July 8, 2011

Summer is in full swing, and if you are in retail chances are you have had to hire or release some of your employees to manage the seasonal flow of business. In other industries, keeping your employees motivated through the summer vacation and daydreaming season will likely become a new priority—if it hasn’t already.

While the warm weather might bring these thoughts to the forefront of a small business owner’s mind, the real question of how to continually inspire your employees to show up for work happy and committed to the job is one that you should be asking daily. Though there is plenty of conversation on using social media as a sales tool—how effectively are you using it to inspire the employees that you already have?

Here are three ideas for effectively use social media to inspire your employees on a regular basis—to get the best effort, thinking, and performance from them, even during the season of distraction:

1. Share inspiring content

Whether you find a great article or a powerful video online, creating a culture of sharing content that inspires you can do the same for your employees. Whether you use the tried and true method of e-mail to share a link to a great piece, or you take the more social approach of creating a destination, like a private group on Facebook, where employees can watch or read inspiring content—both can be great ways of bringing more inspiration into the workplace.

2. Use co-creation to seek new ideas

Sometimes the biggest barrier to sparking innovation is routine. When employees are challenged to think beyond their roles and share new ideas in some way, it can get creative thinking happening and inspire them to think bigger. So take a lesson from some consumer brands and sponsor your own employee video contest or blogging challenge and see what ideas and voices you get. The upside is that some of these same people may make great voices for your business in social media when you do launch marketing or external initiatives.

3. Incentivize employees to attend relevant events

Social media doesn’t have to remain virtual and online. There are plenty of regional organizations and meet-up events that are often primarily promoted through social media. Encouraging employees to find them and go can be a great way to have them learn something and make great connections in the process.

Related Topics

• Managing

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Rohit Bhargava, Article, employee engagement, innovation, social media, Duct Tape Marketing

Join the conversation ( 1 )

• Darcella Craven 10 months ago

  

  I love the idea of a "culture of sharing". Our Center could not operate without open communication and a trusting environment. I am also a former Army training executive and believe in keeping everyone's skills and connection to the community updated. Excellent simple ways to keep a small staff like ours growing. Darcella K. Craven, Executive DirectorVeterans Business Resource Center