Shout Out to My Work Fam
If you've ever gone on Facebook and wished someone a happy birthday, you know that these days the easiest way to celebrate your loved ones is to jump online. Whether you're simply wishing an "HBD" to your second cousin or crafting an elaborate slideshow of photos and videos to post on your bestie's wall, you're putting on a public display of appreciation that also demonstrates that you're a thoughtful person who pays attention to your birthday notifications.
This can easily translate to your business, and today we've got some tips for using social media to show appreciation for your biz besties, your awesome office-mates, your partners in profit! In other words, your staff and colleagues.
Engaging with and featuring your staff on social media not only showcases your stellar company culture, but also increases your potential reach to an untapped audience through their networks. And your staff will get that fuzzy good feeling of being appreciated, too. It’s a win-win.
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Pro tip: Before you make your company’s relationship with your staff Facebook official, it’s a good idea to have a social media policy in place. As you encourage your staff to share on social media, this will avoid a possible sticky situation for your company’s and your staff’s reputation.
Use these tips to get started:
1. Show yourself: Showcasing your company's work culture and introducing your staff on social media lets your audience put faces behind a name and feel more connected with you. Helping customers get to know your staff builds trust, and if a customer has something in common with your head of marketing or your customer service champion, that commonality helps your customer bond with your company in a more genuine way. (And it works the other way around too, helping your staff feel connected to your customers!)
Think about what you're doing with your staff to celebrate holidays or reward them for a job well done. If you're already hosting epic pumpkin carving contests or Taco Tuesdays, why not let share that with your fans? Check out this example by Zappos to see how they make even an experience like a job interview something worth knowing about. (Side note: why aren't more people conducting job interviews in ball pits?!) Remember to tag your employees in social posts and encourage them to share!
2. Personalize it: So you’ve started sharing photos and videos that feature your staff. Why not curate all the content with a branded hashtag? Brainstorm a hashtag that your company and your staff can use to share everything from that awesome new coffee bar you just found together to the impromptu pingpong tournament you held the other day. Remember to double check that no one else is using it first by doing a quick search!
L'Oréal is a great example of how to do your own company hashtag and how to do it well. Their #LifeatLoreal hashtag is a way for their employees to share their fun experiences at the company from their personal accounts, which get picked up by corporate. Staff share their conference experiences, office Halloween costumes, coworker bestie Snapchats, and office manicures.
Once you create a hashtag, encourage your staff to follow suit and soon you’ll have your own fun feed of office life images for your audience to see and learn just how cool of a company you really are. Just remember to like and repost (with permission) your staff’s content to show them that hey, you’re here, and you’re loving their engagement!
3. Spotlight your staff: Think "Employee of the Month," but better. Use your social media to show off your staff members and all that they contribute to the company. You can share insights into what your staff do, why they joined your team, or even just their super intriguing hobbies.
Look at Deloitte’s Instagram to spark your creativity. Their current #WhyDeloitte campaign asks their staff why they chose to work at Deloitte, complete with photography showing off the staff’s personality. This is a great recruiting tactic, too.
4. Give your staff the wheel: Consider letting your staff take over your company’s social media accounts for a day. This gives them the freedom to share their personal experiences in the office, and add a little extra flair or personality. Think cute coffee mug shot, a lunch outing, and a fun brainstorming session.
Before you hand over the reigns, have a training session to make sure your employees have clear instructions, that they understand your brand voice, and that they know how to use these social media accounts (like how to upload photos and what a hashtag is; feel free to send them to The Weekly Slice for that!). Check out how Litmus runs employee takeovers on their Instagram to start writing your own guidelines. If you want to do a test run first, have staff send you content and captions that you can post yourself.
Make this a regular part of your content each week, and you'll not only add more fun to your social channels, but you'll let your staff know that they're valued and appreciated. We hope this inspires you to buy that ball pit, go try that new restaurant, or, at the very least, get everyone together to shout:
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