There are always two sides to every story. How many times have you argued fervently for something you believe in, only to have your theories dashed to the ground and trodden on by another expert with an entirely different perspective.
This blog does just that.
Jacqui Malpass believes that organisations should embrace social media and capitalise on it for knowledge management, marketing and personal development.
Emma del Torto, whilst believing in the benefit of social media for marketing of businesses, has a more cautionary approach…….
In this blog we each put forward our point of view. Look out for our next blog where we attempt to agree a way forward.
JACQUI SAYS:
With so much fuss being made in the news about social media use at work, is it time to look at how we harness the power of the social media generation for organisational benefit?
Imagine if there was a way to use social media as a branding tool for employees.
How much does your organisation pay in marketing, branding and PR? Some organisations pay millions to brand themselves and then discard the potential of employee branding.
Whilst you may argue that employers have no control over how their staff are portrayed to the outside world and that they have no rights over how an employee presents themselves, I think organisations are missing a trick.
Personal branding that complies with corporate branding guidelines can only be good for the organisation. We live in a digital world, instead of turning to Yellow Pages, most people look online first. How often do you hear the response ‘oh just Google it’?
So whilst Googling you, they are also Googling your employees. If, your employees are demonstrating expertise and professionalism through the way that they communicate viasocial media, it can only be good for you, can’t it?
As an example you could start by asking employees to register on LinkedIn and set up the company information to the branding guidelines set down. Obtain testimonials and link to the company pages. Join groups and start conversations with key contacts to maximise opportunities.
How refreshing to have a well populated blog featuring case studies, news and updates from the MD and staff from a range of business disciplines.
What about the idea of internal social media tools for capturing knowledge, know how, idea sharing, helping our peers, creating a news channel for effective communications and speedy response to problems. The argument being, that if the staff are well versed in using Facebook and Twitter at home, they can migrate that learning and culture of sharing in-house.
Looking in from the global market place, imagine how your potential customers, funders, suppliers would feel when they discovered your blog. A blog which demonstrates the combined knowledge and insight of team members at all levels of the business. They would, I am sure, be impressed by such an innovative, modern approach.
Of course it requires work to curate and manage these new processes and systems, however, if we want to capitalise on our intellectual assets, isn’t it worth embracing social media?
EMMA SAYS:
Now I don’t want to be a complete killjoy or in any way dampen the enthusiasm of Ms Malpass. Giving employees access to social media to promote a business and to share knowledge is, in theory, not a bad idea.
However, it is quite simply a matter of control. Control of the employee and quality control of the material that goes out in the name of the business. This would include managing the content, tone and form and ultimately the result is managing the reputation of the business.
Does the workplace organisation have a policy on social media? And I don’t just mean one that sits in a handbook somewhere gathering dust or on the intranet unread. I mean a policy that everyone is aware of, understands and knows the implications of and the consequences of not adhering to the policy. Most SMEs will not yet be on top of this.
I have recently had to advise a business where an employee set up a Facebook group for other employees who were all engineers working remotely. The name of the group had the name of the organisation in it. It was originally set up with the best of intentions, to share knowledge and to give a sense of belonging to a team of employees who were all essentially loneworkers. The employee who set it up became disgruntled and the content of the postings then became a forum for venting anger about the employer. This of course had a very negative effect and left the employer with no option but to consider disciplinary action against that employee.
However, managed well and controlled by the organisation, an on-line group could be really helpful for knowledge sharing and employee morale. And in this case the risk was minimised because it was a closed group that did not include contacts, prospects and customers.
The risk to employers of employees speaking badly of their employer is now more serious than the disgruntled employee going down the pub and mouthing off about his or her manager. Putting something on Facebook, for example, can be seen by a much wider audience than the local public house. Often an audience that the employee had forgotten was there. For example, it has been a fairly common occurrence over the last few years to have to advise the business whose employees have called in sick, only to post on Facebook that they were off to the races, having a duvet day, were off on an all day drinking session....you name it. There is a blurring of the lines between private and public lives that is unprecedented. The employees forget that their clients/customers/manager/colleagues may also be reading what they are saying.
What it calls out for is training for the employees who are to be allowed to blog, Facebook, Twitter etcetera in the name of the business. They need to know how to do it properly and also the potential consequences of not doing it properly.
So, yes, embrace it by all means.....but do so with your eyes wide open. A bit like embracing a tiger who you have been assured is a cuddly, fluffy, tame and friendly beast. Watch out for those sharp teeth and claws, because there is no doubt in my mind that social media is a very wild animal!
