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Social media is here to stay, whether you embrace it or would rather it fade away. Therefore, as a business owner, you are wise to work with the trends and utilize your employee’s propensity to spend time surfing social media platforms to your advantage. After all, studies have shown that 80% of employees use social media while on the job, and 50% are posting about their company already. Therefore, since your employees will likely be on social media at some point in their workday anyway, you might as well harness this fact to promote your brand. Read on for nine ways to get your employees to share your brand’s messaging on social media:
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1. Create an Official Policy
When you begin to turn your employees’ tendency to browse social media into your brand’s advocacy policy, you need to first set some guidelines. This includes a set of perimeters on what employees should and shouldn’t post about your company, as well as clear examples of what is a desirable post. Outline all the benefits for employees who share company-related content or even post their own. The most challenging aspect of turning your employees into a posting army that sends out information via social media is ensuring that all posts remain on brand and in keeping with your mission and your reputation.
3. Make It Fun, Offer an Initiative
Let’s face it, we are all a bit competitive. So, why not use this inert fact to inspire employees to share away on social media? You can create your own reward system for sharing based on whatever terms you desire, such as days off, bonuses, casual dress days, gift cards, or even bragging rights. Of course, money is always the best incentive, so if you can combine winning a contest with a bonus, that will create an incentive like never before for your employees to become your advocates online. Try contests with Clearview Social’s Tremendous Integration which allows your employees to compete against each other, seeing who can be the most engaging and present online or who can share the most posts, etc. The idea is to give an incentive for employees to want to succeed via social media.
3. Don’t Regulate It Too Much
When you set out to get your employees on board with sharing posts that promote your brand, make sure that you keep yourself from regulating what they share too much. For example, in many cases, individuals use their own social media platforms to share their personal opinions or ideas with others. Therefore, if an employee doesn’t agree with an idea or opinion highlighted by your brand, that might be a post they just don’t want to share. Make sure that this is okay. Don’t be so regimented that you regulate everything and demand employees share any and all posts. Allow them some freedom to pick and choose what they share, which will, in turn, create more authenticity.
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4. Create Share-Worthy Content
If you find that your employees aren’t very eager to share content on their various social media platforms, one aspect you need to consider is that you are not posting anything as a brand that is worth sharing. You should be creating content that your employees will be proud to share, that has value and stands for something. Therefore, whether it is a funny or clever meme, a blog post, or a video, make sure that every post has some value, even if the value is simply entertainment or getting a laugh. That’s okay. However, you should create a variety of content ranging from serious and inspiring to funny and entertaining, so that no matter what type of personality an employee has, they will find something they would like to share.
5. Get Them Involved
Another way to get your employees to share on social media is by involving them in the content itself. For example, a great way to get employees to share a video is to put them in said video. We are all a little vain, and if you put them in a photo, post, or video, you can bet they will be much more willing to share it with others. You can also get them involved by asking them via a survey, or other means, what type of content they would like to share, so you will know what variety of content will be the most likely to be shared by your employees.
6. Simplify the Process
If something is too complicated, we all tend not to do it. So, make sure that you simplify the process of sharing posts as much as possible. In other words, don’t stop at asking them to share a post your brand puts on LinkedIn. Instead, send out a massive email with one link that allows them to easily share the post with one click. This will certainly increase the amount of participation you can get from employees who are busy and not likely to take time out of their day to share if it’s too complicated or overly drawn out.
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7. Like Their Posts
If you find employees sharing either things they want to share personally or sharing brand-related content, be sure to engage with their posts. Some employees might fear posting because they worry that no one will interact with their posts. Make sure that at least you, as the business owner, take the time to like and comment on the posts as much as you can. This will not only make your employees feel more valued, but it will also let them know you notice them sharing and can even encourage other commenters to weigh in on the post as well.
8. Recognize Them for Their Effort
No matter what else you do in the way of contests or kickbacks for sharing posts, make sure that you at least acknowledge and recognize your employees when they do share posts. You can do this in an employee meeting, in a newsletter, or in other ways. Ideally, though, do it publicly so that all the other employees will see that you have noticed and recognized the efforts of employees who are posting. It might give others the push they need to start themselves as they now know that it matters, and the management is paying attention.
9. Monitor the Results and Share the Success
We all want to feel like what we do matters. That without our efforts, something might not be a success. This is just as true in terms of a successful social media campaign. If your employees have been key contributors to your brand’s online success via their social media posts, then make sure to share this success. Share the data with your team, so they can see the results of their efforts and realize that what they are doing makes a difference.
Contact us at Clearview Social
If you want to learn more about how to create a great reputation online and entice employees to take part in the process via social media sharing, then contact us today to schedule a free demo. At Clearview Social, we are an employee advocacy platform that helps you increase your brand’s reach and revenue through more effective and systematic social media use. Get in touch today to learn more.
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