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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

SOCIAL MEDIA Is EVERYONEs REsPONsIBILITY

within a company. The lines are blurred between social media managers and the rest of the organization. Each and every employee can disperse a brands message through major social channels and to a wider audience than ever before. Social concepts ourish within a business from changes in internal communication to social referrals to ll jobs. This is social business.

The denition of social business is difficult to pin down and there is not yet a singular explanation to point to. Essentially, social business draws on technology, full support of every individual in a company and social channels in order to improve customer engagement, marketing strategies, employee collaboration and other business outcomes. The modern concept of social business is still fairly new, and theres much to learn when it comes to measuring its value. However, what is certain are simple ways to begin shifting toward a more social business starting with the hiring process, to a series of organizational changes and social training for everyone. Adopting social business is not a project to check off your list, its a continuous process that must ebb and ow with the ever-changing tide that is inherent in social media. Be sure to throw aside sequential expectations because theres no step-by-step process to creating or shifting to a social business. Each companys path will be different, but what this ebook will tell you is what works. Youll learn about hiring employees with social media skills, promoting organizational changes, what and where employees can share brand content, ways to provide referral incentives, the importance of social training and ways to activate your employees on social media in order to see real revenue.

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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

Shifting to a social business is easier when you hire employees that already have the skills. Human resource positions now demand social media skills in order to recruit talent and engage with employees. A 2013 survey by CareerBuilder found nearly 39 percent, or every two in ve companies, use social networking sites to research job candidates. By using social recruiting methods to nd workers, youre already dipping into a pool of talent savvy with marketing themselves on social media.
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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

HERE ARE FIVE KEY sKILLs TO BE LOOKING FOR IN YOUR EMPLOYEE sEARCh:

OVeRall Social MeDia AcTiViTY anD PResence

Is a potential candidate updating Twitter every ten minutes? Every hour? Every day? Rarely? What about Facebook and LinkedIn? How many friends, fans and connections does the candidate have? How do their posts look? Are they utilizing hashtags and photos? Are they on every network, but only active on some? By asking key questions and getting to know a candidates current social media presence, youll be able to get a clearer picture of how their activity might translate to a work environment. Employees dont necessarily need to be ultra-active or be on every social network, but they should have familiarity with each channel.

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SpeciFic PlaTFoRm PRoFiciencY

You want a candidate experienced with most channels, but the ones that stand out are particularly adept at a particular network. A 2013 survey by Indeed.com found more employers are looking for candidates with specialty skills like Twitter and Instagram. Not all platforms are right for all businesses, so youll want to target candidates who are most skilled in your preferred channels.

ConTenT & CommunicaTion

Are candidates able to express themselves well through writing? The ability to communicate digitally is one of the top qualities to look for in a hire as brands continue to emphasize quality of content. Effective communicators tend to have a positive impact on social channels, particularly when it comes to engagement.

Mobile & TecH SaVVY

As consumers continue moving to mobile smartphones and tablet for social networking, to digest content, shop and more, youll want employees who have experience with mobile. Familiarity with up-to-date technology and common apps, as well as knowledge of how consumers use mobile are highly sought after skills to have.

enTHusiasm
Candidates who work well within a social business will be enthusiastic about working within a team. As important as it is for candidates to be self-motivated and self-directed, social businesses are inherently, well, social. When interviewing candidates make sure theyll be able to communicate effectively with other employees in order for your internal social network to function at an optimal level.

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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

PROMOTE ORGANIZATIONAL ChANGEs

Employees are at the center of change within a company. All workers, from the new intern to department heads, should be connected internally through social media in order to externally promote the brand. Employees are vested in the success of a company, particularly when they have real opportunities to showcase their creativity through social media.

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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

YOU CANT TWEET IF YOU DONT FOLLOW ENCOURAGE shARING

It may seem basic, but make sure employees are connected to your company by following and liking across channels (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Vine, Instagram, and anywhere else your company page can be found) and forming contacts with colleagues and employers on LinkedIn. Ensure they are subscribed to the company newsletter and RSS feeds of the company blog.

When employees are sending out your brands message across social channels, it has the incredible effect of humanizing your company, reaching a wider audience and empowering your employees as brand ambassadors. Plus, highly shared content moves up in Google rankings, making it easier for those beyond your vast network to nd your brand content. Most employees are already using social networks on a daily basis, so encouraging workers to include some brand messages as they tweet and post, wont be overstepping personal-professional boundaries. Those who are especially active on social media are likely already including tidbits about the company on their private pages. Its critical to trust employees to post about your brand in their personal networks. Encourage them to post their own original content rather than parroting brand rhetoric. Authentic posts always resonate more effectively with your audience.

EMPLOYEEs CAN shARE

Content company blog postings, videos, ebooks, whitepapers, infographics, you name it, your employees can share it within their networks. Opportunities job or internship openings, events, contests and other opportunities will be open to a wealth of outsider groups and individuals who otherwise may not know what your brand is offering. Stories videos, photos and quick tales from behind-the-scenes of a company provide followers with an inside look into company culture and personality. Personal Knowledge employees can participate in social networking communities within professional organizations and for consumers. Within these groups, employees can share their own knowledge with those in the industry and provide authoritative answers to consumers.

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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

EACh PLATFORM CAN BE UsED TO shARE WITh DIFFERENT GROUPs

PUBLIC FOLLOWERS PRoFessional ConTacTs PeRsonal FRienDs & FamilY All of the above according to circle

INCENTIVIZE
No matter what, you never want to force employees to share, but make sure there are benets to reap. Shares: Incentivize your employees to share social marketing content by creating contests or friendly competitions in-house between individuals or departments with free or low-cost rewards like lunches, Starbucks gift cards, and of course, bragging rights. There are a number of solutions out there such as Addvocate, Everyone Social and Branderati that can help with employee evangelism. Each of these tools creates an environment in which employees can more easily and enjoyably engage in brand-led social media. Referrals: In social recruiting efforts, referrals can also be incentivized. If your employees are willing, the pool of talent among your employees social media connections can expand your potential to reach high-quality candidates. Develop an incentive program specically for social media outreach.

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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

HOW HOOTSUITE ENCOURAGEs REFERRALs & BREAKs DOWN TRADITIONAL EXECUTIVE BARRIERs
No matter what, employees wont be excited to share a brands message through social media, until internal communication is functioning at an optimal level. HootSuite is dedicated to a social business strategy that begins and ends with ensuring social is integrated into every aspect of the company.

AT HooTSuiTe

75%

of new hires are internal referrals

CEO Ryan Holmes revealed this stat in a May 2013 blog post, adding the high amount is due to the dialogue we have with our own employees on social. Holmes says anyone in the company from the bottom up, can tweet him or other department heads at any time using Twitter, making it easier to engage with more employees than ever before. A certain amount of openness across employee-employer barriers is how not only a sense of trust and value can be reaffirmed, but it also lays a foundation for great ideas to emerge. This type of collaborative community building within a company creates is what a social business is all about.

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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL TRAINING

One of the most crucial ways to create a social business is through social training. Through training workshops employees can learn the ins and outs of different channels, explore their role in the brands overall social strategy, and learn company policies and procedures from a person, not a digital manual. Best of all, because engaging in social media is an ongoing collaborative process, lessons dont end when the workshop is over.
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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

HERE ARE FIVE REAsONs WhY sOCIAL TRAINING Is sO IMPORTANT FOR ENACTING A sOCIAL BUsINEss:

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Creating A More Unified Voice

Social media is all about word of mouth, so its important to have a unied voice delivering your brands message. However, unied doesnt mean uniform. Your employees are bound to be diverse in taste, background, contacts and thats a good thing. It not only means your content and your brands message will reach a wide audience, but it means that message will authentically come from an actual person, not an advertising robot. Make sure to emphasize to employees that while they are maintaining the brands core message, they need to be themselves.

Policy and Digital Guides Can Only Do So Much

Social media compliance policies and guides are necessary, but not always digested thoroughly, if at all. Thats where training comes in. Training involves nurturing skills that will shape the brand, not relying too heavily on policy-guides. The content of these sessions should be goal oriented and tting for each audience. Guides should still be comprehensive so training can be used to augment guidelines already put into place.

Social Businesses Dont Work If Employees Arent Social

Training workshops also have the benet of both one-on-one dialogue and group discussions in real time. Social media is a team sport that only works if everyone is activated. Through training sessions, employees have the opportunity to actively participate, have their voices heard, as well as gain clarity on policies and procedures. Employees can also learn how social engagement to spread the brands message further. Social training workshops should create a foundation for a communicative group of employees.

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LeaDeRsHip OppoRTuniTies FoR EXecuTiVes

Training provides the opportunity higher-level executives to make a face-to-face impact on employees, strengthening leadership and creating a relationship of trust between employee and employer. In case you needed another reminder, social business is for everyone. When executives get in on the game, everyone takes notice. Executives who inspire empowered employees will see better results and more self-reliant workers.

Reporting Value Of Social Media

This is key for every stakeholder in the company. All those who participate in social media on behalf of the company, in their public or private lives, should understand the importance of reporting back what was gained from social. This includes high content shares, exemplary or problematic customer service experiences, possible job recruits and more. These contributions can help the company analyze social business efforts in addition to measuring overall social value.

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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

Cory Edwards, Head of Adobes Social Business Center of Excellence says, People want to talk to you or me or just the everyday employee. They place far more value in talking to those individuals.
At Adobe past social training has focused simply been on social media managers, but now the company has expanded its training program to all employees. The program aims to empower those employees who want to talk about Adobe on a regular basis, to do so. Its ultimately this social media boot camp that employees will go through to be trained on the basics of, how do you use social, what are the policies and governance components you need to be aware of, but beyond that helping them understand how do you represent the brand in a voice that would be both your own, but also in a way that helps to represent the company appropriately. Heres a clip from a 2013 session at the Social Media Strategies Summit in Boston, where Edwards shows how employee advocates generate real revenue and some easy ways to activate employees.

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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

LEARN FROM ThE BEsT

ATTEND ONE OF GSMIs EVENTs TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SOCIAL RECRUITING STRATEGIEs, SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIEs FOR FINANCIAL SERVICEs AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGIEs.
SOCIAL RECRUITING STRATEGIEs CONFERENCE JANUARY 28 30, 2014
Learn to transform your HR department into brand ambassadors with mobile and social recruiting & content strategies. WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND: Diversify Your Candidate Pool Implement Successful Recruiting Strategies on a Budget Identify Best Practices for Achieving Recruiting Results Optimize Mobile Recruiting Strategies and Maximize ROI Build A Consistent Employer Brand Internally & Externally Identify and Implement Strategies for Recruiting C-Level Execs Access Key Corporate Case Studies for Effective Social Recruiting Learn how to Make the Most of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook Track and Measure Results of Your Social Recruiting Plan Network with HR Pros and Industry thought leaders Learn More: www.socialrecruitingstrategies.com

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIEs FOR FINANCIAL SERVICEs MARCh 25-26, 2014 NEW YORK, NY
Financial rulings and regulations continue to focus in on Social Media usage guidelines. Financial Service Institutions have been slow to approach the opportunities that exist within social media, but the time has come to press forward into the new digital frontier. New platforms continue to emerge, and the benets of social engagement highly out way the risks. This training course will guide you through the social media adoption process by providing marketing strategies, legal advice and industry case studies on how to navigate social media effectively. Learn More: gsmiweb.com/training/social-media-training/social-media-strategies-for-nancial-services.html

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HOW TO SHIFT INTO SOCIAL BUSINESS

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIEs SUMMIT

GSMIs Social Media Strategies Summit, the leading educational social media event, provides attendees with the opportunity to learn from and connect with leaders in the social media marketing industry. Through cast studies and interactive presentations, attendees will learn how to effectively leverage their companys social media presence, provide meaningful content for marketing and maximize lead potential. SMSS showcases emerging strategies, the latest social tools and insights from successful social media marketing campaigns executed by leading brands. Upcoming SMSS Events: SMSS hosts events each year in premiere locations including the major marketing and media hubs such as New York City, San Francisco and Chicago.
FEBRUARY

4-6, 2014 - LAs VEGAs, NV JUNE 11-12, 2014 - NEW YORK CITY, NY AUGUsT, DATEs TBA - DALLAs, TX NOVEMBER 6-7, 2014 EUROPE, LOCATION TBA

APRIL

29 - MAY 1, 2014 - ChICAGO, IL JUNE 18-19, 2014 - AMsTERDAM, EUROPE SEPTEMBER, DATEs TBA, BOsTON MA NOVEMBER 12-13, 2014 SAN FRANCIsCO, CA

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES TRAINING

Our in-house Social Media Strategies training package is a convenient, resourceful, solution that encourages team building for your department. In-House Courses Offered Include:

Social Media Strategy: Development and Execution Mobile Marketing Strategies Overview Pay Per Click and Display Marketing SEO and SEM Marketing Analytics, Metrics and Measurements for ROI Social Media Policy Development and Management Content Management and Content Marketing Strategies
GSMI is a leader in the industry of executive education, global conferences, summits and training sessions that combine rich learning environments with the opportunity to network with todays most relevant thought leaders, speakers and practitioners. GSMIs annual events have reached 85% of the Fortune 500 companies, in over 30 countries, and cover topics that todays leaders nd most challenging and inspiring.

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