Only 36% of U.S. employees in a Gallup survey strongly agreed with the statement that their immediate supervisor kept them informed about what was going on in the company.
This lack of communication likely contributed to another statistic in the survey. Only 22% of employees said they trusted leadership in their respective organizations. Effective communication is crucial for establishing trust with employees.
So, if you want to improve trust, you must work on communication. Although not traditional, social media is a great channel for internal communication between employees and leadership.
Why Using Social Media as a Communication Tool is Beneficial
With the number of people using social media reaching nearly 5 billion people worldwide, you can bet your employees are a part of this group. It’s only wise to leverage platforms your employees are already familiar with to connect and communicate with them.
Leveraging social media as an internal communication tool can improve interdepartmental communication. When teams don’t work well together across departments, it affects the team, the customer experience, and small business outcomes overall.
On the other hand, seamless interdepartmental communication and collaboration make for a more productive operation.
For example, data is an integral part of successful companies. Each department collects and uses data in some way. But sometimes, departments need data from other departments to complete their projects. If interdepartmental communication and collaboration were nonexistent, the sharing and use of data from different departments couldn’t happen.
Interdepartmental communication creates an unmatched team spirit and synergy, which promotes a company culture that thrives on positivity, boosting morale, good leadership, and confident decision-making rooted in data.
A growing business is the result of interdepartmental communication, collaboration, and strong company culture, making it that much more important for leadership to use all channels available to them to facilitate collaboration and communication among their team.
In this case, social media can make internal communication more engaging and intimate. You can create original content that sparks interactions from employees. You can also have meaningful conversations that you may not otherwise have in the office.
What You Can Do With Your Employees Via Social Media
There’s a lot of potential on social media. Leaders can take advantage of modern trends in social media marketing, which are proving to be effective ways of reaching people. Short-form video content is huge, as are live streaming and influencers.
Also big on social media? Employee advocacy. Employee advocacy is when a business relies on its employees to create brand awareness and promote its products and services.
Leaders can use social media to encourage employees to share company content and news with the masses. You can discuss what you want your team to talk about on your small business' social media, and then they can spread the word on their personal networks.
Not only does this improve your brand’s reputation with the public, but it also lets your employees know you value their opinions and want them to express themselves.
Leaders can share the following via social media to facilitate seamless internal communication and a stronger company culture:
Open communication about all things company-related on a central platform helps your team to become more tight-knit, communicative, and collaborative.
Leadership Etiquette on Social Media
Leaders have a lot of influence, whether they like it or not. People take what you do and say seriously and look to you for guidance. So, it’s important to think through everything you say and do on social media to ensure you’re adhering to a high standard of conduct.
It’s a good idea to run all of your posts by another person on your leadership team. They can give you feedback on whether the content is appropriate. They can also offer advice on how to make the primary message clearer and the content more engaging overall.
Finally, engage with employees on social media respectfully. Emotional intelligence is one of the most essential leadership qualities to have. It’ll help you remain professional and poised at all times, even when the conversation isn’t pleasant.
People will be a lot more likely to come back and interact with you when they know they can count on a positive experience.
Setting Up Social Media as Communication Tool for Your Company
You may be eager to use social media for effective communication in your small business. However, it’s vital to jump into it with a strategy to support collaboration and not on a whim. Strategic thinking is the best way to ensure you and your employees use the platform for communication consistently.
Start by choosing an appropriate social media platform for your team. Sticking to one platform right now is probably best to ensure your employees don’t get overwhelmed. Take a survey on which social media platforms your employees use the most and use the results to make your decision.
Once you choose a social media platform, establish what you will do on this platform and the best practices for using it to communicate effectively. Answer the following question before you begin:
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What will you share on social media with your employees?
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How often will you publish new content?
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What kind of content types can employees expect?
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What topics aren’t appropriate for employees to discuss?
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What kind of responses can they expect from leadership?
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When should they check the company's social media?
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Who’s in charge of managing the platform?
Finally, don’t skip out on training your team on how to use the platform as a communication channel. Giving them a list of best practices isn’t enough. You must show them exactly what to do so that everyone is on the same page.
Start with some training on how to use the basic features and functions on the social media platform you’ve chosen. Then, move on to examples of appropriate conversations to have and content to publish on social media.
Conclusion
It’s becoming more and more common to see company leaders on social media channels. And for good reason. These platforms can serve as solid internal communication channels that facilitate team bonding, collaboration, and transparency.
Take advantage of social media for effective leadership communication by incorporating some of what you learned above.