Your biggest social media fans are sitting right next to you

by. Kristiana Lockman

What if you could hire someone to exponentially improve your social media program’s organic reach, increase the number of cost-efficient, highly credible word-of-mouth referrals you receive, generate thought-provoking, branded content for your website and social media platforms, and deepen and enrich your relationships with your members? You’d do it, right?

Guess what? You already have. And they’re sitting right next to you.

As your biggest advocates, your employees and co-workers offer a tremendous amount of talent and influence. And they are equipped to wield it, with access to our big, social, connected world via smartphones, tablets, and the very computer you purchased to enable them to do their jobs. But are you leveraging this valuable resource?

A lot of credit unions aren’t. And frankly, this is high on the list of missed opportunities. It does no one any good in this day and age to pretend your team isn’t on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. all day long on their mobile devices. In fact, it may actually be hurting you to be ignoring and/or inhibiting this behavior. Here’s why:

1. Your social media program needs love.

The reality is that having fans doesn’t mean people are visiting your social media pages. Take Facebook, for example. To drive visitors to your Timeline, you need your posts to appear in the News Feed, right? Well, given constantly evolving algorithms, you can no longer assume that your content is getting served up. (Facebook’s average organic reach is already as low as 6%.) To get eyeballs on your stories, you need likes, shares, and comments; i.e. engagement. Who better to help build this momentum than the people sitting right next to you?

continue reading »