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ing employees what their credit rank-
ing is, they might ask for their Klout
ranking.
Social media is the world where
Gen Y lives, and if companies want
to engage and communicate with this
generation, they MUST embrace social
media. How? By creating their own
You Tube channels where Gen Y em-
ployees and customers can learn of
the firm’s values and culture. Employ-
ers should ask their employees to join
LinkedIn groups to share job opportu-
nities. Firms should identify their most
‘
connected’ employees and ask if they
would be interested in being brand
ambassadors, and tweet new prod-
ucts and or services, advertise new
developments, post new positions, etc.
Employers will increasingly want to
hire employees who are connected as
branding increasingly will be an op-
portunity to involve your most socially
connected employees – while engaging
them at the same time.
Social media should be used to
further leverage one’s employer value
proposition (EVP). When I work with
new clients, the first thing I do is to
help them define who they are. Why
do people stay with their company?
Why do people want to work for their
company? Who are their stars and
what are the common behaviors and
traits their stars possess? To reinforce
this concept of tri-branding, I often
ask them a simple question: What do
BMW, Apple, and Southwest Airlines
have in common? They all are excep-
tional at linking employment and
product brand. Apple hires the most
creative people to make the most cre-
ative products. BMW hires people who
are driving enthusiasts to build the
ultimate driving machine. Southwest
Airlines hires people who have “fun”
in their DNA. In fact, these three com-
panies also excel at tri- branding. In
addtition to linking both product and
employment brand, they also amaz-
ingly get their customers to sing their
praises or live their brand. For in-
stance, I’m a Droid user, and I continue
to be amazed at the number of iPhone
friends who take delight at “trump-
ing” my Droid apps with their own
Apple apps. They’re actually living the
Apple brand. Tri-branding is an amaz-
ing opportunity to leverage social me-
dia as your brand accelerator.
Bob Kelleher is a noted speaker, thought
leader, and author of Creativeship: A
Novel for Evolving Leaders. His first
book, LOUDER THAN WORDS: 10
Practical Employee Engagement Steps
That Drive Results, has been one of the
nation’s top selling employee engagement
books since its release in 2010. Kelleher is
also the founder and CEO of The Employee
Engagement Group (
and consultant on the sub-
jects of employee engagement, workforce
trends, and leadership. For more informa-
tion, please visit
.
