Expert Online HR Solutions & Services
Posts tagged social networking
Social Networking Strategy
Jul 8th
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.
Which free Online Social Networking Tools to use?
Jul 6th
Your corporate Career & Community site should be connected to external social networking tools/sites in order to broaden the reach of your career site, to promote your brand, to foster and facilitate internal and external communication. Promoting your business on these sites is FREE!
The aim is always to try to get your target group to visit your website at some point!
Which tools to use:
A good advice is to stick with the big-three especially when you are doing your first steps in this new world: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter .
There are important differences between these 3 tools what you also must take into account:
LinkedIn is a fully professional networking site. As a company if you provide services or products to other businesses (B2B) then this is the first place to be. As an individual you can place your professional resume on LinkedIn, get connected to other professionals, get professional recommendations from your connections, etc.
What can you do on LinkedIn as a company:
- Define a LinkedIn Company Profile,
- Join the discussion in Groups,
- Post update messages,
- Research and mine resume/candidate database for candidates,
- etc.
If your customer base is consumers, Facebook is probably the best place to start. Many people use Facebook daily to socialize with friends and family and their Facebook use has most of the cases nothing to do with business. You can create a page for your business but your main profile page is about you as a Person. Facebook is by definition a ‘Personal’ networking site. It is thus important not to get too personal if you’re using Facebook for business…
Twitter is a kind of short messaging system (max. 140 characters). You can e.g. use it to update your status on LinkedIn or Facebook (distribute a message automatically to thousands of users), or to send out short descriptions of available job openings which in turn can be ‘followed’ by others, etc.
The advantage of Twitter is that it is fast and easy to use and that the messages are to the point (or should be) and may consist links to (your) websites.
Remember: The aim is always to try to get your target group to visit your website!
