Social media has quickly become one of the most utilized forms of communication worldwide. Individuals have been utilizing social media personally for over a decade now. Businesses caught onto the trend a bit late in the game. Still, today almost every business utilizes social media.
And just like their employers, employees typically use at least one social media platform daily. Thus, businesses have a dilemma on their hands. Social media gives every employee the ability to create havoc for a company with the press of a button. One bad tweet or disastrous upload and a company’s credibility can be tarnished.
In order to avoid catastrophe, many companies have implemented social media training programs. These programs help employers communicate how to avoid disasters for the business. These training sessions also educate employees on how to help the company generate leads through social media.
Here is why your business should hold a social media training session:
To Avoid Disaster
The prototypical case of social media disaster happened to Domino’s Pizza in 2009. A few employees posted a video to YouTube of them messing with a customer’s pizza before delivering it. The video went viral instantly. The employees ended up in jail and Domino’s spent millions of dollars getting the video off of the front page of Google using black hat SEO tactics. The event was truly a PR nightmare.
Your company is a click away from having a similar event occur. Social media gives every single one of your employees a chance to creating havoc for your organization. While you cannot eliminate the risk a bad employee cause drama, you certainly can mitigate the risk. The best way to do so is by educating your employees on social media practices and policies the first day you hire them.
Proactive Is Always Better
A proactive approach is beneficial in most areas of life and social media training is no different. Your new hire training program should include a social media training program geared towards eliminating disaster along with showing new hires how to positively use social media for the companies benefit.
Utilizing Your Employees
Employees are a business’s greatest asset. You should be using your employees to promote your brand through social media. While a majority of your company’s social media training should be focused on avoiding disaster and educating employees on what is appropriate and what is not, there is another benefit to the training.
You should be educating employees on how to promote your brand through their social media accounts. Your employee’s personal social media accounts have access to a number of friends and followers who may never follow your business account. By educating your employees on how to share company information through their personal social media accounts in the right way, you can generate a number of new leads.