How can social media help you build stronger relationships with your colleagues?

Social media strengthens colleague relationships by enhancing communication, fostering rapport through shared updates, enabling virtual team bonding, facilitating knowledge sharing, offering support and recognition, promoting collaboration and feedback, and providing networking and mentoring opportunities.

This is important, always share your work on professional platforms like Linkedin and properly appreciate colleagues who help it to be a success. When you achieve new height or award, appreciate everyone who is involved.

Don't do this. No one wants to share their work on social media with their colleagues. Post some personal stuff that's appropriate for professional settings and comment on other people's stuff.

Social media is a great way to stay in touch with a large number of people. Be sure to keep track of people's anniversaries, new accomplishments, and blog posts, which can show your colleagues that you care! Sometimes, colleagues may not have the time or context to talk about something that really matters to them, and social media can give you information about them that you wouldn't have otherwise known. It also gives you the ability to comment and support them!

Create a dedicated channel or group within your team on a platform like Slack or Microsoft Teams. This provides a space for casual conversations, shared interests, and lighthearted discussions outside of formal work-related communication. By fostering a virtual watercooler environment, you create opportunities for spontaneous interactions, building a sense of camaraderie that goes beyond project collaborations. Encouraging a balance of both professional and personal engagement on social platforms contributes to a more holistic and enriching connection with your colleagues.

Appreciate colleagues both on and offline, it helps solidify that bond. When grieving or celebrating, let them know you are with them.

Working within the news sector, I find it extremely valuable for journalists to engage with each other on social media. Not only does it help boost the discoverability of posts but it also helps the confidence of the journalist who you are engaging with. If you ever see a colleague sharing an article they've written, I encourage you to like/share and comment.

Every organisation has people that are more prone to share what they're doing on online platforms. When they do, they're sharing a little part of their own pride, voice and self. So when you as a colleague respond to that, you're actually giving them a sliver of recognition that they're doing an awesome job, and you appreciate them. This in turn, will probably want to make them share more. Now this is good for THEM, but also for YOU. For one, it makes the company you work for and the work you do look good. But, it also helps you gain perspectives in how colleagues do it, and what they go through. This will make working together easier, more close. And perhaps even teach you 1-2 things in working with them, or about work in general.

Engagement breeds engagement. Show love and it'll come back to you in abundance. This is a key aspect of social media growth. And if colleagues are part of that engagement then fantastic!

Utilise WhatsApp groups and channels, they have proved to be a great networking centers and for learning as well. Participate in professional events in person if you can, or virtually

Just as there is respect while at work, there should be respect on social media as well while dealing with colleagues. Avoid anything that could cause conflict

It's your personal profile, so be you. Work can't tell you who to be online, neither does your work define you. Your work, however, can be an extension of who you are and what you do day to day. So that and the thoughts you have while doing it are most definitely worth sharing. While doing so, be as YOU as you can. Obviously stay respectful, but your network wants to get your thoughts and those only. We all have interesting thoughts, we don't need a title or a job to open that path for us.