No matter what you do, your company is going to be featured on blogs, says Alison Davis. “So you have a choice as a company—either you lay out the story from your perspective, or you let someone else write it.”
Davis, a communications consultant, recommends a thorough and proactive approach to social media on the Web. Davis is CEO of Davis & Company (davisandco.com). She made her comments at a recent webinar hosted by BLR®.
The first step is to set up collaboration with your communications group. Consider the following:
Monitor ongoing Web activity. Remind your communications people to be on the lookout for negative blogging or other social media problems. There are services and software that help you to troll the Web to see what is brewing out there, Davis says.
Develop a response strategy. Again, work with communications. If X, how will we respond? “We need to be out front on this. We need to tell our side of the story. Don’t let someone else tell it.”
Determine everyone’s roles. In particular, clarify roles of senior management and “spokespersons.”
Decide on your stance. You might want to be aggressive—what this person is saying is not true. Or you might want a gentler approach—this is our position on this topic. Or you might want to ignore the situation entirely.
Must we tweet? Not convinced social media is the way to better HR? A unique webinar will help get you—and as many as you can fit around the phone—up to speed without leaving the building. Click here for details.
Take a holistic approach. Davis suggests that a social media presence that displays a positive impression of your organization will counteract the negative that’s bound to be out there. For example, says Davis, check out these possibilities:
- Ernst & Young®—Facebook page. It is designed for recruiting. Employees talk about life at the company and answer questions. The overall impression is that it’s a positive site to visit, you can get your questions answered, and you’ll be convinced that this is a great place to work. “It is a great balancing force—all these positive voices of former employees,” says Davis.
- Best Buy®—their site just for store associates, Blue Shirt Nation, that establishes a sense of community. It’s an interesting approach, Davis says. You can make connections, can ask other employees questions, etc. It’s very proactive and forward thinking, Davis believes.
- KMPG®—their program to stay in touch with former employees. A number of firms are doing this, Davis says. The former employee could be a client, could recommend you, or could come back and work for you.
Balance freedom of speech and company guidelines. There’s no one right answer, Davis says. How much freedom do you want people to have while making sure that they are using time appropriately? You want to be neither too restrictive nor too loose.
What sort of culture do you have? Casual golf shirt, don’t monitor lunch hours, or do you have more “rules and guidelines and boundaries”? The culture can be reflected in your social media policy. “Make it fit,” Davis says.
Still not completely sure how your organization can use social media? Don’t know what to tweet or when? Have specific questions about how to go about it? You’re in luck, because there’s a BLR-sponsored webinar next week to answer your questions about Twitter and other social media sites.
More and more Americans and their employers are hopping on the Twitter bandwagon. A recent survey by Jobvite.com revealed that 80 percent of the organizations polled plan to use this social networking tool to recruit talent, with 42 percent of recruiters saying they already tweet to attract and hire candidates.
Couple those statistics with a recent Challenger, Gray & Christmas report indicating that Twitter is one of the preeminent tools jobseekers are using to find jobs—and it’s no wonder that Twitter is so hot.
Join us on February 18 for an in-depth, 90-minute interactive webinar all about how to search Twitter to select the candidates you’d like to woo and how to entice qualified candidates into wanting to work for your organization in 140 characters or less (the limit on a Twitter post).
2010 recruiting—it’s going to happen on Twitter. Join us next week for a special webinar and get your specific questions answered by an expert. Get the details.
Our expert—a seasoned consultant—will explain how to tweet in a way that draws favorable attention to your organization, gets top candidates in the door, and keeps your existing workforce engaged.
The date is Thursday, February 18, 2010. The time, 1:30–3 p.m. (Eastern Time—adjust for your time zone). As with all BLR webinars, one fee trains all the staff you can fit around a conference phone, you can get your (and their) specific phoned-in or e-mailed questions answered in an extensive Q&A that follows the presentation, and your satisfaction is assured or you get a full refund.
What if you can’t attend on that date? Preorder the conference CD. For more information on the conference and the experts presenting it, to register, or to preorder the CD, click here. We’ll be happy to make the arrangements.
Top Talent. Get more information.
Other Recent Articles on HR Policies and Procedures
Social Media: Your Best Offense or Your Best Defense?
Smart Managers, Dumb Moves
Legal, Yes, But Stupid
Sued? Here’s the Worst Thing You Can Do