4 Ways to Connect Employees to Your Brand, Using Social Media

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As a business, you’re looking to brand your products or services in ways that appeal to your target audiences. An effective branding strategy is consistent across every channel and touch point where customers interact with your brand—and that includes your employees.

Employees who are knowledgeable and excited about your brand can be your most powerful assets. These brand ambassadors will spread the word about your company without being told, increasing your brand’s visibility and strengthening its credibility.

But how can you turn your employees into brand ambassadors?

Here are four “real world” ways you can engage your employees to connect to your brand, and create an army of ambassadors to drive word-of-mouth and increased revenues.

  1. Encourage employees to share your brand: use social media at work

For a long time, most companies limited or banned social media usage in the workplace. Sites like Facebook and Twitter were considered unproductive, and even potentially damaging to the company’s reputation.

However, these restrictive policies end up backfiring more often than not. In addition, keeping employees away from social media is closing off a potentially powerful avenue for building your brand and engaging customers. Instead, invite employees to use social media in a positive and constructive way. They’ll spend less time hiding their social media usage, and more time developing great relationships with customers and generating leads.

Not everyone is comfortable using social media, so it’s a good idea to offer training for employees who may be interested in promoting your brand through social networks, but aren’t sure how to get started.

  1. Communicate openly and clearly with your employees

One of the biggest challenges employees face in using social media for business is what they should share publically, and what should stay internal. You can make sure employees know what’s acceptable by communicating frequently, and maintaining transparency about appropriate social media usage.

When you have something that employees can share with their social media networks, broadcast the information on every channel at work. Some people might miss a company email, but attend a meeting. Some may not check the bulletin board, but read every email that lands in their inbox. When you make a concerted effort to get the word out, your employees will follow suit.

Employees feel much more comfortable sharing company information on social media when they know the company approves. Don’t keep them in the dark about what to share, and what to keep private.

  1. Focus on the right channels – know your audience

You can amplify the effectiveness of your employees’ branding efforts by finding out which channels are best suited for your particular business, and asking employees to work through those channels.

The audiences for various social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest can be very different. Your company might flourish on Facebook, but flop on LinkedIn. You may drive great engagement on Pinterest, but fizzle out on Twitter.

Look into the various social media platforms and find our which are most effective for your business. Then, share that information with your employees so they understand not only which platforms they should be using, but how they will drive success.

  1. Make it easy for employees to engage others

Everyone wishes they had more time in a day, including your employees. While some may want to participate in your company’s social media program, they may not have the time to figure it all out, or to come up with interesting content and status updates to share across their networks.

Make it easy by providing content for all of your employees to share. This will not only save them time, but will also help you ensure that your employees maintain a consistent company voice across platforms and channels. Ask employees to follow the main company pages on various social media sites, and repost any content their individual networks might enjoy. The easier it is, the more often they’ll share.

 

Let’s connect our companies on social media – follow launchbox on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Are You Operating From Your Strengths? 3 Ways to Know

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Whether you’re looking to land the perfect job or advance your current career, understanding and leveraging your strengths is one of the most important things you can do. When you operate from your strengths, you’ll have less stress, higher satisfaction, and greater productivity—and most importantly, you will be in complete alignment with yourself.

On the other hand, if you’re working against your strengths, your performance will suffer, your stress levels will increase, and you’ll find yourself stuck in your career and your life.

A strength is any ability you have that you are naturally inclined to do well, a natural talent …it’s where you perform at your highest and best. But how do you know what your strengths truly are?

To effectively leverage your strengths, you need to understand them beyond generic statements like “I’m good with people” or “I’m a fast learner.” Here are three ways you can determine your own strengths and put them to work for you to achieve bold success.

CONSIDER YOUR CORE VALUES

What’s important to you, both personally and professionally? Your values and your passions can help point you toward your strengths—people spend more time and energy on what’s important to them, and as a result, skills based on your values tend to improve at a faster rate.

Some common personal and professional values include:

  • Work-life balance
  • Physical and/or mental health and wellbeing
  • Job security
  • Financial gain
  • Respect and/or recognition
  • Advancement opportunities
  • Continuous learning / ongoing education
  • Helping others / giving back
  • Collaboration/ team environments
  • Creativity / innovation

 

LISTEN TO YOUR EMOTIONAL CUES

You will often know where your strengths lie on a subconscious level , but you may not have paid attention to how you feel when you’re performing certain activities so you can pinpoint them. Listen to your internal cues as you work and play to learn which activities bring you happiness and satisfaction. Do you feel confident and accomplished when you’re in a leadership position? Does it thrill you when you solve a complex problem? Do you enjoy brainstorming or taking a class?

 

GET A SECOND OPINION

Another way to identify your strengths is through the lens of other people. So ask them directly. Sit down with someone who knows you well, and ask them what they feel are your greatest strengths. The answers may surprise you.

You can also consider other people’s responses to your efforts. For example, if you enjoy organizing events, do you typically have a lot of people show up? Do they enjoy the events, and come back for others you organize? Positive actions are a strong confirmation of your strengths.

Finally, if you’re unable to identify any of your strengths innately, try adding new activities to your work or personal life. Choose something that aligns with your natural passions—and you may discover strengths you never expected to find, that could lead you in exciting new directions.

 

DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS

At launchbox, we use Gallup’s Strengths Finder 2.0 book and online assessment. It’s a great tool that helps you identify your strengths, from 34 different themes, and gives you strategies for applying them to your life. Get Strengths Finder now and start living from your strengths.

Let Executive Coaching Strengthen Your Leadership

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Everywhere professionals are turning to executive coaches—whether they’re looking to hit the ground running with a new leadership position, reinvigorate a struggling career, or drive changes in their business. As a training tool, executive coaching helps leaders succeed through personal behavior-oriented guidance and one-on-one attention. They provide tools and sustainability tips to help change bad habits and build new, more productive ones.

If you or your company is considering or currently using executive coaching, here’s what you should know to maximize this valuable tool and strengthen your company’s leadership team.

WHAT COACHING IS – AND WHAT IT ISN’T
Many people believe coaching and consulting are interchangeable, but there are important differences. Consultants will come in to analyze a situation and tell clients what to do in order to solve the problems. A coach’s role is more personal and direct—executive coaches are just that… coaches who support and enable their clients to analyze themselves and their working styles, and draw their own transformational conclusions about how to solve problems. Most consultants create recommendations and conclusions without really looking within the individual. Coaches train, push, mentor and help their clients transform themselves with direct, authentic “no nonsense” counsel.

However, a coach is not a miracle worker. People need to want to transform. There needs to be a desire to change habits and performance. So, avoid enlisting an executive coach in a last-ditch attempt to save a member of your leadership team who has serious performance issues and does not know it or want to know it. These leaders will often resist or completely reject coaching, which clearly wastes company resources and drastically reduces the chance of success.

WHO SHOULD BE COACHED?
Typically, HR reviews the available budget for executive coaching and decides which leaders should receive coaching. The majority of executive coaching clients, according to the International Coach Federation, are between 36 and 45 years old and hold a post-graduate degree. Additionally, 65 percent of coaching clients are female, and the top three reasons among all clients for seeking coaching are self-confidence, career opportunities, and improving work/life balance.

Coaching is most effective for executives who are:

  • Getting ready for a promotion
  • Transitioning into a new role
  • Providing value but stuck in their growth and development

HOW TO CREATE AN EXECUTIVE COACHING PROGRAM
In order to develop a successful executive coaching program, you need to design a contract that addresses different aspects of the coaching work, including confidentiality, duration, medium, and cost. In addition, you’ll need to decide whether to work with internal coaches, external coaches, or both. The best programs teach you how to create internal coaches and mentors to sustain positive results.

  • Confidentiality: Make sure the coach understands what information should be shared with whom, and what should remain confidential. For example, feedback gathered from colleagues, co-workers, and stakeholders about the coaching candidate should be kept confidential to facilitate honesty—but the development plan based on that feedback should be shared with the providers.
  • Duration: The length of the coaching engagement can vary, depending on the objectives, but in general most executive coaching goals can be reached through bi-monthly meetings over six to nine months.
  • Medium: Coaches and clients may meet in person, or communicate via phone, email, or video calls. The majority of coaches prefer to work face-to-face, but many will supplement with phone or video calls when in-person meetings are difficult to arrange.
  • Cost: The average rate for executive coaching is $350 per hour, with a range of $200, to $3,000 an hour. While this can represent a costly investment, coaching is often a good value compared to other leadership development options—particularly since the process develops relationships with ongoing support.
  • Internal vs. external coaching: There are benefits and drawbacks to each side of this debate. Internal coaches are typically less expensive, and have a more thorough understanding of a particular company’s industry, culture, and operation. However, confidentiality can be difficult to maintain with an internal arrangement, and senior executives often prefer working with an external coach rather than revealing their vulnerabilities to someone within the organization.


EXECUTIVE COACHING PITFALLS
While coaching can be a highly effective tool for leadership development, watch for these pitfalls to ensure an effective program.

Finding the right fit: First and foremost make sure the coach is a fit for your organization. Their personality must match the success-driven results you seek. For example, if you are looking for sales help, make sure you get a coach that understands how to sell.

Failure to prioritize: “Busy” and “executive” are practically synonymous. Especially for emerging leaders, executives may not realize the value of making time for coaching—and if they don’t prioritize the coaching process, they won’t gain the benefits.

Over-reliance: On the flip side, some executives may come to depend on their coaches for too much—or you may see a higher demand rate for coaching than your budget allows. When assigning executive coaching, be sure it’s the right solution for a given situation.
Giving the wrong impression: If your organization has used remedial coaching in the past, your executives may feel their positions are in jeopardy if they’re approached about receiving coaching. Make it clear that you’re providing executive coaching as a tool for personal growth, not as a “test” that executives must pass if they want to keep their jobs.


READY FOR COACHING?
When implemented strategically, an executive coaching program will deliver a high return on investment, resulting in permanent “habit” changes for your leadership team and a strengthened organization.

At launchbox, we have our own brand of coaching – it’s direct, in-your-face and focused on achieving bold results. Ready to get started?

Work Life Balance

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Work-Life Balance. What exactly does this mean to you?

A large majority of millennials rank Work-Life Balance extremely high on their list of things to consider before accepting or applying to a job opportunity. According to the PWC’s ‘Managing Tomorrows People’ study, 95% of millennials studied said a work/life balance is important to them.

Recently, Forbes release a list of 20 jobs that offer the best work-life balance and why. Some seem exciting, some seem unusual, and some are surprising. Did the list surprise you as much as it surprised me? Check out the reasons behind this list here.

The List

  1. Data Scientist
  2. SEO Specialist
  3. Tour Guide
  4. Lifeguard
  5. Social Media Manager
  6. Group Fitness Instructor
  7. User Experience Director
  8. Corporate Communications
  9. Firefighter
  10. Equity Trader
  11. Law Clerk
  12. Investment Analyst
  13. Administrative Assistant
  14. Office Assistant
  15. Sales Representative
  16. Help Desk Technician
  17. Substitute Teacher
  18. Carpenter
  19. Real Estate Broker
  20. Game Designer

Did any of these jobs catch your eye? If so, launchbox can help make them attainable. Come in to get your launch plan and discover the necessary tools to start the career you want today! A perfect work-life balance is closer than you may think!