So, now having filled you in on the basics of Social Media in my previous few blogs, I shift to the next level of social media insights. With the right base of understanding about this medium, your company can take a leap to explore it as a sand box experiment. Companies in India that block and dis-engage the social network websites for their employees will no longer be successful as mobile apps are now better engaging human networks. Smart companies know this and they have already taken the first mover advantage to re-engage their staff by creating effective corporate blogs. Sounds surprising? It may not, but they have figured out the essence of the network effect of socializing and are now using that to build company loyalty and stronger retention ratios. Lets find out what these path-breaking companies are doing.

With an open mind to allow social media as a corporate wide activity and not just limited to one department or a person, employee blogs are rising very rapidly. A classic case that comes to my mind is IBMer’s Blog

They encourage all their employees to be a part of the blogging process as it brings out the culture and vibrancy of the organization. Customers look out for these factors to relate to a company and IBM sure has played it right to attract more audience and consumers and most importantly their PEOPLE, the IBMers.

But before letting your employees start your social media initiative, there are a few things you should keep in mind for harnessing a sensible social quotient:

• Train them and educate them on Social Media and the purpose of their engagement for the company.
• Lay down the boundaries and the confines within which they can talk about the company.
• Before making it live create an internal sandbox for them to learn and play around with.
• Create a playground for your employees. Encourage some of the employees from different work areas to post their pilot blogs and engage them to collaborate via commenting, also called builds. @iridiuminter, for our own company blog, we have been successfully able to engage the employees by having them comment openly.
• Do not punish them for speaking their mind. This is a great sign of creating trust both within and outside the organization.
• It is always better to do a sanity check in the beginning on all that goes live from the employees. After a while this check can be removed as they now know their limitations.

Last but not the least, let them enjoy this activity.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam

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