In driving social technologies within an organization, the number one question that I hear from top level executives is “what problem would this be solving for us?” And trust me, it’s hard for me to contain myself when posed with this question and not stand up on my soapbox about how social media can drive engagement and collaboration. But, the bottom line is that the successful integration of social technologies within a corporate enterprise isn’t just about innovation or enablement, but it is also the ability to fill a business need. And, from an… [ Read the full article → ]
Original Post: Toby, Ward, Prescient Digital Media
Employees shouldn’t waste too much time on the intranet; social media wastes time; the Internet is a productivity drain. These are common refrains and concerns expressed by many executives, albeit the less educated ones, generally of an older generation, nearing or past retirement.
The exact same concerns were made about employee bathroom breaks, mealtimes, telephone use, etc. General Motors, that great stalwart of financial prudence, used to hire people to time employees when they used the bathroom (source: Negotiate This, Herb Cohen).
“When speaking to clients the… [ Read the full article → ]
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:
Fleishman-Hillard recently conducted a webinar on Seven Social Media Trends for Engaging the Workforce. The material covered emerging trends in the use of social media for internal communications and used examples from best-in-class brands to show how social media is being used behind the firewall to improve employee communication and drive business results.
TREND 1: Mobile Tools
Mobile Messaging
AT&T ExecTxt
- Short-code system sends text messages to employees’ mobile phones
- Opt-in, voluntary
- Employees subscribe to executives/lists of their choice
- Alerts employees to urgent, time-sensitive news and big announcements