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Social Media Strategy and Your Company: 4 Things for HR Pros to Figure Out

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Because I can’t help myself, I’m offering up the following morality play performed millions of times daily within the bowels of corporate America:

Your Employee: Opens up browser to post something witty on Twitter or Facebook.

Your Network: Blocks the employee from accessing the social network in question, perhaps with the digital equivalent of a little finger wagging at employee (bonus malice points if the message the employee sees refers to the social network in question as "the" Facebook/Twitter).

Your Employee: Promptly swivels in chair to access social network in question through the browser on her smartphone. The last time I checked, your company wasn’t blocking cell towers in your buildings, right?

Ruling: The employee continues to think she’s smarter than you. Based on this morality play, she’s got a decent case.

But I digress. With all the workplaces blocking Facebook, Twitter, etc., it’s evident that the irony of the social media workaround outlined above hasn’t hit home yet. But it will. It just takes time.

As the percentage of companies allowing access to social networks continues to grow, you need to realize there’s actually some strategic stuff related to social media that you’ll need to figure out as a progressive HR pro. No one else in your organization is thinking about the issues necessary to have a meaningful approach to social media related to human capital strategy.

What issues you ask? Consider the following gems that will kill you if you don’t figure them out:

1. 1. Purpose. When you grant access to social media across your company, are you doing it because you’re benevolent, or do you think there’s actually a business opportunity in that decision? If you’re simply doing it because it feels good, stop reading now. If you think there’s a business opportunity in granting access, read on. You need to figure some things out quickly.

2. 2. Portability. If you thought portability only referred to you moving your cell number across wireless providers, you were wrong. Portability in social media refers to who owns what related to social media, and whether the intellectual capital related to social media moves with the employee when they leave your company or stays with the firm. As you might expect, portability is reflected in the following details of ownership:

Do accounts used in any way for company purposes belong to the employee or the company? The most effective use of social media seamlessly blends company brand and individual personality. While that works from a branding perspective, it’s hell when attempting to lay claim to social media accounts initialized by employees or the resulting networks built over time.

Who owns the networks established by an employee on company time? When team members capture new members of a social network or a utility like LinkedIn, who owns the network? Do they own it or does the company? You need to figure out what you’re comfortable with now before a recruiter leaves with 60% of your recruiting network on her LinkedIn account, then disables the ability for you to view her connections. Ouch.

The earlier you figure out portability, the better off you are. Once you figure out the importance of portability, you’ll want to pay attention to the next item on our list – naming.

3. 3. Naming Conventions. As you open up access to social media across your company, you’ll find that there are three types of activity, including the following:

Totally personal. I just had a Pop Tart for lunch. Who cares? You are correct – no one. Move on, because there’s nothing strategic to do with this segment. You opened it up, so they use it, like the toilets in the bathroom.

Totally corporate. You couldn’t wait to activate the ACME twitter account. Congrads, it’s active and has the personality of Ben Stein on downers. Play on, because there’s no sizzle to this steak – no one will ever try to steal it from you. It’s yours.

A mix of personal and professional social media activity. Danger! Here’s the type of social media activity where a naming strategy really comes into play. Looking to engage a recruiter or marketing pro to start using social media in a way that develops them professionally and builds the company’s brand? The main issue you need to figure out before they start is NAMING. If you’re going to underwrite the investment of time and focus related to social media, get in front of portability issues with a naming convention that makes sense.

Here’s an example of naming issues in the corporate social media realm. Let’s say you engage one of your recruiters to become active on Twitter in hopes of augmenting your recruiting efforts. Her name is Jen Smalls and your company’s name is ACME. Do you require her to do all Twitter work under the twitter handle @ACMEjen or @ACMErecruiter, or do you allow her to do the work under the decidedly personal @jensmalls?

Each name means something different related to portability and Jen’s ability to develop an interesting and compelling presence related to your company’s brand and her personal creditability. Allow the presence to be built via the @jensmalls handle, and you have no shot at claiming the brand equity on behalf of our company.

4. 4. Personality. Once you’ve figured out your purpose for opening up social media access, then sorted out portability issues and the naming decisions for social media accounts that follow, you’re free to develop some personality related to your company’s social media presence.

Just remember one thing: Unless you plan on doing all company business through a fully corporately branded social media presence, there’s always some probability the social media equity that’s built belongs more to the employee than to you.

If you decide that’s the best path to getting business results for your company through social media (and many companies have been successful with that strategy), play on.

Just make sure you ask the questions before you get started.

Kris Dunn is Chief Human Resources Officer at Kinetix and a blogger at The HR Capitalist and the Founder and Executive Editor of Fistful of Talent. That makes him a career VP of HR, a blogger, a dad and a hoops junkie, the order of which changes based on his mood. Tweet him @kris_dunn.

NEHRA's Spring Conference: A Few Perspectives

The NEHRA HR Excellence Conference was excellent! This was my first NEHRA conference and I wasn’t sure what to expect. From my first moments entering the venue on Thursday morning to the grand finale presentation with Stuart Jackson from Diesel on Friday afternoon, the conference was delivered as promised. I had a great time, met a lot of terrific people, attended several workshops, and learned some fantastic insights that I will be able to apply in my work. Thanks NEHRA!

Ed Evarts, Practice Leader, Evarts Coaching

This was my first NEHRA conference and it was by far the best conference I have attended! It was intimate in size and I had the chance to make meaningful connections with speakers and participants. I loved the networking opportunities that were developed/created. I learned something new during each session. When Jason and Joe of Talent Anarchy said relationships are ‘portals of opportunities’, they were right. The NEHRA conference was a portal of opportunity for all of us. I liked Jason & Joe’s presentations best. They touched on issues that are important to me: the importance of communication and relationships and being true to yourself. They also made one of the items on my ‘bucket list’ come true—I have always wanted to be in a ‘flash mob’ and they made that dream come true. I never thought this would happen at a NEHRA conference! I also think that Bob Kellaher did a great job setting the stage for the 2 days ahead in his opening keynote. He is an inspirational speaker. I really loved his energy and engagement. I am constantly focusing on going over my laughing quota for the day! The NEHRA team was amazing—everything was smooth and seamless. So well organized! Also, Carole did a great job in her role as guard during Stewart’s pre presentation prep...I loved the whole experience! In the end, it is all about the experience...and my experience at the NEHRA conference was unforgettable!

Gabriella La Monica, Training Manager, BBN Technologies

What a conference! I was stopped by a number of attendees in the hallway who wanted to tell me they felt this was one of the best conferences they have attended in a long time. I felt the same way! What I found most exciting about this conference was the energy. I walked away from every session I attended with something I can use immediately; with new, fresh ideas to meet a variety of challenges. I found it of value to learn about others’ challenges and how they were addressing them and was able to share many of my own best practices and success stories. As always, I got the most out of just having conversations in the hallways - catching up with old friends and colleagues and making many new ones!

Gina Abudi, President, Abudi Consulting Group, LLC

I have attended lot of HR conferences in the last year and NEHRA’s Spring Conference truly stands out. The content was excellent—lots of diversity of speaker styles and subjects, all anchored by the theme. There was just enough time to digest material and not a moment more, as we moved from one session to the next, including great presentations during meal times and cocktail hour. The conference provided me with great learning (I particularly took useful ideas from Bob Kelleher’s keynote) and networking. As a speaker, I was impressed by the level of organization and responsiveness. Thank you!

Wendy Axelrod, Talent Savvy Manager, LLC, and co-author of "Make Talent Your Business; How Exceptional Managers Develop People While Getting Results"

I wanted to let you know that I feel very fotunate to have participated as a sponsor in NEHRA's Spring Conference this year. In particular, it was quite an honor to have the opportunity to introduce Bob Kelleher, who gave a spectacular keynote to kick things off. Having a table at the conference provided a great opportunity to meet NEHRA members that were in attendance and promote Hays Companies, and the reception on Thursday evening provided a fun atmosphere for some great networking. Thanks for the sponsorship opportunity, and I'm already looking forward to the Fall Conference!

Phil Bean, Assistant Vice President, Hays Companies

"NEHRA put great focus on keeping the content for the conference relevant to the trends and opportunities that we are facing in today’s HR environment. I especially enjoyed the presentation given by the Talent Anarchy team. Their energy and enthusiasm for relationships and networking was contagious!"

Kerri Goodwin, HR Specialist, American Tower Corporation

From Bob Kelleher’s opening "Farewell to Aunt Betty" to Stuart Jackson’s grand finale "Get Sh#! Done" it was truly an inspiring 2-day event. The energy level and commitment of the NEHRA team, volunteers, speakers, sponsors and attendees propelled me through – despite lack of sleep and sore feet!

Tracy Burns, Executive Director of NEHRA

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