Your social media department works hard to establish your company’s presence online, but it’s all in vain if nobody shares your content.
Your social media department is responsible for the creation, distribution, and insights of your company’s social media content, but it’s not worth all the effort if your employees don’t share the content on their personal social media profiles.
However, there are a few reasons why your employees don’t feel like sharing company content on their personal social media profiles (and frankly, they are under no obligation to do so).
According to Forbes, “...today’s buyers are often looking for information outside of what the brand provides, and they are more likely to trust authentic information from someone they know. This is causing organizations to lean on employees to be the authentic voices that share corporate content through their social channels.” They continue, “because our social networks are personal, filled with trusted friends and business connections, we guard these networks and don’t want to spam them with corporate promotions. Employees have an image and a personal brand to maintain within those networks, so they carefully choose to share content that reflects well upon them.”
In this article, our Social Media Manager, Nicole Glover, will look at why employees don’t share companies’ social media content and what employers can do to encourage them to do so.
According to Business2Community, a business community website, “If you want employees to like and actually share your company content, it can’t be regurgitated fluff.”
We don’t believe it’s healthy for a company’s culture to force employees to share social media content created by a company on their personal profiles. However, there should be a passion to share content from both the employer and employee’s side. If someone feels truly passionate about the work they’re doing, but the content is boring and doesn’t result in a healthy dialogue, employees will still not share the content created. People need to be proud of the work they’re doing and automatically share the content with their networks if they believe in the company, its clients and their content.
The culture of sharing social media content and the ROI a business can expect from social media content is still new to some employees and they don’t often see the value in sharing your content with their peers. If you start forcing employees to share your social media content with their connections, they are likely not to.
Most employees are unaware of the positive impact social media can have on their personal profiles as well as on the growth of a company.
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We believe everyone should be able to have their own stance on social media and the sharing of social media content, but it’s vital to explore your personal and public profiles to encourage a healthy dialogue and enable continuous improvement.
HubSpot says, “Reconcile your different identities as every one of them offers an opportunity for a conversation starter. Having to pick a professional or a personal identity is a black-and-white scenario. But social media is like a colour kaleidoscope providing opportunities that weren't available before. It allows you to listen to conversations and participate in them as a business professional, a parent, a book lover and a baseball fan all at the same time.”
Your marketing and sales team might be your most active content generators, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t ask employees to contribute to your social media calendar. Ask your employees to contribute to your blog, social media content, and email marketing and make them feel part of the content in this way. When your employees create their own content, they will more likely share it with their personal connections. Leverage the passion employees have for specific clients, brands, and social media networks within your company and allow them to distribute relevant social media content.
Employees should feel free to share your company’s social media content, but make sure they have the right guidelines and policies in place beforehand. It’s the employer’s responsibility to encourage the distribution of social media content across the board. If you trust and encourage your employees to share engaging content, who knows where your social content will get you?
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