It's All About Being Social

After reading “Share This” by CIPR this week, I found one section of our reading intriguing: Social media and employee engagement. As a PR major, we often talk about social media and how companies use it, but we do not always discuss social media and the employee’s role on these platforms.

The book discusses several ways social media can enhance employee engagement:

• Opening up new feedback channels
• Encouraging collaboration across silos
• Horizontal networking by breaking down hierarchies
• Being all encompassing and interactive
• Their approachability, as employees pick and choose what and who to engage with

Within organizations, these few bullet points are great ways for employees to demonstrate engagement. Social media platforms are not only useful within companies, but also externally. The external uses indicated in “Share This” are recruitment purposes, communication, connection and engagement.

Social media is not something done to the employees of an organization, but something done for and with these employees. Building relationships is the top priority and employees will openly share feedback and engage further if the organization is willing to listen and contribute to the building of these relationships. I think more organizations should consider engaging with their employees via social media to enhance horizontal networking and encourage an interactive work environment.