Let’s say you’ve made the decision: you want your employees on social media.

It took some courage to arrive at that decision.  You’ve heard the horror stories  about what can happen when things go wrong.  But you know that people will talk about you online, no matter what.  It’s better for your organization to be a part of that conversation.

And there are great advantages to being there:

• Keener sense of what your supporters want
• Stronger relationships with your community, customers, or clients
• Better customer service
• Reaching people earlier in the buying cycle (which is also the giving cycle, for nonprofits!)
• Creative ways of accomplishing your mission

Why Get Your Employees Involved?

You could assign your social media to just one person, or just one department.  Why should you get as many people involved as possible?

Because your employees are a source of all the good stuff you can share on social media.  Success stories.  Fascinating facts.  Good advice for people looking to use your products or services, and fast responses to people who have questions or complaints.  Inside looks at  how the organization works.  In short, everything that would make people follow you on social media.

How to Get All Hands on Board

Let’s face it: your employees are already busy.  If you ask them the wrong way, they’ll see social media as just one more task they have to do.  What’s the right way to get them involved?

1. Ask for their stories.  People like to be listened to. Make a habit of asking your staff about successes, challenges, and memorable or funny things that happen during work. Write the stories up for your website or newsletter…or ask them if they’d like to write their own stories. You can do that even if you’re not yet on social media!
2. Let them create a social media policy.  Provide templates–you can find some at the link–but let them discuss the issues and come up with solutions that fit your company.
3. Have and share a strategy.  Make sure that employees know what the organization is trying to do.  Empower them to figure out how to do it.
4. Provide training.  A person may be active on her own Facebook account, but that doesn’t mean she’ll recognize opportunities to post to the agency’s.  Brainstorm.  Provide examples.
5. Welcome mistakes and learn from them. You can’t know in advance what will work with your specific audience. Even highly paid “social media experts” goof.  As long as everyone is sticking by the policy, expect mistakes, allow for them, and reward learning.

Has your organization already empowered employees on social media? How did it go?  If you share what you learned, you will be doing us all a favor!