#RaganCoke: What an internal communicator took away

Employee engagement starts with employees—surprise!—but how?

A couple of weeks ago I was at Ragan’s Third Annual Social Media for Communicators Conference at Coca-Cola World Headquarters in Atlanta. Since getting back to the “real world,” I am constantly reminded of the lessons I learned and trying to figure out how to implement social media internally at my company.

Social media is changing the world. And it’s changing the way businesses connect with consumers. But the question I went in asking was: How is social media affecting how corporations connect with their employees?

Lesson 1: An opportunity to create a more engaged workforce

The key to creating an engaged workforce using social media is to listen to what employees want and to develop a strategy to give them the information, tools and resources that they are asking for.

What does that mean for you? It means you shouldn’t go out and create a Facebook page or Twitter account for your employees without talking to them first. Maybe your employees prefer to receive their communication via e-mail or town halls. You’d be wasting time and resources setting up a Facebook page if your employees would never use it.

Tip: Listen first, then ask questions to find out what your employees really want.