Twitter as an external communications channel. Tim Nichols from 2degrees spoke at a PRINZ event last night about helping employees (in his case those in the call centre) become an external communications channel via social media (in terms of engaging the market, brand management and customer support).
This is just another example of how the line between internal and external communications is blurring due to social media.
Employees as brand advocates. The use of Twitter by employees internally is probably more about helping them become external brand advocates but, of course, you can’t effectively promote this type of use without using Twitter as an internal tool too…..
Clarity regarding objectives. I guess the key point is to have an understanding regarding the organisations objectives and then providing the right environment, guidelines (e.g. how much time staff should spend on Twitter, what’s OK to say etc) and training.
If we are going to use Twitter as an internal communications tool, we need to be clear about why we are doing it and realistic about what can be achieved (e.g. message cut through may be low so other channels will need to duplicate important messages)
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OK, here's some other thoughts. Might be useful if you clarify how long you have been using Twitter. I have been for 10 months and have different experiences than you.
ReplyDeleteInternal Communicators should be using twitter as:
It encourages brevity and clarity in writing (the 140 characters)
It introduces the idea of microblogging and the possibilities of this in the company eg managing projects.
It is built on principles of contribution and reciprocity, both necessary in creating an engaged workforce
Opt-in creates a measure of engagement - you have ROI
Work & private life is already blurred. Deal with it, create a living policy on how to use social media safely (for company & individual)
Twitter provides you choice on who to follow, you don't have to have access to 'inane chatter & spam'. Remember - one employees pused pushed out newsfeed is another employees management spam.
Some food for thought?