Social media is integrated in your digital marketing efforts. With the current marketing landscape, and the prevalence of brands online, it seems counterproductive to limit your social media engagement. Rather than focus on a couple of posts each day, you should work on an online persona that your customers will like and enjoy seeing every day.

When your social media campaign involves connecting with them, you build trust.

Around 70% of Americans ask for opinions before making a purchase. They want to know what other people think about a particular service or product they’re eyeing. When your social media campaign involves connecting with them, you build trust.

But, there’s one more thing you have that can fuel your social media campaign: your employees. By encouraging them to be your social media ambassadors, you have potential sources of good, genuine content from people who understand your target market.

Here’s how to engage employees to help widen your reach through social media:

Let Them Access Social Media

First things first, make sure they can post on social media. This might seem like a no-brainer, but several companies have rules about restricting social media access during working hours. While the rule exists for an understandable reason, limiting your employees’ capabilities means you can’t maximize the use of their reach.

To get closer to their target market, some businesses encourage their employees to go online and be active in their social groups:

Source: How do employers encourage employees to use social media for news and information sharing

Just like how you maintain your professional network, employees also do the same. Some employees connect with their old colleagues or join communities that are related to their line of work, which provides you with an opportunity to spread your brand among their connections.

Establish Rules on the Use of Social Media

Giving your employees access to social media comes with responsibilities, and this means being responsible enough to preserve your brand. They are, after all, affiliated with your company. They need to engage in such a manner that will represent your brand. To avoid blunders, set expectations and make sure everyone is on the same page. Remind them about the company’s core values, as well.

Cover the important bases — Never reveal any trade secrets from the company, always be courteous and polite when talking to anyone, and have a little fun. Show them that their use of social media doesn’t have to be stiff. They can be themselves, as long as they remain professional.

Encourage Their Interests

Letting your employees handle your social media accounts have several perks, one of which is that they can think of what to post and curate it according to the company’s values. But, they should also have some flexibility on the things they post or share. Make it clear that their ideas are appreciated, and that you’re willing to let them have a little fun.

Source: What, How and Why People Share on Social Media

The whole point of social media is reaching out to clients and showing them the human side of your business. What better way to do that than by having various forms of content from actual people?

Make It a Part of Their Tasks

When it comes to establishing your social media presence, one of the things you need is consistency. You can’t have just one post for an entire week, especially if you’ve decided to focus your employees’ efforts on content marketing. This may happen if your employees are busy handling other work and social media is left in the back burner.

Rather than letting your accounts stagnate without activity, and possibly with unanswered queries from your audience, allot an hour or two of your employees’ time on checking your company’s social media account. This builds up the number of posts and keeps customers engaged.

Here’s an example of a social media calendar that you can use on Google Sheets to assign tasks among your employees:

Give Them Time to Collaborate

Buzzfeed, a company known for their viral content, especially their videos, has several channels. Their employees collaborate on different projects to keep their content fresh and engaging. The result? Thousands of hits and shares for every single thing they release.

Though you may not be on the same level as Buzzfeed yet, if you give your employees the freedom to show their creative side, you’ll see just how important they are in your company and how much they can help strengthen your brand on social media.

It takes just a few minutes to compose a tweet or post a Facebook status. For some, it takes mere seconds. Imagine how many comments and replies to customer inquiries your employees can address if you let them devote one to two hours of their time every day for social media engagement. Get them on board your brand’s social media marketing strategies and make every minute count.