This article was originally published on the LinkedIn Pulse section by M. J. Plebon and the original can be viewed here.
Even though we are well into 2016, it is never too late to think about your online strategy for 2016.
Another year comes to a close and you along with many companies wonder what online marketing opportunities will present themselves in 2016. While many factors such as Google algorithm changes and social media modifications remain beyond your control, there is one trend that your company can capitalize on for 2016 to enhance the reach and engagement of your social media and online marketing efforts. This opportunity involves engaging the under utilized resource of your employees.
For many companies, social media and online marketing have reached a level of importance to warrant a dedicated team to create and manage the distribution of content for your company. Despite this initiative, growing your audience can still be a slow and painful process. Why not engage your own employees to share your content with their following? This strategy makes sense since search engines such as Google and Bing are placing greater importance and authority on content that is liked, +1'd, pinned, tweeted, shared and commented. If your organization has several employees or a couple of hundred, engaging them to share your content on their own social media accounts will be the catalyst which can give your online presence and authority the breakthrough you always wanted. According to Hootsuite, involving your employees adds credibility to every post they share.
Here are three types of organizations and how they can utilize their team.
Medium to Large Companies: If you fall into this category, your organization has a wonderful resource available to you. Imagine having 10, 50 or 100's of your employees liking and sharing updates from your online marketing team. Not only will your marketing reach skyrocket from where it is today, the social signals will move your content, social media properties and eventually your website to the top of the rankings. Search engines place a great level of importance on social signals. The challenge for most large organizations is how to encourage engagement from their own employees.
Back in October, Hootsuite has launched an app that makes it easy for your employees to share your content on their social media platforms. Hootsuite Amplify gives your employees the power to extend your social reach in three easy steps. First, onboard your employees with an intuitive mobile app that is branded with your company's logo. Next have your content developers and online marketing team send updated content through the Hootsuite dashboard to the app with one single click. Your employees are then notified and with a simple procedure can share the content on their personal social media platforms. (BTW, I am not an affiliate for Hootsuite however I suggest you check out this tool to help you to engage your employees.) Remember, the simpler you make the process, the more "buy-in" you will enjoy from your employees.
Franchises: Franchise organizations have a tremendous opportunity to increase their brand reach and dominate the local search engine landscape. If you are a franchisor, your challenge with any franchisee will be getting your team on the same page. Your franchisees will be a mix of those who have a high degree of social media skills to the opposite spectrum of those who rarely use the internet at all.
Get your marketing team to take the lead and create social media pages for each local franchisee. You will most likely want to control your brand image however you still want participation from each of your franchises to add the local flavor. When you have set up the social media pages, a useful tool to check out is IFTTT (If-This-Then-That) which allows you to create recipes to automate much of the updating activities your team will encounter. When using IFTTT, you can create a recipe that will update each franchisee's social media page with the corporate update your team just posted. This keeps the brand front and center and the page active. This helps those franchisees who are not internet savvy. For members of your team who are anxious to add their own local flavor, work out the content and posting guidelines and then let then participate with local updates to help grow their following in their community.
Don't forget to establish the Google My Business accounts for each franchise location. This will take some time for the larger established franchises to build the Google My Business accounts however it will be well worth the effort. Once these online properties are established, you can direct customers to leave reviews and rate the local franchise out of 5 stars. Getting your local franchise locations in the Google "Snack Pack" of the local search will provide prime exposure on the first pages of Google.
Manufacturers: Manufacturers who have assigned dealerships or distributors of their product have an existing infrastructure to expand the reach of their brand to a local level. If you are a manufacturer, you can have your marketing team create social media pages for each of your approved agents, distributors and licensees. You can control the look, feel and branding of each page however you will want to add the local contact information for location. The manufacturer can use these social media properties to educate the end users with "How to" information, tips and tricks. The local dealers can add their own content to create a local feel to the social media page. As with Franchises, the manufacturer can employ the power of IFTTT recipes to streamline the content updating process across their network.
Small Businesses: Small local businesses may not have the luxury of a large work force. Yet small businesses can utilize their limited employee base, family members and friends to help spread their brand locally.
2016 will be another year of changes for your online marketing efforts. As always, there are many factors that will be out of your control however identifying what you can control and influence will go a long way to elevate you above your competition and gain more exposure and authority for your company.
I trust everyone has had a joyous Christmas and a safe holiday season. Happy New Year to everyone and all the best in 2016.
