There are no two ways about it, it is difficult and challenging to kick-start a social media profile and run a successful social media campaign. Amassing likes, encouraging sharing and generating content is extremely time-consuming. Not to mention responding individually to interactions, running campaigns and seizing opportunities. Your team is a raw resource at your fingertips that can help you to do this.

However, allowing your team access to social media can be tricky. According to a recent Irish survey, conducted by The HR Department, one quarter of companies worry about confidential company information being leaked on social media. They are also anxious about their reputation being damaged by content that their employees post on their own personal profiles.

The most efficient way to safeguard yourself is to invest in a well written social media policy which outlines the rules, best practices, and dos and don’ts of social media in the workplace. Policies like this are now commonplace in the work environment and a necessity for many organisations.

Your Social Media Policy

Social media policies should include guidelines and rules on using personal social media during work hours:

• Speaking on behalf of the company
• Bullying and harassment
• Expressing personal opinions about the company
• Sharing of info such as numbers, internal communications, projects, clients, performance data

If you are unwilling to share passwords for social media pages with your employees, or have trouble deciding who can access the information, another more effective way of enabling your employees is simply keeping them informed.

Send out a weekly/monthly email, with the upcoming hashtags, competitions, events and product promotions to keep your employees engaged. Using a website such as www.clicktotweet.com to create ready-made tweets which they can post in one click to their own Twitter page is a very effective method to drive engagement.

Remember that if they are going to share content, they will be sharing it to their personal profiles, so it has to be interesting and fun in order to guarantee maximum interaction. Start with company/employee achievements. Use images, for example photos of company days out, events, behind-the-scenes pictures, and ensure to tag or mention your employees.

Create hashtags for the company so they can use these when uploading images to their own profiles, driving people to your page. Similarly, if you are sending employees to a conference or event, create a space (a Dropbox folder for example) where they can upload any pictures they took so you can add them to social media afterwards, or put them in the monthly email so they can share them on social media themselves.

Company Achievements make Great Content

Remember that instilling a sense of accomplishment in consumers about your business, and generating trust and confidence in your employees, can raise your company profile. Post status updates about employees and their certifications, awards and recent successes, relevant to the company. Create a company group on LinkedIn, endorse your employees and post about company achievements, mentioning key players involved.

Employee posts are an unobtrusive way to reach a large audience and promote your brand. As long as you have a proper framework in place, there’s no reason why your team can’t be your best asset in a successful social media campaign.

Post by Susie Horgan

Susie founded Springboard in 2011, and has developed the business into a leading, director-led communications agency. She has worked for over 20 years in senior marketing and public relations roles.