Do you struggle to motivate your team to engage with your company’s social media?
Sometimes it can feel like a chore, always asking for social engagement.
Many of the top B2B marketing publications commonly mention “employee engagement” as a key tool for growing a social media presence and displaying company culture.
It is true that employees are your biggest advocates.
They should be on the front lines: selling, helping customers, and developing your services/products.
But what if we told you there is an untapped value when it comes to employee engagement?
When was the last time you shared an employee shoutout or a behind-the-scenes video of the team?
Why Employee Engagement Benefits You As Marketer:
Did you know, employees are more likely to like, comment, and share posts that include themselves and/or other team members?
Sharing this type of content is the true value of employee engagement, which can spike your awareness and engagement rates.
Make employee engagement work for your team by incorporating more photos of your employees/teams and behind-the-scenes content.
Try some employee-curated content like photos/videos/blogs written or produced by different team members.
Here Are 5 Ways You Can Incentivize Employee Engagement:
- Lead by Example: Encourage your team to engage with social media by having a select number of leadership team members engaging (liking, commenting, sharing) with your company’s social media posts. When posting about your team or about relevant topics – tag other employees that have public profiles.
- Incentive Programs: Incentivize employees to submit content (photos/videos) for social media. This could be used if you’re having a difficult time collecting employee-curated content. Example: Gifting a $10 Starbucks gift card to anyone that sends your social media team a photo or video from the work conference they attended.
- Employee Curated Content: Give employees credit on social media if they authored a company blog. Or when industry “breaking news” happens, ask an employee’s opinion (written or video) and credit them.
- Share Accomplishments: Share photos/graphics/videos of employees when they win awards. Share milestones of years of service with the company. Anything related to their work life that celebrates them and their achievements is fair game and highly shareable.
- Fun Contests: This can be almost anything; a pumpkin carving contest, gingerbread house contest, a paper airplane-throwing contest. Document and share your employees enjoying their time and working together. Take it a step further by asking your social media following to vote on a winner.
Baby Steps to Success:
Whenever you ask employees to be involved in social media, it is possible that you’ll receive some push back or resistance.
Start slow, find a few employees that embrace social media, and begin with them.
Sharing employee-related content is just one piece of a solid social media strategy.
Test and validate, and find what works for your company and team.
Most companies who have a strong social media presence have been working on it for years. It will take time, but the benefits pay off.
If you want help with social media strategy for your company, give us a shout.