How Singapore firms use social media to boost productivity

Singapore is one of the most socially connected countries in the world. More people have smart phones and are on social media sites per capita than any other country in the world. This is an excellent opportunity to increase engagement and increase productivity amongst Singapore’s companies.

Some of the best examples of how to do this come from Intel who run various social engagement programs across the world including in Singapore. They actively seek out views and thoughts of their employees on various internal social media channels.

They don’t want to miss anything that could make even a small difference to their business. Intel use internal facebook and twitter accounts as well as various wikis and blogs which are directed towards its various products and internal communication strictly for Intel employees only.

By doing this they increase ownership of their business beyond the C-suite to the wider general employees who feel they own part of the future of the business even when they don’t even own shares. Intel are also very good at rewarding employees who come up with ideas that can make a difference to their service, product and business. Employees feel like they are being listened to. They do this with a mixture of status and monetary rewards, classic gamification.

This also means it becomes easier to recruit in a competitive environment such as Singapore where every company is fighting for the best employees. Intel has over 80,000 employees globally. Successfully engaging an international fleet of employees to connect on various social media platforms is a challenge.

Intel built a Social Media Boot-camp training scheme for employees. They attempted to break down artificial silos between employees and their evolving social media strategies. Employees are now comfortable with the tools they had been given and can see the potential social media had for making connections and strengthening the Intel brand.

As general manager at Intel, Michelle Johnston Holthaus, said about the Social Media Boot Camp, “The way we do marketing is changing. To run a truly social business you need every single employee on board with understanding not only your vision and your strategy, but how customers communicate online. And then you need to empower your employees to listen to and engage with customers where they are, on their terms.”

How can you also introduce this to your business?

1.       Choose the decision making team – a social media business excellence team to lead the project – this should include people from all divisions.

2.       Ask questions and set goals – do you need an internal social media strategy? It’s not right for all companies just most.

3.       Benchmark employees - At Intel, employees take a Digital IQ quiz that places them at one of four levels: 100, 200, 300 or 400, just like university course tracks. For highly trained social media practitioners, Intel also offers 500 level courses. As new employees become interested in social media, they take the quiz and are placed at the appropriate level.

4.       Set the curriculum and refresh often – planning and the build up to the social media engagement strategy begins with hard work/research and engagement. Intel's program begins with an introductory course on why social media is important for the company and at large, and then spans a broad range of level-specific topics in more than 60 online courses.

Depending on an employee's level as determined by the Digital IQ quiz, they are assigned two to eight mandatory courses. Above and beyond those courses, they can choose electives that pertain to their interests.

5.      House training materials centrally created:

Control what goes out but take input from all the opinions on the committee

6.      Get the word out - start engaging:

Practice what you preach! Start engaging with your company. Do roadshows, Q&A sessions, explain, motivate, engage, gain unrestricted unlimited feedback, get everyone's buy in and start truly empowering and engaging every employee!