On Facebook you can’t be a Friend of a brand but you can be a Fan of a brand. While it sounds like a subtle difference, it is actually an important distinction.
Brands are the sum total of the experience a customer has when they are interacting with your brand. But on Facebook that interaction is relatively low and un-engaging. The interactions people may have with your brand will be limited to the people they interact with from your company.
Yet many companies limit the use of Social Media at work which I think is very short sighted.
“Of those not allowed to use social media at work, 65 percent said their managers block access to sites like YouTube, Facebook and Flickr because they’re afraid employee productivity will suffer.”
Blocking social media sites entirely may not be a good idea. There will always be people who abuse trust and spend time on social media sites with non-work related activities, but I believe the benefits outweigh the risks in the long run.
Building and allowing personal brands to flourish is important to having a strong Social Brand. It’s the sum total of many personal brands that make up that experience people have with your brand on Social Networks like Facebook.
Guidelines for companies to allow Personal Brands in Social Networks
So if you are going to allow access to Social Networks spend some time pulling together some guidelines for your employees. The IBM social computing guidelines have been called “The Constitution” of Social Media / Blogging guidelines and a good place to start.
3 Takeaways for Companies who want a strong Social Brand
- Allow as many personal brands to grow in your company
- Empower them with tools (guidelines, group blogware etc)
- Train them on how to be a brand ambassador
Brands cannot make an impact by shouting at you with advertising anymore …. and in Social Networks it doesn’t even work! It’s the people of the brand that can make the difference. So empower them with the tools and training they need and watch as your social brand grows!
Tags: Blogging, Branding, Facebook, Social Media, Social networking
There are three words why companies don’t like their people interact on social networks… fear, fear, fear.
That is odd to me because we allow them to interact in person, on the phone, via email and paper mail.
I agree. Create some guidelines and let them engage as you do with other media.
There are three words that describe success using social media… engage, engage, engage.
i couldn’t agree more about the value of having employees involved in social media. this article however really represents the issue in corporate america. i’m self employed and surrounded by entrepreneurs, and in our world, self branding through social media is king. sure, there’s no big brother checking up on what we post on FB or twitter. but for sure, if we’re not posting, there’s not many people checking into what we’re doing at all.
@ Harry – Agree Agree Agree
@ Studio623 – Yes my view point was from a corporate perspective – your point is why social media is a great equalizer – it can make the entrepreneur look like a Fortune 1000 company
Companies are forever complaining about the “silos” in their organizations. Or else they’re trumpeting their commitment to “maximizing their human capital.” Here is the solution looking them straight in the face, and if they’re smart, they will figure out how to harness it. The rest will suffer a diminished ability to compete.
It is really a paradigm shift to allow corporate acces 2 social media.
Not seeing happening in the corporate world….
I agree with Harry, create guidelines and people won’t abuse it.
As for corporations loosening up their grip on social media in the workspace, not sure this will happen. People that run these companies have old ideas and are scared that their employees might learn about new ideas and opportunities, or worse get plucked out from their current positions. Case in point – Recruiters on LinkedIn.