Cozy up to social media at work

I’d bet, there’s a pretty good chance the answer is ‘yes.’ Companies today no doubt have thousands of employees actively engaged on a personal level via more than one social platform. As your company readies its social media practice internally, look to your professional staff communicators (and tap those with notable writing and communications skills) to help launch your internal social media success.

Amanda Thompson of Slalom Consulting shared in a 2010 1-to-1 Media blog post, “If it makes sense for your organization to publish a blog to share expertise and opinions on your industry, one approach is to create an internal blog that will lead to a public-facing company blog. By taking this approach, employees can gain some firsthand experience, but without the initial pressure of blogging to the public. You’ll see who the natural writers are, and the team can jointly determine what the voice” and tone of the company’s future public blog will be. Give employees some suggested topics and blogging guidelines. Encourage everyone to try blogging to drive adoption and success. Predetermine how long the trial period will last (suggestion is six months), and set a goal date for taking the blog public. Document lessons learned during the trial period to ensure success with the public.”

A blog can be a customizable off-the-shelf product, or custom-designed and branded by your IT and branding/marketing department, and housed on the corporate server. Ask those already comfortable with writing to be the first company bloggers. Select a few community managers (make this a shared role), begin policy development, involve interested employees, and then—as you pick the low hanging fruit of success—share the fun and release it throughout the organization, as it makes sense to your business model.

Of course, if a blog does not make sense, then don’t implement it. Perhaps a wiki, Basecamp, Yammer or SharePoint work better for your enterprise. Be sure to include customers, too! Share and manage information with your customers via customer relationship management (CRM) tools. There are many great products, such as those offered by Salesforce.com and Savo. Chances are, out of the hundreds of solutions available, you’ll find the perfect social business solution for your enterprise.

Develop your social media success internally and gradually move your social media externally, as it makes sense to your organization. How little or how much social media your company does depends on your business model and your customer base. Just pick a date and get started!

Read the article Practice Social Media Internally to Succeed in Social Media Externally