Who’s sliding into your DMs now? It might be your employer

Remember the secret thrill circa 2012 of pressing “Windows key + D” to hide your browser – and social media activity – from your boss?

Now it’s more likely that your employer isn’t just cool that you’re on social media, they’re using its various channels to communicate *with you*.

Companies’ first foray into social media was to connect with customers, but it’s also becoming an effective tool for sharing important news and opportunities with current (and future) employees.

And why not, since:

• Most team members are already spending time on social media sites
• Job seekers are following your company’s posts
• Internal stories also help burnish your public image

When employers use social media as part of a corporate communication strategy, their teams may have a better sense of belonging. Nobody likes to be kept in the dark, so making employees more aware of company initiatives can help them feel more valued. It’s one way to start building better work relationships.

Expanding your communication channels also helps solve the issue of making connections when your team is working remotely.

To be clear, this article isn’t about your company’s internal instant-messaging tools like Slack, or even private social groups for employees. It’s about sharing stories publicly that reinforce feelings of belonging and improve how employees view their work and their workplace.

Step 1: Set your goal

If you’re just getting started with social media for internal comms, begin by deciding what you want out of it. Feeding the social media machine requires ongoing effort, as well as an extensive time commitment internally.

Alternatively, you may decide to use an outside writing partner, who will also need your direction.

Popular objectives for internal social media initiatives include driving cultural change within the company, enhancing the employee experience and increasing staff retention. These efforts can also play a role in helping recruit new employees in a tight labor market.

Your goal may be to introduce a new company purpose, mission or vision statement. Or, you may want to promote hiring programs that have gone underused or are in need of applicants.

Regardless of topic, your social communications strategy should reflect your overall internal communications strategy. Be sure that your social sharing is aligned with your company’s wider objectives, so it doesn’t appear to be a random effort.

Step 2. Create content people care about

This is the fun part.

Once you know your goals for engagement, you can brainstorm ideas for stories that will support the message and resonate with employees.

This starts with leveraging the experiences and stories of the people who are working for you now. That may include:

• New-hire graduates of your competitive internship program, which has been successful in helping reach your company’s diversity and inclusion goals
• Team members who have used company programs for controlling smoking or obesity and want to share their success stories
• Company principals who want to offer leadership advice to employees but may not have time for in-person mentoring

Other opportunities for sharing stories include employee awards and external recognition of your workplace.

Your employee resource groups can provide story ideas. Additionally, consider polling your employees about programs they’d like to know more about.

Once you’ve determined which initiatives you’ll support, you’ll need to develop an editorial calendar for the next six months to a year. This will include which stories you’ll tell, how you’ll tell them (the medium you’ll use) and when (preferably when they’re likely to make the greatest impact).

You can be a little creative with tone and tactics: Short-form videos (30 seconds to one minute), GIFs, selfies and a voice that’s casual and authentic may have a place in your social media posts that they don’t in top-down emails.

One quick note of caution:

Great storytelling is the secret to success.

But don’t overwhelm your staff (or your audience) by insisting on daily posts if the stories aren’t there. Regular posting is certainly a goal, but strive for quality over quantity. Outcomes over output.

Step 3: Encourage sharing

The great thing about using social media to tell your stories is that it’s “always on”; people are likely to read your stories closer to the time you post them, rather than letting an email linger in the inbox.

Any post may take a little nudge, though.

If you want your leadership and employees to read and share your social media content, you’ll need to show them why it’s important to the company … and to themselves.

Here’s how it can benefit individual employees or departments:

• Employees can build their personal brands and increase their business connections by sharing company content on social media.
• Managers can improve brand awareness and position themselves as thought leaders by sharing content supported by their own personal insights.
• Sales and marketing teams can grow brand awareness, leads and opportunities by increasing the reach of your posts.
• Human Resources can improve talent acquisition and reduce the cost of hiring by sharing relevant articles.

When you create content that other employees believe is valuable, they’ll share it with their own followers and become brand advocates for your company. They are your most trusted audience.

That said, the “Notify Employees” button is your secret weapon. Click it every time you post something relevant on LinkedIn.

Quickly, some caveats

We like social media as an authentic method of engaging employees. Just keep in mind that no matter how tight your privacy settings are, anything that’s online can be screen-shotted and easily shared with others.

Employees may not feel comfortable sharing company social media posts unless they’re expressly told they can. Writing a company social media policy helps them decide what and when to share.

Finally, as hard as it is to believe, not everyone is using social media or following your company’s channels. So, any benefits you communicate with employees via social media needs to be shared via other media, as well.

Ready to dive in? You’ll find more information in our WordsFresh blogs, such as these tips for writing headlines that work even for the shortest attention spans.