Don't let your fear cloud the business benefits of social networking sites
The press is full of stories of businesses banning employees from using social networking sites like Facebook, because they’re scared that productivity will collapse and IT systems will be compromised…don’t panic!
There are numerous business benefits associated with social networking sites that can leverage an organisation’s competitive advantage, if only they trusted their staff and implemented a sensible usage policy.
Take a look at the following Sunday Times article to get a view on the positives of social networking sites.
Posted in: General
Podcast audience set to double in the next two years
In a recent interview on the future of podcasting, Chris Spencer CEO of Wizzard Media announced that they had delivered over one billion podcast downloads in 2007. He predicts that figure with increase by 50 – 80% in 2008. That’s supported by a recent report by eMarketer, who forecast that the audience for podcast consumption will double in the next two years.
As with all new technologies, it takes time for them to be widely adopted – but our experience echos the above, as more and more organisations are asking for our help to introduce podcasts into their marketing mix.
Posted in: General
Do you know what your employer brand is?
The concept of the ‘Employer Brand’ has been growing in popularity in recent years as organisations fight to attract and retain the best talent.
The subject has been the topic of numerous books, HR trade press articles and conferences, which encourage employers to ‘create’ a powerful employer brand and become an ‘employer of choice’ – as if it’s something you can magic up out of thin air!
Our view is slightly different – we believe that if you’re an employer (that is, you have one or more employees) then you automatically have an employer brand. It’s not something you suddenly decide to create, it already exists – you maybe just don’t realise it.
The trick is to recognise the employer brand you already have and manage it – understand what it is today, have a vision of what you want it to be in the future and develop a communications plan to get it there.
There even seems to be some confusion over what an employer brand is, our definition is simply this:
"Your employer brand is what people (existing, potential and ex-employees) think about your organisation as a place to work."
Some final words of wisdom from Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco who explains it this way, "Your employer brand is not what you say it is, it’s what your people tell you it is."
We wholeheartedly agree.
Posted in: General
