Corporate Training Specialists

Embracing Social Media in the Workplace

It seems the corporate world has been reluctant to throw open their doors and let social media, like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, take a seat in their offices.  The view has long been held that social media inhibits productivity and adds to security risks. 

“...nearly half of employees report that social tools at work help increase their productivity, but more than 30% of companies underestimate the value of these tools and often restrict their use.....”

The results of a new two year global study by IT heavyweight Microsoft may see corporate Australia embrace its social sisters.  The report showed that "…nearly half of employees report that social tools at work help increase their productivity, but more than 30% of companies underestimate the value of these tools and often restrict their use."

Australians have one of the highest uptake rates of Facebook, (with more than 11 million users or 50% of the population using it) and usage among people aged 50+ is rapidly expanding.  Many organisations have done everything they can to ban it, even blocking access, and they have come up with strict and robust policies that make its use virtually impossible in the workplace. 

Joe Nandhakumar, professor of information systems at Warwick Business School, who was part of the team involved in the two-year study, warned against companies banning social media. Nandhakumar said, "You can't avoid it. You can't ban it, so how do we make this work for the organisation?"
Dell Corporation has embraced social media and is seeing it work, in fact they have seen it revolutionise their business and brand.

Liz Bullock, Director of Social Media & Marketing at Dell Corporation shared a presentation titled ‘How Dell is Using Social Media to Deepen Relationships and Build Trust’ and examined their social media journey.  Dell’s strategy was to use social media to engage and ‘delight’ their customer, providing another touch point for its global customers.  Their social media technical team address 3000 posts a week in 11 languages with a 98% resolution rate.

How have they achieved such success?  By embracing social media and opening up platforms such as FaceBook to their employees.  They have managed this new customer engagement stream through ‘Policy, Principles, Governance, Training and Tools’ as well as encouraging their employees to be ‘Social Thought Leaders’.  Such has been Dell’s success it has plans to start offering its own social media services for businesses and brands.

Any organisation can achieve what Dell has, it all starts with an attitude shift, rather than locking the doors and battening down the hatches on social media.  There are many other ways to unlock the door and see what’s on offer in addition to customer touch points. Social media access in the workpkace can:

• Raise your own brand awareness with employees sharing your company messages
• Improve the wellbeing of your employees by having a social outlet at work
• Allow employees to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions and share links.
• Provide an opportunity to widen business contacts.
• Help with recruitment for your organisation
• Help with market research and competitor analysis
• Use it before and after training courses to share relevant information and lessons learned

We have found social media brilliant for collaboration. It operates 24/7, adding a great deal of value to employee engagement at little cost to your organisation.

Meet Our Social Media Manager

Q. What attracted you to work with Happening People?
A. I became interested in social media in 2006, dabbled on and off, and then started helping “solopreneurs” get started as a way of testing what I’d taught myself.  In 2011, I was given an opportunity to work for Happening People, a successful training development company that provided me with the stretch I needed.  

Q. What are your top 3 tips for a business just getting started on social media?
A. 1) If you’re going to get started, then do it consistently. Nothing will happen if you just setup, show up for a few weeks then disappear.

2) To start with, choose a few sites that are going to be most beneficial to your business and build them.  Don’t be tempted to be on everything, however be aware of what’s new but only start it if you really think it’s going to be a game changer for your business.

3) Don’t forget your business needs to be done offline as well, which helps to grow your online business.

Q. How do you keep motivated?
A . I am a “To Do List” person and have to schedule my tasks into small 2hr lots. If I am not able to complete something within this time frame, I break the task down further. That way I am fresh on each task. If it’s not scheduled it’s not real!

When I take a mini break at the end of each task I turn up the volume for one song I can dance to.

Q. What’s a single piece of advice you have been given that you still work with?
A. Love one another – I use to joke about this piece of advice, but as I get older I believe if you work from a place of love in all areas of your life things have got to get better and clearer. Easier said than done.  

Q. What gives you the biggest thrill?
A. Seeing my 2 boys growing into beautiful young men.

Q. What role models do you have?
A. I don’t have a role model but I do love to hear about the stories of people who have defied the odds or have an inspiring story to tell. The people who possess strength, determination, belief, will and love. 

Q. What inspires you?
A. See above and genuine people.

Q. If you could invite 2 people to dinner (dead or alive) who would they be?
 A. 2 guests I’d invite to join me and my family for dinner,

1. Michael Clark because there is always cricket conversation at our table. He’s also been through some major trials and tribulations and managed to come out on top – Great inspiration for the boys.
2. Tina Arena – a great singer, all the family love her music. In the spotlight from such a young age, she went on to reinvent herself and become one of Australia’s best talents – Plus would love to sing with her.

Q. What’s the biggest challenge when you’re trying to build a brand and create buzz for it?
A. If you are clear on what your brand is and who your audience is, then targeting that audience and providing them with valuable content is the easy part.  The struggle is to have your audience respond to that content, the social part of social media.  The dream is to come up with content that is going to go viral.

The last 3 months here at Happening People has been one of the busiest in our 18 year history!  My team have had an “ideas explosion” and I’m loving it!  We have consulted with many clients and our specialist corporate training programs have had an awesome response and results, plus organisations are loving www.ManagersDoor.com!  Thank you.  I feel very privileged to lead this company!

Over the coming months the team and I are out and about, doing presentations and industry events in addition to our day jobs.  Check out some of the events, be our guest, come and join us or come and say hi.  Below are some key dates:

24^th July, 2013 - “Dealing with Difference”

Many people use the golden rule in business “treat others how you like to be treated” and in this session you will learn the secrets as to why this will only work 25% of the time.  If you are dealing with a ‘difficult’ customer or a difficult employee then this session is for you!  It’s free for you, so please let Matt or I know and we will add you to our list.  It will be in our Bondi Junction office at 5-6pm and we will give away a full year subscription to www.ManagersDoor.com as the lucky door prize.

19-21 August – AHRI HORIZON - at the Sydney Convention Centre

HRIZON is Australian Human Resource Institutes (AHRI) big annual trade show for HR professionals. If you haven’t gone in the past, this year’s conference is gearing up to be a great one. Our  associate (and 7-time Women's ASP World Champion surfer) Layne Beachley will be a keynote speaker at HRIZON and afterwards will be at the Happening People booth #106 to chat one-on-one with conference delegates.

6 September 2013 – 1920s Glamour – it’s going to be a fancy affair!

The Layne Beachley’s Aim for the Stars Foundation is putting on a magical night to celebrate 10 years.  Her foundation was created to inspire girls and women across Australia to dream and achieve.  Tickets are $250 and the event will be held at Ivy in Sydney.  Please send me an email and we can add you to our table.

Every third Tuesday - "HRM@W – A Monthly Networking Event for HR Professionals

HRM@W is a community of like-minded people with whom you can share best practices, seek advice and gain knowledge that will help you be more effective in your job. We sponsor this association and every third Tuesday we attend. Its short, punchy and good food for thought so if you are looking for an association of dynamic HR professionals, where you can hear from thought leaders on relevant topics then come and join us! Contact Joanne Wayte at jwayte@impactexecutive.com.au to request information. It’s free to join.

10-11 September – LearnX - at the Sydney Convention Centre

Join us at LearnX, where authors, thought leaders, and senior decision makers will be speaking on various topics supporting this year’s theme, “Amplifying the Impact of Learning and Supporting Technologies”.

So that’s what we are doing in our spare time!   I hope we get to see you at one of these events!

Kind regards
Sam

Meet Some of Our Team

Below are some of our corporate training team who specialise is the areas of Leadership, Management, Sales development and more.
Click on their name to link through to our website and find out more.