Social Networking: An Engagement and Communication Tool

Dear Reader ,

Now-a-days social networking suddenly seems to be one of the hot topics around.

Here below is a brief article that is or could be useful to you somewhere.

Enjoy your read.
Regards,
Prasad.


Social Networking: An Engagement and Communication Tool
by Elaine Varelas

Twitter, Facebook and other social networking tools give CEOs and senior leaders the power to communicate instantly and with great regularity and consistency with large, globally diverse teams, including employees, contractors and vendors. This helps foster open communication, clarity of direction and goals and direct connection between individual team members and the leaders of the business.

1. Social networking as a communication tool:
If leaders want their employees to use social networks as means of cross-team communication, it is critical that they be given access to such sites. In addition, if a company is using social networks to promote the organization, products or brand, it does not send a good message to then suggest to employees that they should not be checking their social networking sites during the workday. The employer may, however, ask that employees hold off on making or responding to personal postings during work hours. Social networking can provide a great opportunity for managers to build trust with their team by encouraging them to use the sites for professional communications and for personal communications outside of work. They need to ascertain whether social networking has a negative impact on productivity before unduly restricting or limiting usage.

In some cases, social networking has been found to increase productivity, particularly for teams that are in geographically disparate locations. Furthermore, social networks can be a company's most powerful marketing and lead generation tool - not to mention, they are free to use.

Managers who struggle with staff members who waste time on social networks will often find that productivity issues will remain whether the employees have access to the social networking sites or not.

The risk of overuse or misuse can be ameliorated by putting a thoughtful launch plan in place and providing employees clear and concise parameters for using social networks in the workplace.

2. Social networking as an engagement tool:
Using social networks as an internal tool can dramatically increase the ability for companies to communicate with employees and, if done effectively, can positively impact engagement.

Managers can use social networks to have an ongoing dialogue with staff in real time - whether it's through real-time chat, polling employees on various topics, recognizing exceptional work, etc. Social networks offer a variety of technologies that can be used as a means of keeping employees engaged.

However, managers who want to have an honest dialogue with employees through social networking mediums must be aware that they do run the risk of hearing from unhappy staffers in addition to the happy, engaged ones.


[About the Author: Elaine Varelas is a managing partner at Camden Consulting Group, a division of Keystone Partners and a provider of integrated talent management solutions for organizational and leadership development.]