Under the social media microscope

Us Brits love to complain about the heat at the moment don’t we. But a side effect of all this stunning weather we are having at the moment is that we get to spend more time in the garden. I was sat out with my son the other day and I was watching him playing with a puzzle which fascinated me. It was kind of a free-form puzzle where you could put characters and vehicles in different positions on an illustration with magnets, I was trying to guide and encourage him to place them in places that I felt sensible. Whereas he wanted to put them where he wanted to, so I stopped and let him do it fascinated by the decisions he was making.

Wayne Dyer once said,

"Change The Way You Look At Things And The Things You Look At Change."

This is true of social. See most of you (and most business owners as well) simply see the output of social as a construct of sales and marketing and whilst this is one of the key benefits of social media platforms (enabling us to have more conversations that can turn into pipeline) it’s the tip of the metaphorical iceberg for a whole host of other benefits for you and your employees than you can possibly fathom.?

Things like?

• Building stronger internal relationships .?
• Better connection between internal departments (especially sales and marketing).?
• A better exterior view of attracting talent.
• Increased Staff retention and better employee engagement across the team.
• A deeper sense of purpose.
• Building the next generation leaders internally.?
• Humanising your brand.
• Fostering thought leadership.
• Increased brand visibility, improved brand recognition and better brand loyalty.
• An improvement in employee well being and mental health.?

And the huge side effect from doing all of this right, more pipeline, more revenue and more growth and we all want that right?

Yep, you see people trust your employees more than they do your brand.

MSL group says that there is a?

"561% greater reach when messages are shared by employees rather than by the brand’s official social media channels"

(MSLGroup)

It’s the reason most toxic work cultures won’t attempt it. They are afraid. Afraid employees might whistle blow on them.

Some of the biggest hurdles as to why employee advocacy programs often fail are.

• Neglecting the creation of an authentic content strategy.?
• Restricting the employee voice on all content and forgetting the power of?user-generated content?
• Allowing employees to define who they are and what their values are. How can we expect them to build a personal brand if they don’t know who they are?
• Not doing it long enough to embed itself across the team as a habit.
• Content sharing is the only piece that matters for advocacy success.
• Thinking?executive buy-in?isn’t critical or that leaders don’t need to be active on social. Leaders need to walk the talk as well so it’s important people from senior management also get involved on social.

(LinkedIn) says

Companies with a successful employee advocacy program are?58% more likely to attract, and 20% more likely to retain, top talent

Those are some huge ramifications for cost savings.

Making social a part of your onboarding and future hiring process is critical for growth.

"Change The Way You Look At Things And The Things You Look At Change.”

That line again, see if you change the people in your organisation for the better, then your output and bottom line will increase in response. As happy and keen employees with a real sense of purpose who know what their north-star is will produce the kind of work you couldn't even dream about.

Giving your employees the freedom to express themselves and grow is my why. To see people evolve and take the company with it (from both a financial standpoint as well as brand awareness, values and culture perspective as well) is beautiful.

One of the biggest shifts to happen since the advent of digital and covid isn't the conversation around WFH vs hybrid (that ship has sailed). It’s that the employee rather than the employer now has real power. An employee that goes to a company with a personal brand and a large following, gets high engagement rates on their content and good interaction and are trusted as a thought leader in their space and more importantly can convert that attention into revenue. That is some serious bargaining power. Retaining and nurturing internal talent on social has never been more important and when you create a culture where everyone wins, why would they ever want to leave? If they do (on good terms) think of all the mini brand evangelists that are now out their singing your companies praises (for free). That’s digital word of mouth at scale that you can’t buy.

Social has created a new level of accountability and rightly so. Foster and create good cultures where people can grow and you will win. Create toxic ones and see how quickly you lose on social.

I have companies I have coached who are now hiring people based on their creative talent (as well as their aptitude for the job) the number of followers they have and their engagement rates on content.

That wasn't even a metric 5 years ago. But I predict over the next 5 it will become normal.

Trust your employees and they will do things that not only surprise you, but might just amaze you too. Putting the puzzle together in ways you couldn’t predict.

They need the guidance and tools to begin and the trust and compassion from you to take the leap.