I recently read an excellent blog post via LinkedIn by Clara Shih entitled “What’s the Endgame for Social Media?.” In this post, she talks about how companies are currently using social media and the new trends emerging. She mentioned a trend I have seen myself as a LinkedIn trainer working within the professional services sector. More and more of my clients are realising that one of the best ways (and cost effective) to amplify their brand’s message and thought leadership is through harnessing their staff’s use of social media.
I have found that staff are very willing to share their firm’s marketing content via social media because they like where they work and are proud of the thought leadership their firm produces. If there is any hesitation, it’s for two reasons: 1) They are not sure what they can share, 2) They are not sure how to use LinkedIn and/or twitter well!
Producing high quality marketing collateral takes lots of time and resource. Firms are missing a trick if they don’t squeeze more ‘marketing juice’ out of the their collateral by enabling staff to share and comment on content easily and confidently via social media. The value of staff sharing content is especially powerful in the professional services sector as success in this sector is built on sharing expertise and building great relationships with clients — and social media, a channel staff are already using, provides a very powerful platform.
How is your firm encouraging you to use social media to share content? I’d love to hear from you.
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