There may be no charge to post stuff onto social media platforms, but if you are running a business, and people are using the time and resources you have paid for, by definition, there is a cost, even if it is an opportunity cost.
Many businesses I have seen just react to social media use by employees by banning it, usually with a spectacular lack of success, others just ignore it, accepting the time spent as a hidden cost in their overheads, only a few have seen the hidden value.
Surely it would be better to set out to harness the resources that are going to be consumed anyway in such a way that they deliver some value.
Here is a list of ideas, feel free to add to them:
- Set up a social media intranet to:
- harvest new product and improvement ideas,
- customer service success stories,
- problem/solution discussion threads for company centric problems,
- a virtual “water cooler” discussion forum on just about anything on employees minds,
- Encourage consumer/customer contact with individuals in the business
- Offer product usage tips, recipes ideas, to consumers, allowing them to respond and build a community
- Report on company activities outside normal trading, and seek stakeholders feedback on how they went
- Ditto for activities of employees away from work
- Add personal stories about being an employee, supplier, customer or shareholder, personalise the place.
Add your own to the list, I suspect it could go on for pages.
