Well, are they?
Chances are you may not know even if they are. How your employees behave while you are around is one thing, but what about what they say to your customers and vendors when you aren’t around? What do they say to their family, spouses and friends about your online efforts? What are they saying and sharing online while they are at work?
Laura Lake shares in this post that “Your employees are your brand ambassadors and they are representing your brand 24/7.” It’s important for you to remember this, as it can be extremely beneficial and it can also be detrimental to your brand.
Social Media Sabotage is a subject I haven’t seen many discuss and I think we should talk about it.
Business owners all want to believe that their employees will support their online efforts. Employers hope that their employees will see that social media is a customer service tool. They hope that their employees will want to participate in their online success and learn how to use the tools instead of mocking their existing efforts and ridiculing those on their staff who are interested learning and contributing. Even worse? When your employees leave snarky remarks on your brands posts. Your employees are the face of your business and what they post online reflects on your brand. This is important to remember when hiring and firing.
When it comes down to it, most business owners don’t want to believe that their employees would actively or passively sabotage their social media efforts. They can’t imagine why their own team mates would want to jeopardize their very livelihood. . . but it happens. And more often than you think. Remember that your employees/partners/family don’t have to actively participate in your online presence to sabotage it.
From Tracy Maylit’s post on Tint.com he shares: “Sabotage can take two forms — active and passive sabotage. To simplify these two terms, think of active sabotage as doing something you shouldn’t be doing which causes harm to the organization. Passive sabotage is not doing something you should be doing, which thereby harms the organization.”
Never heard of passive sabotage? Well, if you have an employee/partner that isn’t committed to learning to use the tools, likes to gossip about anyone and anything, won’t work to build effective communication with the team and together for the greater good of the organization – that is passive sabotage. Now, there are a few ways you can deal with it – but every organization and team is different. Like Chris LoCurto shared in his post on Passive Sabotage, “Success happens in a team when there is unity.” and I couldn’t agree more.
I’ve pulled together some helpful links that I think you should read. It’s important to educate your employees on how to use social media as well as deciding what they can and cannot share while on the clock. It’s also important to educate yourself and be aware of what is going on in your organization.
- Protect Your Brand From Employee Sabotage With A Social Media Policy
- What to Do When an Employee Violates your Social Media Policy
- Are Disengaged Employees Sabotaging Your Company’s Success
- Could your employees sabotage your social media campaigns?
- Can a Rogue Employee Sabotage Your Business?
- How Your Employees May Be (Unintentionally) Sabotaging Your Business
- How to Overcome The 6 Most Toxic Employee Behaviors
- Dealing with negative employees – HR Morning
- 5 keys to a successful employee advocacy program
- Social Media in the Workplace: The Risks
- Why you should have a social media education program for your employees
- 7 ways to empower your employees to become brand advocates
- Empower your Employees to be Better Brand Advocates
Oh, and you’re welcome for the Beastie Boys ear worm. :)
