All employees can be involved in social media strategy

When it comes to launching a social media marketing strategy, businesses should endeavour to include every member of their staff.

Such is the assertion of Liana Evans, who in a blog for Search Engine Watch notes that even the workers who do not participate in marketing meetings can have a "significant effect" on the outcome of social media.

This is because such employees are likely to have internet access at home and may be prolific on certain media platforms, she explains.

With this in mind, businesses need to recognise that their staff may be posing unfavourable content about their operations or brand online.

"Companies have to start thinking about setting policies in place about how their employees reference their employers on social media sites," Ms Evans says.

She adds that, particularly when such references are negative, employers should take care to "spell out" what the repercussions of this could be, while remembering that they do not have ultimate authority over their staff out of office hours.

Rather, employees could be encouraged to post favourable content.

Meanwhile, SEOmoz's Dr Pete has stated that the real power of social media platform Twitter is its ability to turn online connections into real-world relationships.

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