently discussed the value of creating a social media program to a group of individuals looking to create an ambassador program for their company. The discussion focused on how to build enthusiasm as well as recommendations on how to implement. Below is what we discussed. Enjoy!
From a corporate perspective, launching a social media ambassador program means you are recognizing that not only your consumers, but also your employees drive and influence conversations – or stories — and are wanting to tap into those conversations. The beauty of social media is that it’s an ongoing dialogue not necessarily between you and one other person, but between any and all of your social network connections. And that’s just it… recognizing that if you are already someone who has a social network profile, then you are someone that can easily be an extension of the corporate brand… a social media enthusiast or ambassador, if you will. Read the full post >>
I don’t think any one really wonders IF they should have a corporate social media policy anymore, but rather it seems the bigger question is how to actually create one. There are many web sites that offer sample policies that are easily findable through a search; however, I thought I would highlight two web resources that I use / visit fairly regularly when researching corporate social media policies.
SocialMediaGovernance.com
http://socialmediagovernance.com/
Chris Boudreaux created SocialMediaGovernance.com to provide tools and resources for leaders and managers who want to get the most from their social media and social application investments.
Chris has also recently analyzed all of the policy documents that people from around the world have submitted into the Social Media Policy Database. The report also contains best practices for social media policies, which he developed through his work with clients across industries. Read the full post >>
This post is a continuation of my series on “How to Make Employees Social Media Ambassadors“. See further down for related links on using employees as social media ambassadors and employee engagement.
The other day, I was sitting at a restaurant bar (as I’m prone to do) and started a conversation with someone — yes, I know, I make for a captivating dinner companion — on how employees are a company’s most under-utilized asset for communicating its brand. However, as my fellow bar person pointed out, how do you have employees represent your brand if they don’t even know what it is … if they even care? So yes, before you can use your employees as brand ambassadors, you might want to not only make sure that they understand your brand, but that they actually embrace and support it — the values for which your brand stands and the services and solutions you provide. Read the full post >>
So, as a company, you now recognize that a socially networked company makes for a more human workforce. So, what are the next steps to making employees social media ambassadors?
There really are two different approaches to empowering your employees as social media ambassadors. You can either give open access to your entire employee base or start with a “pilot group” of officially recognized ambassadors. I don’t know that either approach has more proven benefits over the other, but if you’re a conservative company like mine, you’ll go for the latter…. and here’s why: Read the full post >>
- Allows you to embrace social media while still being cautious about how to fully deploy or manage it;
As companies start to dip their toes into the social media waters, we have seen them implement a couple of different approaches. Some companies start with a small group of employees who are identified as brand ambassadors or official representatives of the company in social media networks. Other companies, such as Zappos and Best Buy, have given their entire employee base access to platforms for participating in social media, thereby making all the employees spokespeople of the company.
The Creative Underground has an excellent blog post on using your employees as brand ambassadors… and while it was written more from the perspective of empowering all your employees to be brand ambassadors, I think it rings true for either approach to social media. Read the full post >>
Original Post: Social Media and the Internal Brand
Here’s my take on why companies are using social media internally:
1. To inform employees. In its most straightforward way, social media can be just another medium to communicate and inform employees. Blogs in which departments inform their staff, a newsletter with options for employees to give comments, twitter as a micro instant communication channel to employees.
2. To create a shared vision. This takes internal communication to the next level. Using social media to engage with your employees with the objective to embed the company’s mission, vision and values. A CEO internal blog in which he discusses the vision, seeks feedback for improvement and explains how staff can become internal brand ambassadors. Read the full post >>
It’ s really no longer a question of IF your company should establish social media guidelines but rather WHEN will you create them. With the growing audience of social media users internally and externally, it would be to a company’s detriment to overlook community policies for their employees. If you haven’t realized the full impact of how social media can impact your company brand and marketing efforts, you should check out these 5 Social Media Disasters.
Some ideas on how to create a corporate social media policy: Read the full post >>
- Involve Stakeholders Throughout the Enterprise – Social media isn’t just for corporate communications. There are ample benefits for HR, sales, accounting, product development, executive and operations. Involve these people early so you craft a policy that encourages innovation and reflects the strengths and limitations of those departments.
