Social Media & Employees… Marketing 102

If you’re like most business owners, you leave social media to your marketing department. However, if you’re not encouraging all your employees to engage in social media in some capacity, then you’re missing out on some huge opportunities.

Benefits of Employees Using Social Media

The first and most important reason that all of your employees should be using social media during work is for networking purposes. This is especially true when it comes to LinkedIn, which currently has over 530 million users from all over the world. Networking with people from different companies and industries can lead to new opportunities for your business. You simply never know when an employee may connect with someone that brings you new business or helps reduce your overhead. Using other forms of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can all help to build your brand and get your business or product name out in front of people. Social media posts can reach millions of people with very little effort and can turn start-ups into successful businesses with just one well-worded post.

The Dangers of Employees Using Social Media

The other side of social media is that a poorly-worded or negative post can create a negative image of your brand. It’s not uncommon today for a careless employee to post something on social media that causes sales to drop as trust in that brand is lost. Sometimes, it can take years to rebuild that trust between your company and your customers. Another danger that comes with employees using social media is the potential to end up wasting time. Anyone who’s accidentally spent an hour scrolling through their Facebook feed when they only intended to check their notifications understands that these sites can be time suckers, decreasing productivity at work.

What Social Media Training Should Cover

Good social media training will help employees take advantage of the benefits of using social media and avoid the dangers. One of the most important things for employees to understand is that they are representatives of the company to everyone reading their posts, even if they are posting as themselves on their personal accounts. When posting from company accounts, even more care must be taken to avoid scandals. Something else that social media training should cover is what the best methods are to reach the highest number of people with each post. This includes the numerous tools that now exist that employees can use to get the most out of the time they spend on social media sites.

Types of Social Media Training

Different employees will need specialised types of social media training. Your HR department, for example, may primarily use social media to try to reach out to new employee prospects. Meanwhile, the sales department may try to find new venues where your product or service can be sold. Before a new product launch or when major changes happen in your company, social media is the best way to spread the word. When getting ready to make an announcement, be sure to put your employees through a special training session so they all know how they can play their part to put your brand in front of as many people as possible.

When to Do Social Media Training

Social media is always changing in terms of which site is best to use to reach different industries and what tools are available for both individuals and companies. That means one-time training is not going to be enough to ensure that employees can use social media to help grow your company. Training sessions should happen regularly to continue to be successful. For more on social media marketing and training contact us on +61 8 8121 5844 or info@digitalmarketingadelaide.com please visit https://www.digitalmarketingadelaide.com.au/social-media-training 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt Williamson is the Company Director of Digital Marketing Adelaide. He keeps busy doing what he enjoys most – talking. He has a passion for social media and all things digital marketing. Matt is an internet entrepreneur, social media expert, multiple business owner and digital marketer who specialises in assisting businesses to generate more revenue via the power of online advertising and digital marketing. Matt regularly speaks at events as a keynote speaker focusing on digital marketing & social media. View Matt’s LinkedIn: Check out my LinkedIn