Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. Nearly everyone with access to a smartphone, tablet, or computer has an account on one or more of these social platforms. As our attachment strengthens to these platforms, it becomes increasingly difficult to control employee habits. While these habits have the potential to lead to distractions at work, many companies try to implement a “no phones” rule at work, but how realistic is that? Pew Research conducted a survey in 2016 and found that 77% of 2,003 workers in the U.S use social media despite what their employer’s policies were.

While you can’t beat them, you might as well join them…in a way. Instead of stopping employees from using social media at work, try to direct that focus on how it can benefit your employees and in turn, your business. Crazy idea, huh? Well, maybe, but the reality is that it will be easier and less time consuming to encourage your employees to make smart choices and use social media productively than to monitor policies that are difficult to enforce.

So, how do you go about this without turning all of your employees loose? Think about the benefits social media has to offer and then think about your business. How can those two live together in harmony? There’s many ways you can make it work. Let’s go through the list!

Check it out: The Influence Of Social Media In Today’s Culture

1.    Mental Break

According to Pew, this is the top reason people use social media during work. Work can be stressful and being able to take a few minutes to use social media to take a mental break, shouldn’t be discouraged. While these breaks can be kept brief throughout the day, they prove to be extremely beneficial to the mood and productivity of employees.

Instead of employees chatting with others and interrupting them or escaping to the lunchroom, they can stay where they are, making breaks more simplified. Taking short mental breaks throughout the day can result in a significant mood booster and better performance from your employees.

2.    Connections

While your employees are making friends and communicating with people online through social platforms, you can encourage your employees to strengthen professional relationships they currently have with customers or reach out to leads to create new opportunities.

More and even better connections can’t hurt! If anything, they can result in more leads, employment interest, and new, outside the box ideas. In the few minutes you allow your employees here and there to spend on social media, they could soak up a bunch of interesting new ideas for content or interact with someone who is interested in what your business does and has to offer.

Check it out: Employee Use of Social Media at Work (Infographic)

3.    Problem Solving

This is one of the best resources found on the Internet. If employees are struggling with a difficult problem at work or could use some help from someone who has experienced the same issue, perhaps technical, social media is a great place to visit. Posting a question or the details of a situation, can be a quick way to get a response and hopefully remedy whatever the struggle is they are facing.  

Sometimes the issue is something no one in the office knows how to resolve, but a simple post on social media or even public forums, can bring in a different perspective or someone who knows the right way to solve the problem. So, instead of waiting around for an issue to resolve itself, or doing a bunch of futile Google searches, reach out to the online community and get some answers!

4.     Co-Worker Bonding

Since all of your employees are already using social media, encourage them to add each other or follow each other on the platforms they commonly use. Coworkers can use their social media to interact outside of work and create better relationships with each other. Stronger relationships outside of work often lead to better team building and productivity while at work.

Encouraging communication between employees can help boost their engagement and morale at work and share more ideas. Social media allows people to learn more about each other such as their hobbies, their sense of humor, and different talking points. Learning these things about each other between coworkers, can lead to more productive team projects.

Check it out: Social Media For Businesses (Video)

5.     Discovery and Information

Again, most people have a presence on social media. This includes your competitors! Facebook and LinkedIn can be especially useful resources for learning more about your business’s competition. Learning more about the competition can spark new ideas and give a sense of knowledge about what works and what may not.

Aside from spying on the competition (which is fair game on social media), employees should be encouraged to learn more about the line of work they are in and what trending practices and topics are in the industry. By doing so, they can apply what they learn to their job and better themselves. Along with information from other sources, social media is a great way to share information about your business and build better brand awareness in new avenues that your company may have not tried before.

6.     Recognition

Social media can be a great way to celebrate and recognize employee achievements. Recognizing employee work anniversaries or birthdays, or even big announcements, can improve overall morale and encourage employees to keep up with their work on social media as well as communicate with each other when a coworker is being acknowledged for a job well done.

A large data firm, conducted a survey and found that out of 39,000 hourly employees who use 1 or more social media sites weekly, stayed at their jobs longer than those who don’t. It’s simple, employees who are encouraged to engage with their company and their coworkers are more likely to stick around.

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