Should Employees have Personal Social Media Brands?

This question was asked on the Sticky Branding LinkedIn group, which I am a member. Great question. And here is my response:

In my experience helping a range of profit and non-profit companies with their Web 2।0 initiatives, personal branding is quickly becoming a norm for some companies as it helps put a human touch on the communication। Most companies, though, opt out for a nameless “corporate avatar” to represent the company interests on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc। This still enables the company to have representation, but with a buffer, and allows multiple people to respond depending on the communication required. Others let the C-level executives Tweet and interact with the social media crowd.

Policies and procedures (best practices), have to be established if staff are to post on Twitter and Facebook, and I have seen people fired for saying the wrong thing. Other dangers include, staff losing themselves in the social media channels and not getting their primary jobs done. I have also seen this, and it can be a huge time killer, and quite frankly annoying when you have to work with these individuals, who are constantly distracted by their wide range of Twitter and Facebook channels. Some companies are absolutely terrified with social media, by regulatory and legal, but also because they do not think it fits with their corporate strategy, and are essentially transfixed like the proverbial deer in the headlights.

These days, it can be an advantage to have your own personal business brand on-line, as you can show the potential employer that you clearly understand crowd sourcing, as long as the conversations are meaningful. But employers should not confuse size of Twitter and Facebook following with value. Social media messaging is about quality, not quantity, and bragging to a potential employer that you are a social media expert, without understanding their needs, or having proven success under your belt, may lead to a lot of eye rolling.

Unfortunately, not everyone can represent the companies best interests in a public facing social media channel, and the damage that can be unleashed can result in a wide range of headaches. Most staff are used to instant messaging, communicating with their close friends on Twitter and Facebook, but do not have a formal education or experience in PR, marketing, journalism, or communications, and as such, are not well suited to represent a company on any social media channel. Personally, I think corporate social media should be left in the hands of sales and marketing, public relations, and HR, as they are best suited to deal with outbound customer communications, which may impact the company.

Now having said that, I do believe that deploying private social media channels for staff to collaborate and interact, is critical to foster new ideas, and improve processes and communication. I have seen this process in action at TVCogeco, and it worked very well for their station staff and volunteers. As well, I am helping several clients set up private and public social media channels for pharmacists, and for the Government of Ontario for professional collaboration, which will be strictly regulated, not only by corporate policy, but by government regulations. Private social media networks seem to be a viable trend with private and government organizations, and will allow individuals to foster their own personal brand in a controlled social media setting.

Typically, what I have found most effective with social media messaging for staff, is that the corporations and staff understand the following:

1. Legal and social implications of corporate social media messaging
2. Policies and procedures and best practices, follow the 3 R’s for all staff social media communication with the customer: Respect, Representation, and Responsibility
3. Have a dedicated F/T or P/T body in place, who has the proven experience and education to take the lead and manage social media messaging
4. All the staff, indirectly and directly, involved in social media are trained properly in social media concepts and governance, and have a series of quick guides for them (daily messaging, Twitter guide, Facebook guide, etc)
5. The social media models deployed should support corporate strategies and goals, have ROI and measurements of success
6. Develop a strategy and tactics plan for staff who will represent themselves personally on corporate social media channels
7. Start slow, with a few social media models, which support the corporate strategies and goals, prove them, then expand at a reasonable pace, experiment, modify, and maintain. Do not try an boil the ocean with social media models
8. Establish measurements of success and gather the relevant social analytics
9. Document everything for future use and analysis
10. Expect some failure and have mitigation
    

If you would like more information on analyzing, developing, deploying and maintaining your corporate social media channels, and integrated Web 2.0 PR and marketing, please contact Steve Cohen at (905) 330-3570, stevecohen@electriceffect.com, or visit the Electric Effect web site at http://www.electriceffect.com