Brand elasticity and employee behaviour
By Paul SquiresWe’ve all seen people still wearing their work pass, doing their weekly shop. While it’s tempting to stop them and either (a) ask them to take it off or (b) confuse them by calling them by their first name and saying hello, it does represent an interesting phenomenon.
When does being an employee start and end? The rush of people "leaving the factory gates" is obviously no more, as homeworking, flexible hours and a more fluid approach to meetings and work locations make the boundaries less clear. These environmental concerns are equally interesting in digital media.
Personal representations of corporate values are, of course, deeply engrained into policy. Acceptable use policies, business practice guidelines, and brand values allow a very clear context and frame for how employees should refer to their employer and its products and strategy. There’s often a given format for a signature file, which makes these literal references universal.
Employee behavour outside of work time is a much more challenging topic.
Does employee attitude to work change when on their netbook on the sofa, rather than in front of a monitor on their desk? If so, how, and how "free" do they feel when talking about their employer / brand?
There are many examples of companies not seeing this one through. Just search for "facebook employee sacked" and you’ll see plenty of rather gruesome evidence. However, it’s not particularly difficult to overcome.
The right guidance - with the right context built around that guidance - can often play a major role. Employees often value the interest of employers in terms of what references they should be making in social media, outside of work. It helps employees by "understanding the frame" - the types of references to make and the contextual and environmental decisions to make when making them. The key is to work with a voluntary group of employees to co-develop the guidance (in fact, this is an ideal use for an internal wiki).
We’ll be talking more about employees, social media and brands in coming months at Media Aces UK, and I’m very interested in any thoughts, questions, or even case studies that you would like to share.
Paul Squires
Founder, Media Aces UK
Kate Hughes says:
September 20th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Thanks for this post, Paul. I’ll be interested to hear more about what approach other companies take.
I say who I work for on my blog and on my Twitter bio because I want people to know who I’m paid by so they can take it into account when they read my posts, and because I think social media is about being your ‘whole self’ regardless of who you’re dealing with. I don’t have a ‘these opinions are my own’ disclaimer, because I think that should be evident, but this post is making me think maybe I should!
I look forward to reading more.