Letting your employees represent your business on social media

Letting your employees represent your business on social media can be a good way to create an authentic social media presence

Social media is an absolutely amazing tool for businesses to really expand their marketing horizons, meet new potential customers and other companies that you can network with, and increase brand awareness through clever tricks on websites such as Twitter and Instagram. However, within a small business with a limited budget of both time and money, it can be difficult to really grasp hold of all of the potential that social media has to offer. However, there is a solution, although it is considered by many to be quite risky: let your employees represent your business.

Of course, we've all heard the horror stories of employees making bad and reckless decisions when it comes to social media – and when they are meant to be representing your company, the negative fallout can be catastrophic. On the other hand, allowing real people to showcase your brand, and really engage with your customers on a human level can be so much more effective than getting an outside company to do it, or doing everything through the official company accounts. 

If you believe that your employees could really use social media to benefit the company, then you will need to set out some guidelines for them to really ensure that you never have to panic when you turn the news on each morning. Here are some tips:

1. Establish a company goal.

This could be to reach a certain number of followers on Twitter, or to have a Facebook page clicked on by a set number of people. It doesn't really matter what the goal is, as long as you set it, and share with your employees what it is. Then they can all understand where it is that they want to go.

1. Ensure they know the rules.

Providing a quick day of social media training will make sure that nobody actually likes something that you definitely do not want to be associated with.

1. Engage with relevant information.

Each week, collate some interesting facts about your company and some products that you want to promote – that way your employees with always have something to say, and you can keep your messages streamlined and on-brand.

1. Encourage them throughout.

Your employees could quickly lose focus if they are not encouraged. You could perhaps pick a small prize for the person that converts the most sales, or gets the most retweets. It doesn't have to be big, just something that recognizes their achievement.