Try this idea on for size: Social media and employee management share three vital elements for success.

With the hiring of three new employees at ideaLaunch within two months, the hiring of hundreds of new LifeTips Gurus (to make the world a better place one tip at a time,) and new interns helping us with social media monitoring, the time has come to dig into the management toolbox and pull out a few old stand-by tools (and rules) that I’ve used over the years. These tools have helped me build three successful companies from the ground up (Freelance Access, LifeTips and ideaLaunch), and I realized that these tools apply to both social media and employee management.

Firm. Employees need a manager who is firm. When rules are not enforced, rules get broken and the wall eventually comes tumbling down. Likewise, your communication in the social sphere needs to be strong. Vague posts or mindless thoughts carry little weight and don’t get passed around.

Fair. Employees need a manager who is fair. Unethical or irrational managers cause turnover and foster unhealthy environments. Likewise, social conversations require seeing, and acknowledging, different sides of the coin. Unfair declarations typically scare away readers who are just passing by and effectively end the connection and conversation quickly.

Fun. Having some fun in the workplace has been proven to increase productivity, increase the hours worked by employees and improve retention. Likewise, entertainment value is in demand by social media audiences.

Let me know if you think I’ve missed an “F”. Or if you think these tools are worthy of being packed into your management tool box. Anyone? Bueller?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 8:46 am and is filed under Content Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.