Regardless of the complexity of your social CRM strategy, the manner in which your employees represent the company externally will have significant implications on your corporation’s branding and ability to strengthen customer relationships. Before even considering the investment of time, money and resources into costly social media solutions, it is thus imperative to connect with the ground floor of your workforce and determine how best to solicit their participation as allied ambassadors. Exposing your brand to public scrutiny will never be risk-free, but with a strategy that incentivizes and manages employee representation, you can assure customers will see the positives of your organization:
- Interface with human resources to determine motivators in the workforce, identifying potential "warning signs" about disgruntled workers and unfavorable policies
- Understand the social dynamics of your workforce, including employees’ relationships with your target demographics and preferred means of social networking
- Align corporate culture and resulting personnel management with the culture of your target audience, assuring the workforce is conditioned to share in the audience’s measurement of successful customer service
- Develop an informal hierarchy for managing the social representation of your organization, allowing for monitoring that is pointed rather than invasive