Been wondering what to do with the in-house Twitterati? The one who’s always the first to land invites on Facebook and post their musings on a blog? Turn him into a valuable resource with some social media training.
Here are some of the benefits of social media training to your business:
Online media literacy
Don’t assume that everyone is clued up about social media. Chances are some team members can tell you the difference between flickr and MXit in a second, while some only have vague social media knowledge. Social media is extremely dynamic, so your people need to be able to separate fact from fiction, see the interrelatedness of online interaction and understand how and why people use different platforms. Social media touches on every facet of business, from IT and HR to marketing.
Business context
Many people tend to think that social media is just about chatting with friends or sharing funny videos, but when you start to understand it as a business tool, there are numerous opportunities to share information, build goodwill around your brand and find new leads. Having the full picture helps the employee align their activities with the business strategy and use existing networks and their love of being connected to boost the business.
Online reputation management
Protecting your brand from negative opinion is a team effort. With the right information and awareness, your team can avoid triggering negativity with inflammatory, careless or ill-considered remarks. Being able to monitor comments and flag possible issues in time is essential for containing crises and proactively building a positive online reputation.|
Security and privacy
Knowing how to own and protect information and profiles (both personal and business) is key. Training helps employees understand issues around security and privacy. For example, private chats, conversations and postings can be found and deleted pictures can still show up on web searches. Employees benefit from understanding security issues – for example, downloading files without consideration can pose a risk to equipment.
Understanding analytics and business intelligence
Ultimately, It is important to be able to figure out the impact of your social media efforts on an ongoing basis. This helps you assess what drives interest, what people are commenting on, which pages or platforms attract the most traffic, and what activities translate to sales, “likes” and “followers”. Understanding how to interpret data also allows you to decide how to best use your resources. This knowledge is as important at senior management level, to inform strategy, as it is for the frontline blogger or digital customer service representative interacting on a daily basis.