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![R E A D](So we’re finally at a point where businesses are starting to truly understand the value of social media as a marketing channel. To the point where many brands would say that <a href="https://www.imagematters.agency/services/social/">social media marketing</a> is an essential part of their company’s day, let's get your staff involved!
It’s with the above understanding that companies are beginning to realise the commitment involved in running successful and engaging social media marketing strategies is far more consuming than simply employing a ‘social media manager’ for their marketing department. Look around you though, you are surrounded by the perfect advocates for your brand, your entire staff!
By simply including more of your staff as contributors on your company’s social strategy will yield impressive growth right out of the gate. You will notice an immediate increase in you minimum organic reach with each employee that you include.
Understandably so, many businesses can feel uneasy about letting their staff run free on social platforms while representing the brand, however as long as they are prepared properly, you will find it much easier to trust them. It is with this in mind that we have prepared the following tips:
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141" src="https://www.imagematters.agency/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-modern-gentleman-Good-manners-are-back-in-style-here-is-how-to-use-them-1.jpg" alt="Allowing Access to Social Media" width="800" height="533" />
<h2>Tell I.T. to Unblock Social Media Sites</h2>
Makes sense right? Surprisingly there are still some companies these days who restrict access to social media sites with the worry that staff may become distracted or unproductive.
Now we’re not denying how easy it can be to get distracted by all the funny cat videos out there but if you’re aiming to increase the reach of your brand message, blocking people from spreading it becomes an obvious bad idea!
According to a <a href="http://www.adweek.com/digital/social-media-workplace-survey/?red=at">recent survey conducted by Microsoft</a>, over 45% of office workers saw an increase in productivity when social media access was made available. This can be explained with research from the University of California who’s findings indicated that occasional visits to a social media network acted as a ‘mental palate cleanser’ improving an employee’s mood in the process.
<span style="color: #999999;"><a style="color: #999999;" href="https://www.imagematters.agency/services/social/">Click here to learn more about how Image Matters can help with YOUR social media marketing and book a FREE consultation.</a></span>
<h2>Adopt a Social Media Policy</h2>
There will always be the odd one or two team members that get carried away with their new access and end up spending a bit too much time liking and sharing. This is easy enough to deter with the construction and implementation of a clear and accessible social media policy for the whole company.
Everyone in the company, whether new of long-served, should be aware of what is allowed and that some of it is, in fact, actually encouraged. It should be written informally and stored somewhere easy to access by anyone at any time. This will also help to reassure staff members with concerns about what they can and can’t share on the company’s social platforms as well as alleviate any issues with overly repeating content.
You want sharing content to be a quick and fun task in addition to each staff members daily workload so don’t bombard them with too many strict rules and regulations. It will only benefit the business in the long run.
<h2>Make Clear the Mutual Benefits</h2>
It goes without saying that more employees being involved generates more content and more content means a more active social media presence. In turn it also become obvious that a more active presence is going to benefit your business, with every blog post or share on Facebook generating attention, attracting potential leads and making your company more discoverable in general.
You should ensure that your employees are aware that this isn’t just more work for the company but that it will also increase their standing in the industry. An active employee on social media will help them build more relevant networks on sites like Linkedin for example while also boosting their industry knowledge passively through research carried out for blog posts etc.
Of course, not every employee will want to be seen as a leader in their field which is fine and they shouldn’t be forced to feel that way either. Some staff will be happy simply sharing company content via their personal channels which should be highly encouraged in an effort to increase organic reach.
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<h2>Offer Social Media Training for Anyone Interested</h2>
Offering social media training sessions to your staff is a worthwhile investment and something that <a href="https://www.imagematters.agency/contact/">Image Matters is happy to provide</a>. These can be as frequent or spaced out as necessary depending on the amount of staff involved and their existing experience. It really depends on the goals you have in mind. They may be targeted to attracting a particular client base or simply growing the company’s audience for future messages, either way, it’s always beneficial to have employees who know what they are doing!
Likewise every social media platform is constantly changing and evolving and with this, so are their best practices so it is always good to look at what has changed every 3-6 months. From experience we have discourage clients from certain types of posts that just a few months later we were highly encouraging and vice versa.
<h2>What are You Waiting For?</h2>
If your existing marketing strategies, especially for social media marketing, don’t currently include trying to get as many employees as possible contributing to your social efforts then now is the time to do so! Now more than ever with giants like Facebook making changes to their service giving priority to individuals rather than business pages. It’s time to build your army of advocates.
Whilst it’s important to get this implemented in your social media marketing straight away, it’s also very wise to take the time to implement it correctly and not force the measures on anyone. Perhaps offer incentives to members of your ‘content team’ perhaps a monthly reward for the most engaging member of staff best contributions?
As mentioned earlier, make it fun for your staff and they will want to get involved. If a team member is invested in the process their content is more likely to be of a high standard and increase engagement with your brand.
For more information or to book a FREE first consultation, <a href="https://www.imagematters.agency/contact/">get in touch with Image Matters</a> today and we’ll book you in for a coffee (also free)){kind=link}