December 16, 2015 | 1 minute read

How to build a huge social media presence through employee advocacy

Passle

Some workplaces still frown upon their employees using social media during work hours, but this is actually quite a shortsighted approach.

Ryan Holmes, CEO at Hootsuite, details in the article below ways in which you can tap into employee advocacy to build yourself a huge following.

However, you do need to follow a few guidelines, such as:

Encouraging employees to tap into the right networks, not just their pals on Facebook. This is where some basic social media training could come in handy, encouraging them to target relevant Linkedin groups for instance.
Establishing some groundwork for sharing content, perhaps a particular hashtag could be the norm for instance. What is acceptable, and what isn't, etc.
Make the sharing process as easy as possible. While it's good to have a second pair of eyes on articles, you should minimize the steps to publishing content on social media networks.

Giving your employees the option to promote their own workplace on social media is not only a great way to increase your reach, it will also give your employees a feeling of ownership for your brand. A win-win situation really.

Still feel a rush of panic when your boss walks by when you’ve got Facebook open on your work computer? Calm down: those on-the-job jitters could soon be a thing of the past. Sanctioned social media at workplaces is on the rise. Case in point: Facebook’s new workplace networking platform Facebook at Work is officially being used by 300 companies (including mine). And with studies showing that using social media at work increases productivity and engagement (and offers a less annoying alternative to those never-ending email threads), it’s only a matter of time before more businesses get on the bandwagon.