Just a few years ago, using social media to communicate with employees was unheard of. But as one of Dade County’s leading staffing agencies, today we’re seeing more and more companies that are realizing the value of social media in the internal communication process.
In fact, according to an Employee Engagement Survey conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and Buck Consultants, 79% of companies currently use social media to communicate with employees. Email is still rated big among communication methods, as well, with 75% of companies using it to communicate internally. However, only 28% communicate via newsletters and 36% via their websites.
If you’re like many of these companies and would like to leverage the power of social media to communicate with your employees, here are some suggestions to help you get started:
Create an internal blog.
Create a blog authored by the company president or management team. In it, share new product information, upcoming sales and marketing initiatives, awards and accomplishments, new hires and promotions, and other key information. When doing so, it’s important to be consistent with postings and commit to posting at least a few times a month.
Post videos to YouTube.
Share insights and new products via a video platform like YouTube, which offers a comment area where employees can share their own opinions and ideas.
Create private discussion groups.
Create private groups via your company Facebook or Yammer account and invite individuals to join the group discussions. This can improve collaboration for teams working on the same projects.
Implement wikis.
A wiki is a website that is developed collaboratively among a community of users. It allows any community member to add and edit information. It also offers options for version control and storing documents. That said, wikis do have a bit of a learning curve, so you’ll need to commit to training employees on how to properly use and get the most out of them.
Use podcasts for training initiatives.
Podcasts are a great option for continuing education and training initiatives because employees can access them anywhere and anytime, offering more convenience and flexibility. Best of all, employees can go back and listen to them multiple times, if needed.
What about you? Are you already using social media to improve communication and drive employee engagement? If you are, please share your thoughts with us about the process.
And if you’re interested in using social networking to ramp up recruiting efforts, read our post “Recruiting Via Social Networking: Should You Take the Plunge?”