One of the things companies wrestle with is multiplying their voice and increasing the volume of their message without increasing their advertising expenditure. This is something we speak with companies about often, most recently this morning.
Let me take you back several years ago. Remember when Facebook and Twitter were all about engagement? When companies started being active so that they could speak one-to-one with customers? When personality shined through and generic, copy and pasted marketing efforts were frowned upon? These were glorious times for people in my world. We could get creative, get personal, have fun. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still doing that (because it is still supposed to be all about engagement), but now the competition, as they say, is fierce.
With the onset of advertising on social and the ease with which companies can target consumers and boost posts on a small budget, the fight for eyeballs is constant. Companies can easily force their content in front of more people and spread the word about their business faster.
But spending money doesn’t need to be the only way companies share their content. This is where employee engagement comes into play and becomes critical. People should feel proud of where they work. Companies aim to not just have loyal customers but loyal team members. It benefits the bottom line and speaks well of the reputation of the employer. What, frankly, astonishes me is the number of people who outright refuse to show their company pride on social media. We hear things like:
“I don’t want to bother my friends and family.”
“I don’t want to appear immodest.”
“My teenager does that stuff, I’m not on there.” (This is an entirely different issue for another day but honestly, why would you let your teenager run free on the internet if you aren’t going to monitor any of it at all – or even appear to be doing so for the sake of their safety? I digress).
Here’s the thing. Soon enough I believe it will be a part of everyone’s job description to share content from their company on social. So my recommendation is to dip your toe in. I’m not saying start shouting about everything your company does all over social – far from it. What I am saying is when your company does something cool, tell your community. One of the organizations with which I work does a Team Member Tuesday where they feature a member of their staff each week. How easy would it be for people to shout about their friend/co-worker and tout her work? There’s no immodesty there.
Listen, we all want more clients, customers, patients – whatever the case may be. Relying on your marketing team to do ALL the work for you simply isn’t enough. Social media was meant to be person-to-person which means people who care about the organization should get on board and allow more people to see what’s happening. I encourage you to pick one – just one – post that your company shares this month and just click “share” with maybe a sentence along the lines of “look what our company just accomplished!”
On behalf of the marketing department, thank you.
by 
