| Presentation by Tony Student |
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Slide Title |
Slide Text |
Narrative |
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Social Media in the Workplace |
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Title Slide |
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Introduction |
“Twitter is not a technology, it’s a conversation – and it’s happening with or without you.” – Charlene Li, author Over 306 million active Twitter users send 500 million Tweets daily * |
• Hello, my name it Tony Student, I currently work as an Information Security Manager at a financial services firm in the Washington DC Metro area and am responsible for securing a multi-trillion dollar financial platform. Part of my responsibilities is to provide training and awareness on topics that deal with Information Security including the use of Social Media in the Workplace. • Social media is a powerful platform which helps connect people. According to Charlene Li, author of Groundswell, “Twitter is not a technology, it’s a conversation – and it’s happening with or without you.” • Consider the fact that every minute of every day roughly 5,800 tweets are posted to the Twitterverse. This amounts to over 500 million tweets daily! That statistic definitely echoes the sentiment of Charlene Li and is an important thing to consider when it comes to business. Social media can become a positive part of promoting a company’s brand and allows a business to provide supreme customer service. |
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Agenda |
Social Media Primer Five Leading Practices on Social Media Best Buy Case Study Closing Remarks Questions and Answers |
• For today’s agenda we are going to cover the following topics: • Social Media Primer – Which will provide insight into what social media is and its purpose • Five Leading Practices on Social Media – Tips on the appropriate use of Social Media • Best Buy Case Study – An example of how one big box retailer sets the tone and expectation on social media for business use • Closing Remarks – Final thoughts one how transformative social media can be for business • Questions and Answers – To be able to provide some time to answer those burning questions that you didn’t realize you had until you saw this material. |
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Social Media Primer |
An online medium for social collaboration * It’s all about the content Pictures Videos Music Social Media can enable business Platforms include LinkedIN, Twitter, Facebook, etc. |
• According to the English Oxford Living Dictionary, Social Media are “Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.” • In other words, social media in an online medium for social collaboration. All said and done, it’s all about the content that people and companies produce and publish to the masses. The platform is an enabler for businesses to create accessibility for consumers to producers of a product or idea. • Examples of social media platforms that you may already be familiar with include, LinkedIN, a professional social networking site; Twitter, a microblogging site, and Facebook which originally started out as a place for college folks to collaborate and quickly turned into the defacto platform that connects families and businesses as well. |
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Five Leading Practices on Social Media |
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• This next section will discuss the five leading practices on social media as it pertains to the workplace. |
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Understand Company Policy |
Understand what interactions are valuable Avoid interactions that violate company policy Ensure messaging is mindful of company culture Policy and culture is organic Community standards and etiquette |
• Understand what the company policy is regarding social media, especially if they have a publicly facing social media presence. A well written policy will provide detail in regards to what the company perceives as valuable interactions and will have guidance on how to appropriately interface with customers. • Social media is a publishing platform that the world can read, be wary of behaviors which violate company policy. One method of doing so is by being mindful of your company culture since it can negatively affect the brand strength should an interaction with the customer public can result in harm in the company’s public image. • Check the policy often since both policy and company culture can change over time, for all you know, the community standard, and etiquitte which serve as guiding principles have to be agile enough to adjust with the tweaks that your company may make. |
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Personal and Professional Interaction |
Social Media focuses on getting work done Mix in your own personal brand Humans want to connect with others Keep interactions professional Avoid uncomfortable topics |
• Social media in the context of a company is focused on getting work done. Remember that it is supposed to be a business enabler and not a time sink. At the end of the day the company pays you to do your job and use of this as a tool should not detract from the company mission. You may be thinking “Oh wow, it sounds like this is more of a killjoy or it seems boring seeing a flurry of text on the screen” Try injecting some personality in the interactions that you have and make the experience your own. • Humans naturally want to connect with others since we are social beings. Just remember that behind that text is another person, so be mindful of keeping your interactions professional. Avoid topics that may prove to be awkward or uncomfortable to others else a potential for miscommunication may occur. |
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Public Versus Private Communications |
Understand the boundary of public vs private spaces Select the correct medium Engage the appropriate audience Information classification is key Understand the information you have Never share private company secrets Never post anything that belongs to someone else Legal ramifications for wrongful disclosure |
• It is vitally important to understand that some social interactions that occur online have a specific target audience in which an interaction is designed to be disclosed. • When using a social media platform to publish these ideas, ensure that you pick the appropriate medium to deliver your message. If it takes longer thjat 140 characters to express the thought (as is the limitation set by Twitter) the alternative would be to publish a Facebook post which enjoys longer form publications of articles. • The message should be engaging to the right audience. If your communication is specifically for people who collect vinyl records, does it make sense to create an interaction on a thread who’s demographic is targeting people who enjoy reading books? • Now that you are ready to creat that post, consider whether or not that post should be published to the whole world. Most companies have a set of confidential trade secrets that they protect, after all that is the “secret sauce” to what makes them a market competitor. It is important to understand the type of information that you have and you should avoid sharing company secrets. If it doesn’t belong to you, then why would you post it? Doing so may have definite negative legal ramifications that could be detrimental to you or to others who get this information. |
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The Washington Post Test |
Protect the company brand Would you publish it in the Washington Post? Would the post embarrass the company? Brand damage can cause company harm Loss of consumer confidence Loss of revenue Loss of jobs |
• Think twice before posting, if in doubt, try using the “Washington Post Test” to help you determine if the content is appropriate. • The basic premise is to ask yourself if the content that you had in mind to disclose to the public would be okay if you had published it on the front page of The Washington Post. Reading over that content, do you feel that the message could potentially embarass the company? • You are probably asking yourself, “Why should I care about it?” Posting an inflammatory remark on your company’s social media presence could cause irreperable brand damage. Damage to the brand could cause a significant loss of consumer confidence in the product that you are selling, losing sales means a loss in revenue, loss of that revenue means the company can’t meet their financial obligations which could result in job cuts. If the post that you make is egregious enough, it may lead to immediate termination and possibly civil lawsuits. • Oh wow that is a lot of talk of doom and gloom, but fear not, there is a way out of that mire, which brings us to the final leading practice. |
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Remember the Golden Rule |
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• Remember the Golden Rule! Repeat after me: “Treat others as you would like to be treated” it is the ultimate maxim of altruism seen throughout history and should be the guiding principle in all your interactions on social media and in your personal life. • To achieve this end you will want to be self-aware about your interactions with others as it is not all about you. When you are leveraging social media for business, it is to help others with issues that they may have with a company product. • Be an active listener and pay attention to what the customer has to say. In some instances the person on the other side of the conversation may just want to vent for the first few moments, they do this to be heard. Acknowledge this and then find a proactive method to manage the conversation. • Be clear in your communications, as a mis-communication can exacerbate a situation and cause it to escalate. Rmember that social media is a double edged sword, the interaction that your customer has with you good or bad will be just as likely to be posted out to the world to see. You definitely don’t want to set the precedence of being the company with crappy customer service. • Finally, you should endeavor to be respectful always, after all you want to make all interactions with your customer base be positive ones. By providing this level of respect to a person, you will help make them feel valued and at the same time be able to take the coversation into a more constructive route to actually fix the issue that they may legitimately have with the company. |
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Best Buy Case Study |
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• This section will talk about how Best Buy manages it’s Social Media platform |
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Best Buy Case Study |
Best Buy relies heavily on social media Best Buy’s Social Media Policy * is clear Employees must disclose their affiliation Employees must state that it is their opinion Employees must not disclose company, legal, and client information |
• Best Buy is a retailer of consumer electronics and home goods with both brick and mortar and online e-commerce site. Best Buy also services what it sells, as part of this support structure, you can interact with Best Buy through their social media presence on Twitter using the handle @BestBuy. • BestBuy relies heavily on social media and to facilitate good behavior on that platform they have created a clear social media policy that applies to their employees. Some of the highlights that come from their policy include: • Disclosing their affiliation to Best Buy – It is important that when you are acting as an agent of the company that you let your customers know that you are a representative, not doing so is dishonest. • State that the opinion that they post when not acting on the official BestBuy social media account are their own opinion. The beauty of freedom of speech is that it is free, but it is important to provide that buffer to your employer when you have a divergent view of a certain topic. • Keep company secrets, secret. Employees are prohibited from sharing information that they are not specifically authorized to disclose as this can cause brand damage, which can translate into monetary damages to the company. |
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Best Buy Case Study |
Best Buy’s Social Media Policy * is clear (continued) Employees are expected to act ethically Content with racial, ethnic, sexual, religious, and physical disability slurs are not tolerated Best Buy enables it’s employees to effectively use Social Media for business |
• Act ethically, after all honesty is the best policy, it help build consumer trust in the brand and shows the integrity of the employees that Best Buy hires. • Slurs of any kind are not tolerated at any level by Best Buy; those found in violation are subject to disciplinary action. • Best Buy’s policy helps set the guidlines that all their employees should follow as they are encouraging the positive interaction with customers and do so by enabling the use of social media as part of the normal business model. • If you would like to read the full policy, it is available at the url provided in this presentation. |
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Closing Remarks |
Social Media is business enabler Have a clear Social Media Policy Follow the five practices Understand Company Policy Personal and Professional Interactions Public Versus Private Communications The Washington Post Test Remember the Golden Rule |
• We have covered a lot of material, so I wanted to leave you with these final thoughts. As we have seen throughout this talk, social media is a definite business enabler and can help set your company apart from the rest in the field. To do so, a business should have a clear social media policy which informs an employee on what is acceptable when using social media platforms on behalf of the company. • Finally we have covered over the five leading practices as it pertains to social media. • Understand the Company Policy – Those are the rules your company expects you to follow • Personal and Professional Interactions – Use social media as a tool to get work done and be mindful of how you interact with others • Public Versus Private Communications – Understand what is okay to post to the public versus what you should keep secret to protect your company • The Washington Post Test – When in doubt try applying this test to see if it is appropriate to disclose certain information • Remember the Golden Rule – Repeat after me: “Treat others as you would like to be treated” • Each of these practice areas will help you navigate the sometimes complex waters of social media. If you are able to master each of these areas, then the opportunities to building a strong online brand for your company is limitless. |
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Questions and Answers |
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• Now is the time for asking those questions that you may have been afraid to ask. If there are no further questions, I would like to thank you very much for taking the time to listen to me on the value of Social Media in the Workplace. |
