Internal social media has the potential to dramatically improve the way employees learn about important company topics, build relationships, search for answers and get their work done. Yet despite this promise, social media won’t be successful unless senior leaders participate. And leaders barely have time to manage their current communication responsibilities, much less add another task to their list.
The good news is that even the most time-pressed leader can have a presence in social media. In fact, there are many ways to participate that only require a few minutes. Plus, these fast social media platforms are also easier to complete. Got your timer ready? Let’s go!
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Encourage leaders to “tweet” (create very short updates) on your internal Twitter-like platform. The idea is to answer these questions: “What am I working on?” or “What’s my thought about this topic?” in about 140 characters. Plus, conversation platforms allow employees to participate: like, comment on, and re-post content.
Writing can be hard, especially for perfectionist leaders. Not a problem; say it with pictures. Encourage your leader to use his/her smartphone to take informal photos of what he/she is observing, especially at events. Create an easy process for the leader to post the photo with a short caption.
Blogs were a popular trend a few years ago, but long essays take a lot of work to write–and a lot of time to read. Instead, suggest a microblog, written observations in 50 words or fewer. Microblogs are not as restrictive as tweets, but are easier and more time-efficient than old-style blogs.
Give leaders a YouTube style video experience. Schedule a 30-minute video shoot, where you ask the leader a series of questions on seven to 10 different topics. Then edit each snippet into a 30- to 60-second segment, and post one a week. Simple, easy, effective.
Schedule a one-hour Q&A live chat during which a leader answers employee questions about a topic. The appeal: The session is immediate, it’s in real time and it feels authentic. Plus, it’s not a long-term commitment: When the hour is over, the leader can check it off his/her list.
