Sharing pictures with your friends and spreading the word about your upcoming holiday party are great reasons to have social media accounts. But are you using social media to communicate with and lead your employees?
More and more companies are using social media for recruitment or discussing aspects of a particular job, and in real time. Take McMurry, a Phoenix-based marketing firm, who has embraced social media in the work place. They boast a company intranet, which shares news, blogs, discussion boards, recognition and polls, and allows users to customize the pages as they wish. Even senior managers contribute to the site.
Says Marcus Erb of Entrepreneur.com:
A more fundamental change social media has introduced is the radically increased ability for individuals to speak to the world about their work experiences — both positive and negative — giving them unprecedented influence over an employer’s reputation. Some organizations may recoil from this, but the best embrace it.
It basically comes down to trust. If companies provide a good environment for their employees, leaders will feel confident about what their employees have to say — and that they’ll be forgiven if there’s a problem. Erb gives the example of Integrity Applications Incorporated, out of Chantilly, Va., who allows employees to post anonymously on leadership blogs.
As social media continues to evolve and transform how people connect and share information, how will workplaces continue to use these outlets to communicate with their employees? And will other companies follow the examples of these successful examples?
This post is brought to you by the good folks at Dale Carnegie Training of Birmingham, Alabama. We would love to connect with you on Facebook and Twitter @dalecarnegieala.
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