How To: Establish A Social Media Culture In Your Company

A strong social media culture is beneficial for any company. But for those who still need reasons:

(1) An aggregated effort by the entire company can greatly increase your company’s online presence. This essentially translates to free publicity.

(2) Being social media-ish, consumers tend to associate your company with words like ‘cool’, ‘fun’, ‘approachable’, ‘lighthearted’ and ‘friendly’. Now who doesn’t like to do business with someone like that?

(3) If implemented successfully, it keeps your company committed and better bonded as a team.

Below are 5 ideas to help you achieve these benefits.

1. The Basics: Official Blog, Twitter and Facebook

To be social media-ish, your company has to lead its people by example! The basic ingredients must be there: Blog + Twitter + Facebook Page. They will act as your social media “headquarters” and plant your company’s flag in the social media world.

Blog: Keep this open to all staff and allow them to write with few restrictions. Submission of original posts should be done by a blog team to keep the style consistent and have inappropriate material filtered. Keeping the blog post short and sweet is key.

Twitter & Facebook Page: Either the CEO or a dedicated social media person should take charge of the official accounts. This will avoid communication breakdown and help maintain consistency.

2. Create videos if possible

Try capturing random happenings in your company. A video tells us a lot about how staff feels about the company. Obviously, the focus should not be on your product. Catch this funny example by Zappos:

Does Zappos look funky and friendly to you? This should attract some potential employees and keep existing staff committed.

Oh and don’t forget to share your videos through your blog, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook page.