Thursday, October 21, 2010

Loss of control requires employee trust

Many companies are encouraging employee use of social media (within the guidelines they publish).  The value of participating has a big opportunity to improve brand image, and drive future revenue.  As participation grows ... and grows ... and grows, it's very difficult for a company to be able to get a clear view of where their employees are participating.  If there was an 'inventory' of places, and a list of relevant topics, companies would be able to reduce duplicate communities and help to streamline a common message.  However, it's very difficult to have this without some very rigorous and 'heavy' process.  The majority of employees participate in places where the relevant conversations are happening.  It's a tough position, and is one (of many) culture shifts happening.  Control is distributed, with the major factor being trust of your employees.  Trust ... with the support of training ... becomes the most important element of a successful Social Media business strategy.  I'll talk more about trust in my next blog post. 

As always, I welcome your thoughts and opinions.

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