The Premise
You’re a small business owner with fifteen employees. Your company LinkedIn page has a few hundred followers and your Facebook Fan page plateaued at 85 likes. You just joined Twitter, but 50% of your new followers are either fake or offering digital marketing services. Besides “being present” on social sites and posting engagement content, how do you leverage social media to reach more followers?
The Math
Your sales team of five reps uses LinkedIn daily and each one has over 500 connections. That’s instant access to an audience of 2500+ and is likely a better sample of your target market than any of your company pages. Their followers are also more engaged with your sales team than your brand.
The other 10 internal employees haven’t developed their connections as much because they aren’t reaching out to prospects or nurturing clients. However, they are connected to 45 employees from their last two jobs, 15 students from their MBA program, and even a few family members with solid experience. Not a bad mix of potential employees to tap into during your next round of hiring.
It’s not about leveraging social media to increase your followers. It’s about leveraging the connections your employees have already made to reach their followers.
Getting your employees engaged
Leveraging employees’ connections in social media involves a 5-step process for companies starting from scratch:
Not all of the steps listed above are easy, but perhaps the most challenging step is the last one—giving your employees a reason to promote your content and turning them into social brand ambassadors. Don’t confuse this step with “convincing your employees to use social media.” They already do it—some of them with great success. Younger generations see social media as a way of life; they don’t need convincing in that regard. This is where great content comes into play, as only great content will convince your employees to share your content with their connections.
Arm your employees with great content
You posted a link to an article with a thought-provoking question attached. Why aren’t people responding? It could be because they see your posts as having an agenda. Give the article to your employees. If your sales team shares this article on their feed and offers their opinion, it creates an opportunity for your sales reps to share their knowledge and for prospects to open up. When employees share content through your company page, followers see the brand, but connect with the person. Do this consistently and prospects begin to correlate the two. Your company becomes a part of the social brand your employees have created.
Boost employee referrals with social media
Those hired through employee referrals stay longer. If you haven’t already, it’s time to start an employee referral program. But are your employees constantly checking the internal job boards and thinking about which friends are looking for a job? Do you even want them to? Make it easier for everyone by posting new positions on your company page and encouraging your employees to share postings on their own pages. Not only are you promoting the fact that you’re a growing company, but you’re giving employees a chance to brag about how great it is to work there and take advantage of your ERP.
Tara Zoumer, Public Relations Coordinator at TriNet, has been managing TriNet’s social media accounts for more than a year. And, while TriNet already has many employees that are highly active social brand ambassadors, Tara is always looking for new and creative ways of improving employee engagement on social media, and making it easier for TriNet employees to share and engage with their networks:
“When done correctly, social media can create a mutually beneficial relationship for both employees and companies. Ultimately, people don’t connect with brands; they are connecting with other people. You need compelling content if you want someone to share an article featuring your company, grow your employee referral program, or increase participation at company events. Your job as a marketer (or business owner) is to provide great content and make it as easy as possible for your employees to take action.
Employees will also benefit: They are able to provide friends with employment opportunities, meet new clients/prospects, and become a knowledgeable resource. For many sales reps, sharing great content or articles can help establish their credibility, which goes a long way when making connections online. Enable your employees to become brand ambassadors and the opportunities are limitless. In our increasingly connected world, your employee’s next tweet could make the difference.”