Use of social networks at workplace – right or wrong or can be assigned to the gray area?
Social networks are sometimes seen as platforms where employees lose time in their working hours, to the point that some companies have blocked access to these platforms for being considered a waste of time. In fact, there are studies that tracked workers’ use of social media alongside their performance at work, and found that digital connectivity appeared to boost metrics like productivity and retention. Suggesting that plugging into social apps and networks makes employees more productive at work.
There are numerous arguments for workers to connect to social networks during work hours, and it will help if employees have a boss who thinks that spending time on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube or even Pinterest and Instagram is not a waste of time.
Social platforms also provide real value to employees’ work, so let’s offer some arguments about how the use of social networks can help your boss understand how the company can benefit from likes, tweets or time connected to LinkedIn.
Advantages of the use of Social Networks at work
There are at least 7 ways to leverage social media in our work environment and improve the professional tasks we do every day:
Get Help
First and foremost, ask for help , facing a complicated issue or a problem that we cannot solve alone. It is true that Google searches have solved problems many times, but consult your questions in a social network and this one can also have an instant answer.
Improve management talent
Companies with a corporate social networking environment are able to achieve a higher level of efficiency among their employees. This atmosphere will allow the discovering of new talent and facilitate an easier flow of information among members of staff.
Talent search
Looking for talent is another activity that is greatly facilitated by social networks, especially LinkedIn type, where you can set preferences and use powerful tools to find qualified candidates that fit the industry, experience and knowledge needed by the company.
Partnership
Collaboration with other colleagues in the organization also is greatly facilitated by social networks. Social networking at work can improve morale and reduce employee turnover. If most of us walked to Facebook every day, why not take advantage of Facebook as a messaging and storage system to provide communication within the industry. Just create a private group to access instant messaging, private email, and basic files on the same platform. LinkedIn can also create interaction, but interact is more complicated.
Promotional Products and Events
Promote products or do promotions and events on social networks is also often very effective and can provide interaction, quick wins and visibility among customers and partners.
Knowing customers
Social media and Twitter in particular for its simplicity when searching, are very useful to know what customers think of the company and its products and services. Today it is essential to know what is said of the company network and brand, so as to be able to act on feedback and create a meaningful conversation on social networks. Needless to say that interacting with customers through the social platforms is a simple, rapid, automatic and inexpensive way of communication, compared to conventional letters, newsletters, magazines, brochures or promotional means.
Getting to know your company better
In many industries, customers are interested to know what’s behind their operations. To teach what is behind, it is very useful networks like YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest, as they are great tools to help you to show, through videos and pictures, aspects of the company that can be very useful to know the target audience.
These seven tasks will be greatly enhanced with the habitual use of social networks and many more will be discovered over time.