When you mention the words ‘social media’ most people think of using Facebook to share with friends and perhaps using Linked In to sell to customers. Very rarely is it being used internally to engage our most customers – our staff. If you work for a large company you might remember the days of the intranet (or still use one). Social media can be used in the same way, as a tool to communicate with your staff.

Before you go nuts setting up a Facebook page remember a few fundamentals.

• Set up a closed Facebook page and invite staff to join – you don’t want just anyone to see or access
• Establish ground rules for how it’s used – it is vital to have very clear ground rules about what types of things can be shared which brings me to point 3
• You must, must, must have a social media policy in place before you launch it – without having a clear policy I would not launch an internal social platform
• Create House rules on what behaviour is acceptable or not and ensure your staff adhere to these
• Establish one or two staff advocates – get a couple of popular staff to be advocates of your internal Facebook page. This will help encourage other staff to use it. Advocates will be key to usage and engagement
• Create an Employee Engagement program on LinkedIn
• Senior management needs to support and use it – it’s not a platform for staff to whine about and make complaints. You want your C suite and management team to active on here too. This is not just for staff.
• Encourage positive sharing. – wins, good deeds, birthdays, special occasions, positive PR

So when you think about social media within your business, it doesn’t just apply to customer facing platforms. It can be a cost effective and efficient way to communicate with your staff (if done right).