How to Get Your Coworkers Involved with Growing Your Social Presence
Take a team approach to your social media marketing by encouraging your coworkers to get involved with the content creation process. Easier said than done? Follow our simple tips to help you get your team on board without feeling awkward or pushy.
If you’re responsible for your business’ social presence, you probably have a lot on your plate.
Chasing new followers. Creating fresh content. Following-up with customers.
And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of your day-to-day responsibilities.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone else pick up some of the slack?
Chances are, you already have some help sitting right next to you.
Listen: your coworkers and colleagues are totally underrated when it comes to growing your social presence.
This rings true even if they’re not exactly social savvy, by the way.
From promotion to content creation and then some, your own team is oftentimes one of your best resources.
Below we’ve outlined five actionable ways to get your coworkers involved with social media that won’t cost you a cent.
1. Push Company Content to Your Coworkers’ Personal Accounts
This might seem like a simple tip, but the importance of sharing content beyond your business’ main social accounts can’t be stressed enough.
Content promotion should be a group effort, not a solo act.
Through employee advocacy, brands immediately expand their content’s reach and create a much-needed sense of authenticity with their followers.
Some recent data from advocacy platform Bambu sheds light on why employees should share content from their personal social accounts:
- Company content shared by employees gets 8x more engagement than content shared on a company account
- Leads generated through employee advocacy and social selling are 7x more likely to close
- 21% of consumers claim they “like” employee posts about companies - this rate is higher than any other type of social ad campaign
The takeaway here? Don’t restrict your company content to company accounts!
Let’s look at a shining example from Sydney’s own Canva on LinkedIn. Here’s a piece of organic content promoted on their company page.
Now, here’s the same piece of content being promoted by the author, Sarah Nanclares with a totally new caption. Bear in mind that Sarah herself has a sizeable LinkedIn following with 500+ connections and over 700 followers.
And here’s Canva CEO Melanie Perkins promoting the piece as well. Melanie’s post actually received more engagement from Melanie’s account versus the official Canva account due to her own massive following of 63,000+ on LinkedIn.
Also, note that many Canva employees are sprinkled among the hundreds of likes this post managed to score.
That’s employee advocacy in action, plain and simple. This same sort of logic applies to the likes of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as well.
Asking employees to publish company content is a no-brainer and doesn’t have to eat up anyone’s time. As an added bonus, employees are empowered to put their own unique take on promotion in the form of captions and hashtags, giving each piece of fresh content a creative spin.
Creating your own army of advocates is a smart, simple move. According to employee advocacy statistics from Smarp, the average employee has 400+ Facebook friends and LinkedIn contacts (and nearly as many Twitter followers).
That’s what we call reach, folks.
In a day and rage where algorithms are restricting organic reach for brands, employee-posted content has the potential to be a game changer. The more people you having sharing your content around, the better.
2. Publish More “Behind-the-Scenes” Content
These days, authenticity can be your best advertising.
Brands today are expected to fill their content calendars with more than just promotional pieces.
Behind-the-scenes content might seem like fluff, but it’s essential for showing off the human side of your business. Such content is also easy to create and represents a welcome break from posting promo after promo.
Snapshots from the company office party? The office pet? Your latest company outing? Go for it.
Tools such as Instagram Stories make it a cinch for followers to see the day-to-day lives of your team. This creates an emotional connection and injects a sense of fun into your social marketing.
If nothing else, such content is a window into your company’s personality and culture. Heck, here’s a prime example from Hello Social celebrating our quest for 12,000 Facebook “likes.”
3. Cover Your Coworkers at Industry Events
Documenting events, conferences and conventions is a nice change of pace for your social followers.
Doing so shows that you’re not only up-to-date on industry events but also want to keep your fans in the loop regarding what you’re up to. Tagging and showcasing your coworkers’ activity at a conference is a great way to cover an event and is yet another form of behind-the-scenes content.
On a related note, you may not personally be able to attend each and every company conference. In this case, you can allow your attending coworkers to take over your social account or send your social manager the content while they’re “in the wild.”
4. Empower Your Colleagues to Create Content
If you’re strapped for fresh content ideas, let your coworkers do some of the legwork.
Spoiler alert: your social team, writers and designers aren’t the only ones who can create content. It’s becoming increasingly common for non-marketing department employees to produce and promote company content, too.
Whether it’s contributing to the company blog or conducting an interview, you’d be surprised what your coworkers can come up with.
This rings true for your managers and higher-ups as well. For example, Vend interviewed their CEO in an Instagram video series covering retail tips.
5. Ask Your Colleagues What Social Media Can Do for Them
And speaking of asking, make it a priority to pick your coworkers’ brains on a regular basis.
Reality check: many people still don’t understand the ROI or purpose of social media. This includes some of your colleagues, more likely than not.
Consider that 39% of employees feel that their departments don’t collaborate enough. When you put up walls and silos, nobody wins.
Social marketers should be up-to-date on everything from new products, upcoming features and company milestones. Likewise, your sales folks and higher-ups should know what you’re doing as well.
Figuring these points out means more direct communication with your colleagues. If you want to keep your followers in the loop, you need to be in the loop as well. Whether it’s face-to-face or digitally, make a point to check in frequently with the rest of your team to understand what sorts of campaigns they want to see.
Are Your Mates at Work Part of Your Social Strategy?
When it comes to growing your social presence, you don’t have to go it alone.
In fact, more and more companies are adopting a “team” mentality.
And you know what? That’s a good thing.
Any combination of these tactics is fair game for businesses looking to engage their followers and coworkers alike. With a bit of creativity and no cost, your colleagues can start supporting your company’s social efforts ASAP.
