Adam Isenhart
3 min read
When people think of social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter they don’t often associate it with HR. In fact some people feel social media sites can be a distraction in the workplace. However, as social media sites grow and more people join everyday, businesses should take note and think about how they can make this trend work for them instead of fighting it. To help enlighten you about the powers of social media for your business we spent some time talking to Reward Gateway’s Social Media Manager Amy Turner.
What is your role at Reward Gateway?
I’m the Social Media Manager which means I focus on internal and external brand awareness at Reward Gateway. My main goals are to make sure our employees help contribute to, relate to, and promote our culture and brand through social media. I also try to shed light on the day to day life at Reward Gateway with other businesses and clients to hopefully send out some employee engagement inspiration from the experts.
What was it like starting out in this role?
It’s been a really interesting journey. A lot of our staff are younger so they are already on or very familiar with social media sites, but I had to work on bringing them to our corporate profiles to help engage them with culture and company information. I worked on taking existing users, trying to get others to join social sites, and encouraging them to connect with each other and with the company online. It’s been working out really well so far and it’s been great for our culture and global communications. As a business we communicate daily on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.
How has the work you’ve done with social media helped the Reward Gateway culture?
It really helps create a collaborative and interactive space online, we have places where you can share ideas and information, comment on them, and it really helps with a global workforce. It’s been a great way to start a company dialogue with people who wouldn’t normally work together or interact with each other which I think is especially important for bigger companies.
What would you say is an important trend for HR to be aware of?
I’d say HR should really think about how to use Facebook specifically and take advantage of communicating with their staff on it. People tend to think social media is really for the younger generation, but the trend I’d say HR should take note of is that the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is 45 and older. It’s assumed that younger employees use social sites and are on them, but this trend shows that the rest of your staff is joining as well.
Any parting words of wisdom?
Definitely! From my experience HR is usually nervous about social media sites and interacting with their employees on it. My advice is - don’t fear social media, embrace it! If you are trying to communicate important benefit information, new programmes, building company culture or keeping your staff up to date on company news you are competing with a lot of other things in their lives to get their attention. A great way to fight through the noise is to go to where your employees are already spending their time, and that's on social media!