Companies have long used social media technology such as Facebook and Twitter to reach more customers – but how are businesses using it internally? While business-to-consumer (B2C) companies are using social media to communicate with customers, less is said of the trend in businesses to use social media platforms to improve internal collaboration.
In a technologically savvy company like Nokia, it’s no surprise that they’ve been successfully implementing social media into their internal communications. The company’s motto is connecting people and exploring ways to enhance communication.
Nokia’s Social Media Communications team was established in early 2008 with the aim of improving inter-company communications and engaging employees. The objective of the Nokia Social Media Communications team is to: encourage the use of social media internally to bring out the company’s unique authentic voice and to engage in social media externally on behalf of Nokia, and contributing to product and service announcements by opening up a dialogue and driving online engagement.
“What is the first thing that Nokia manufactured? Rubber boots.”
“When did Nokia sell their billionth mobile phone? 2005 in Kenya.”
These are just some of the facts that every Nokia employee knows – not just interesting trivia, but history, facts about where Nokia comes from and where it’s going as a brand. This is one of the things that unifies Nokia as a brand.
How does Nokia get its employees excited about the brand they work for?
Nokia uses a tool called Socialcast to get everyone in the loop and get everyone up to speed on what is going on. It’s a platform that resembles Facebook and Twitter not only in the interface, but especially in the way you can easily connect with people all over the world. This platform hosts a number of groups, including a feature talent group where interns can join and tell people about things that are going on and themselves too. Socialcast encourages employees to share their stories across social media networks too, so people can see a glimpse of what’s going on within Nokia. After all, nothing is more credible than your employees acting as your product ambassadors.
Besides Socialcast, Nokia also has a brilliant tool called Agora, a social visualizer. This tool brings together conversation, insight and consumer device activity anywhere on the web as long as Nokia is mentioned – the information is pulled from anywhere on the web and it’s used to see the sentiments concerning the brand in real time.
Nokia has two strategies – their social recruitment strategy, and their content model for talent strategy.
Nokia’s social recruitment strategy:
- Social selection: using social media to source new talent.
- Social engagement: community building, establishing two-way communication.
- Social attraction: generating a buzz, sharing brand messages with the public.
Nokia’s content model for talent strategy.
There are several brands out there with complicated social media strategies. However, a strategy doesn’t have to be complicated, it can be as easy as Nokia’s four-point plan, which coincides with Nokia’s four main aims:
- Entertaining– used when attracting talent or engage customers
- Inspiring– used for talent and engaging with customers, while positively influencing people.
- Educating– used for getting people to understand what’s going on behind the scenes, whether it’s with informative articles or entertaining interviews.
- Informing– letting people know where Nokia is going to be next, what Nokia is going to do next, because people want to know the people behind the company and what is going on. Giving people that information will empower them and encourage them to be our brand’s ambassadors.
Lessons for Others
By creating an atmosphere of employee engagement, you can not only boost productivity and profits, but you can also help your employees reach their full potential and look forward to coming to work each day. Your workers will feel more satisfied and content with their careers, and your company will benefit from higher productivity and profits.
Organization:
Nokia
Industry:
Telecommunications, consumer electronics, networking equipment
Name of Organization Contact:
N/A
Authored by: Farah Hafez
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