3 Benefits of Social Media Use At Workplace

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It’s not hard to see why 54% of companies prohibited employees from social networking activities during work. You can’t just watch your employees spend more time on Farmville than their job, can you?

The truth is if you manage it well, benefits of social media use (not for work purpose) can make the risk you take worth it.

If you can’t think of any, let me help you with 3.

1. Employees can be your online ambassadors

The emphasis is “can be”. It all depends on how much your employees love working for you. Give them every reason to promote your brand and leave them no motivation to complain about you. During working hours, let them share company “happenings” or pre product launch excitement through social media sites.

“Working on the last stage of development. It’s gonna be AWESOME!”

“Peter, the Marketing guy just made a short vid about his fellow colleagues (yup, that includes me). Hilarious. Catch it here!”

This shows how your company can be professional and yet a joy to work in. Remember, employees are a critical link to consumers and prospective employees. Let your company culture radiate through them in a personal way.

2. Social media plays a huge role in building a fun corporate culture

Without a good environment, employees won’t love their work and that translates to a business failed. A good corporate culture can help bond employees together and make them feel closer to the company.

This is the reason why Zappos has a YouTube channel dedicated to communicating its culture.
Here’s a video to show how WEIRD Zappos employees are:

Check out their Twitter leaderboard. Why would so many employees let you have the chance to watch their every move? That’s only going to happen when they know you are not going to use social media against them!

MindComet is a unique mix between an interactive marketing consulting firm, an interactive agency and a marketing technology developer. And guess what? It has one of the best corporate cultures in the world!

It even has a YouTube channel and blog to let the whole world know:

If a company prohibits social media use, I am pretty sure it also prohibits any idea of fun in the office. It definitely took Zappos and MindComet plenty of working hours to make those videos, but that sure made employees proud to work for them. If employees are happy, they will definitely work harder for you and for each other. Stop being a control freak and maybe you will see more discipline at work.

3. Appropriate use of social media can increase productivity

Yes, you heard me right. I believe optimal use of social media can increase productivity. When the stress at work gets overwhelming, sometimes all you need is a break. Play a Facebook game or watch a couple of funny YouTube videos to take your mind off work for a while. 10 minutes is all you need to come back fresh.

But that wouldn’t be possible if social media is prohibited at work, would it?

Let’s forget about the issue of employees abusing the privilege. There will always be this issue even when social media is not in the picture. At the end of the day, it’s human nature and it’s up to you to manage it.

How? It’s definitely not easy. Check out my next post for more!

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