This is the bane of many marketers' existence: How to get employees, from the ranks to management, involved in social media. Not reluctantly retweeting. Not submitting a once-a-year blog post. And alas, for many companies, not hiring someone full-time to focus on social-platform friendly content. Really engaged and involved in a way that shines through and benefits the organization.
I like this post on Chris Koch's B2B marketing blog about getting employees involved. And I think he makes a very good point (although it's not his primary point) about backing up social media activity with official support.
He says, "Many companies take it a step farther by making idea development part of employees’ annual goals. The high-end consulting firms like McKinsey have done this for years. Ideas are baked into the culture. To rise in the firm, consultants know they need to come up with good ideas and try to get them published."
Make it part of people's goals, and it will get done. This is not rocket science: I think Pavlov figured it out a long time ago.
Along these same lines, we worked with our partners at Netprospex to create an easy-to-use briefing to help make your sales team social (last item on the page). It was written for our sales team, but really, the quick-start steps are applicable to anyone. Worth checking out.
