Brampton - Social networking is a hot item. Websites like Facebook and YouTube have provided a platform for any or all to praise or vent about a myriad of issues, including one's own employer. And the audience is vast, varied and potentially influential.
So, given the fact that your employees are your face, your voice, the representatives of your company, I think all business owners need now, more than ever, to ensure they have a very happy workforce. Your employees are your agents, you're your diplomats, your emissaries, your envoys – be aware of that and be prepared.
If you have an employee who's unhappy working for you, one who's feeling undervalued, uninformed, unimportant, then watch out – he may be talking about you in public. And talking in public is now so much more comprehensive than it was before the popularity of social networking. Each employee's 'public' can now number in the millions, rather than just a few acquaintances, lunch colleagues or beer buddies.
At Facebook, your employees are writers and publishers; at YouTube, they can be video producers and stars. Sites like these offer huge potential for your employees to give new meaning to word of mouth advertising. Then there's blogging and podcasting – another simple and easily accessible way for your employees to reach an unlimited audience.
If you've been a reader of this column for a while, you know that I'm a huge advocate of word of mouth advertising. I'm dedicated to its force and to its potential as your most powerful marketing and sales tool. But, clearly, I've been talking of positive word of mouth advertising. Now, negative word of mouth, using social network sites, can broadcast your company's shortcomings to the world. Every employee can have his own soapbox and his voice can carry around the world in a click.
Some companies have found solutions that work for them. Some may simply make it a term of employment that Internet discussion results in termination. Some have given their employees a place to vent and to learn that's internal – a blog for employees only which remains unseen by the external customer, that provides a place for management to be open and honest and informative to their employees, so that when the employees do go out in the world, they'll be armed with solid information, rather than rumours and grudges. Good thinking I say!
But wouldn't the perfect solution be showing your employees their value to you in the first place? Wouldn't the perfect solution be letting your employees know that because you're aware they are your public face then you'll treat them with respect and empowerment? Wouldn't the perfect solution be absorbing the cost to keep your employees trained and informed up to the moment about your company?
And wouldn't the cost of valuing your employees be priceless?
Like all great customer service, it's that simple.
© Marcia Barhydt 2008
