In a day and age where the majority of people are using (if not downright dependent on) social media networks, a recent study might surprise you given that the results showed only 7% of managers feel like social media skills are important for their employees to have. Does this really matter? Should an employee be Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn savvy? Given the fact that we often joke about it being out of the norm to simply pick up the phone and call someone when you can just send them a tweet or a Facebook message, the short answer, in my opinion, is yes.
You may not see the need for all businesses to posses these skills and utilize social media networks (some offices ban employees’ use of them at work altogether), but think of the potential increase in exposure and connections you could gain. Allowing your employees to interact and communicate across these outlets can have great benefits; all signs point to efforts like cold calling dying down and inbound marketing moving ahead. Social media profiles are one of the best ways to grab a potential new client’s attention and generate leads.
Where are most people going to search for new jobs? The newspaper? More than likely they are updating their resumes and signing in to LinkedIn. Salesforce.com is a great example of why social participation can succeed, as the sales team recently utilized their social networks by posting a job opening. The team added 350 posts on LinkedIn, ultimately making the position visible to 159,000 professionals from 40,000 companies. By doing this, the company received a 60% increase in sales employee referral submissions in a single week.
Allowing employees to promote company information, announcements, new products, etc., is a sure way to further your online exposure and perhaps even your sales and overall business success. Each employee has a unique network and pool of friends and followers that may find your business or brand of interest. You found and read this blog post, didn’t you? So, if you have not yet taken a chance to consider social media skills and participation for those that work for you, try it out. You may be surprised at the success you find and what you were missing out on before.
By Casey Guntlow