If you believe the directional flow of marketing has changed and you conclude you really do need to create branded media for your small to medium business, do you know where do you start? The task can seem pretty overwhelming. Is it a blog post, a video, a tweet, a Facebook post? The list seems endless, right?
Consensus is that you need a digital marketing strategy as you approach branded media, which is true. Expanding your digital footprint doesn’t happen without a plan and consistent action. But you also need to start to think differently about what your employees are doing each day.
For instance, doesn’t it seem odd that folks who work for you are expected to answer the phone, greet customers when they walk in the door and handle customer service issues, are somehow not trustworthy enough to tweet several times a day on behalf of your brand? Do you trust them to post to the company Facebook fan page regularly? What about shoot and edit a video or write a blog post?
Training is Overrated
Falling back on the notion that we need to train our employees before we get started is overrated. Many of your employees already know most of what is required to get started with creating social engagement. What they need is ownership approval to practice, and the flexibility in their daily work agenda to have the available time to create digital content.
As an owner or department head, are you prepared to allow your employees to “play on Facebook?” Probably not, but you need to. Is some training required? Of course. However, there are enough “how to” articles and posts out there that your employees can get started on their own if given the chance. As Jason says, “This ain’t rocket surgery.” We don’t need to over-complicate the process.
Permission to Try Things
While “play on Facebook” was meant as a joke, trying different things to build your content arsenal isn’t. For instance, in our real estate property management business our leasing folks are required to tweet several times a day from their branded Twitter account. They are required to regularly post to our Facebook fan page. They do videos and blog posts. We track their social media outreach each week, just as we look at other traditional conversion metrics. This seems rather radical to my peers in the apartment business. But it has become part of our daily routine and is a reason we no longer depend on traditional media to drive rental leads. But it all started with letting go, and allowing our employees to practice social media.
Stop Doing Something You Have Always Done
As business owners and managers, we can’t add on more tasks for employees to do without letting go of something else. We must analyze some of the crazy things we think they should be doing (that have little to no impact) to allow room for building our branded media assets. (Hint: Once you begin to view your digital footprint, your digital reach and your branded media as an asset, its overall priority rises exponentially.)
What are you doing in your organization to expand your digital base?
Related articles
- Activate Your Extended Social Media Marketing Team (seo.getpageone.com)
- Your Digital Footprint Is Muddy (twistimage.com)
- Employee Use of Social Media (flyingpenguin.com)
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