The good Social Networking Strategy is very simple and consists 3 important elements:

  • Communication
  • Organization
  • Security

1. Communication

After registering on a social networking site start to communicate by answering questions, asking questions, letting people know what you are doing and what you think is important and by this promote your company and move the attention to your website where more specific information can be found… Value conversations and invest time in follow-up.

You may segment people into groups according to the following classification and decide on an appropriate communication strategy towards the specific segments:

  • Clients/customers
  • Prospective clients/customers
  • Employees
  • Active Candidates
  • Passive Candidates

2. Organization

Good social networking needs careful organization/planning and is a time consuming task, therefore allocate time for it and choose a person in charge and preferably design a Community Manager role in the organization.

3. Security

Communication on behalf of a company may risk brand reputation therefore careful planning is required!

Because of the big success of the social networking sites there are more and more hacker attacks against those sites. In some cases when clicking on a link a whole company network can go down or network security can be jeopardized…

It is important to have a well defined Social Media Policy which provides guidance to employees about how to interact on behalf of the company online and which clearly defines what’s acceptable and what is not.