Business experts agree that employee engagement is essential to business success. It may be time for you to look at new ways of achieving it. Does social media have a rightful place in the business environment? Yes, when it’s internal social media, designed to be used in the workplace.
Social media plays a significant role in most people’s daily routines. From checking the latest news in the morning to enjoying some entertainment during a lunch break, and catching up with friends and family in the evening. Social media platforms have made their way into nearly every aspect of our lives.
That includes our work lives, where it offers many benefits, particularly for employee engagement. Read on to discover how internal social networks boost employee engagement and learn why Aluminate for Enterprise is the best internal social media platform for any organization.
What is internal social media?
Internal social media can be defined as the digital spaces, platforms, and tools used to interact, collaborate, and share information in the workplace. Employees can use internal social media for both formal workplace communication and more relaxed social interaction.
Using internal social media platforms in your business offers many benefits, such as increased productivity and efficiency, and an enhanced company culture. However, its benefits are most keenly felt in the area of employee engagement.
5 ways internal social media boosts employee engagement
Are you struggling to engage, or re-engage your employees? Internal social media may be the solution. Here are five ways that internal social networking boosts employee engagement.
1. Enhanced communication
Internal social media can enhance communication across the workplace hierarchy, in real time.
Breaking down barriers
The business environment, particularly in the corporate sector, has a well-established hierarchy. This is necessary so that employees understand their roles within an organization, and management can handle their decision-making duties.
However, these hierarchies also tend to create unseen and often unnecessary barriers. By breaking down the less beneficial hierarchical barriers, internal social media opens the door to better workplace communication. And enhanced communication leads to enhanced employee engagement.
Real-time updates
Another way that internal social media can boost employee engagement through enhanced communication is by offering real-time updates.
Important news and developments within the organization will be available to everyone, as it happens. When you use Aluminate for Enterprise as your internal social media platform, relevant and up-to-date news is displayed on the digital dashboard on login.
This internal communication on company news and events keeps everyone in the loop. No one feels left out or misinformed. Employees can now hear about workplace policies and services they would otherwise not have known about.
2. Improved collaboration
Internal social networking is the key to better teamwork, where team members share their unique insights and learn from their peers.
Cross-departmental projects
An internal social network is essential for any workplace collaboration. This is especially true for teams working on cross-departmental projects. Unlike email, internal social media platforms allow for real-time collaboration. And that is just one of the advantages of choosing enterprise social networks vs email.
Using an internal social network to brainstorm and share resources saves time and improves creative collaboration.
Knowledge sharing
Both the organization and employees benefit from the knowledge-sharing that internal social media allows. Users can share links, images, and videos relating to industry news and insights on the internal chat feature. This creates a culture of continuous learning and inspiration.
3. Building a stronger community
An enterprise social network is the foundation of a strong corporate community, where employees appreciate and value each other.
Social connections
Popular social media is often used to strengthen social connections. However, it is not always best suited for the workplace, where it could easily prove to be a distraction. Enterprise social media, on the other hand, caters specifically to organizational communication.
The only difference between social media created for personal or business use is that the latter is owned by the organization. However, it functions similarly to regular social media, building stronger social connections across your corporate community that boost employee engagement.
An example is Aluminate’s Groups feature, which allows employees to bond with their peers in groups of similar interests.
Recognition and celebration
An internal social network makes it easier to recognize major achievements, celebrate milestones, or herald important announcements. These may include big promotions, work anniversaries, or a senior employee’s retirement.
Using internal social media in this way will make employees feel valued and validated, and that is always a guaranteed path to employee engagement. On Aluminate, you can keep all employee data accurate with our social data sync feature.
4. Increased engagement and participation
Your internal social network can encourage participation that leads to engagement and brand advocacy.
Interactive content
Interactive content involves your employees more and provides them with an immersive experience. This is, after all, what they crave the most from external social media platforms. This is why sharing valuable content and posting regularly are crucial factors in any enterprise’s social media strategy.
By offering the type of content that appeals to their professional and personal interests, you are more likely to keep them engaged. Remember to keep content fresh with regular updates, and maintain a consistent posting schedule.
Employee advocacy
The best ambassadors for your brand are the people who make (or have made) your brand a reality — your employees and corporate alumni.
Internal social media platforms are ideally suited for encouraging employee advocacy. By keeping them talking about the company, the brand, and the workplace culture, you can identify the best candidates to be your brand ambassadors. You can use the same social media strategy to stay in touch with and engage your corporate alumni, too.
5. Personal and professional development
You can show your employees that you care about their professional and personal enrichment, with a social media platform built just for them.
Access to resources
An internal social network provides your employees with easy access to all types of resources for both personal and professional development.
These can be tutorials in text, audio, or video format, whichever file format works best for your team. Aluminate for Enterprise serves as a comprehensive digital library for all your most important employee learning resources.
Mentorship opportunities
Organizations that want to help new or junior employees ease into a new work role offer these employees mentorship opportunities. And an internal social media network with a mentor-matching feature, like Aluminate, is the ideal platform for facilitating mentoring.
Investing in a mentorship program is one of the best decisions that you can ever make for your employees and your business. If you need help with starting yours, refer to our Comprehensive Guide To Mentorship.
Aluminate for Enterprise is your organization’s ideal internal social media platform
Internal social media enhances communication, increases participation, and improves collaboration. It facilitates personal and professional development and builds a stronger corporate community. And all of these benefits contribute to more employee engagement.
Are you ready to offer your organization these benefits, with an internal social media platform perfectly suited to your industry? Aluminate for Enterprise, the world’s most customizable online community platform, is the solution.
Request your free demo of our corporate community platform software today. Let us help you boost employee engagement with a vibrant and versatile enterprise social network that works for you.
