-Teamwork

Coughlin’s Law – “Everyone here has an oar.  Pick it up and put it in the water”

Something I have learned over the years – Everyone has a unique story and a different way of looking at things. People come from different backgrounds and have their own view on similar events.  So why would just one person be in charge of your social media, your marketing and your customer service.  To put your best image out to your customer and to best reach out to your customer, you need a team.  Yes someone does need to the the “person in charge”, the leader, the captain, to make the final decision and to give direction but this person needs input from a team. The best case scenario is that this is not a defined team but rather your company collaborating on the final product.  Now that might seem like a lot to take on but this can be easily solved with some crowdsourcing internally or a “core” team leading the way and then asking for input from everyone.  This gives you “buy-in” and ownership by the employees.  This makes it a part of your culture and then second nature to everyone.

Everyone needs to be involved at some level because everyone in your company has a relationship with someone who has a relationship with someone else.

How your employees behave internal / externally, at work or on personal time will have an effect on your business.

This is even more important these days with the high use of social media like Facebook and Twitter.  What your employees put up online will make its way back around to your company at some point.

I am not advocating a strict policy on social media use, but I am in favor on educating your employees on the possible outcomes of their actions – physical and virtual.  Should you have some policy at work – yes. Should employees have some sort of a disclaimer to their personal activities on line – yes.  I frequently see  on Twitter, that someone works for X company but their Tweets are their own.  A disclaimer helps but its not a shield to protect them or your company from inappropriate behavior.  Common sense rules!

What else should you do?

1. Make sure all of your employees know what it is you do.  give them an elevator speech they can remember
2. encourage them to get involved – in the company and with the community in which you work.  Remind them that their voice and actions are important
3. encourage them to volunteer in your community and let them know the company will support them given a defined plan.  Good PR can go a long way.
4. investigate in a collaboration solution for idea generation, idea nurturing and idea development.  Empowering your employees to contribute and form the direction and action the company will take is a great source of employee satisfaction.
5. remember that four ears are better then two.  having multiple people looking out for your company makes your job easier and more effective.  It increases employee satisfaction and will then increase customer interaction and retention.

Got a story to share?

Photo by John Spooner

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3. Social CRM Gold Rush
4. Know your customer – basic CRM
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