You’ve got Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest accounts . . . and they’re all taking time. You know you need to keep up with social media, but you (and your already overworked marketing team) just don’t have enough hours in the day to get everything done.

The good news is, you’re surrounded by a team of experts who can help spread your message and convey your company culture: Employees in other departments.

We’re not just talking about getting employees to forward or re-Tweet company posts (though that’s nice, too, since you can boost your reach exponentially when employees share your content). We’re talking about getting other departments involved in actual content creation – posts, photos, videos and more.

In fact, you’ll probably find that employees outside of the marketing department really enjoy sharing their part of your company story and have ideas you never thought about. (Just be sure to clear it with other managers first, if needed!)

So, how to get things started? Here are four steps for getting other members of your staff involved in social media:

1. Create a plan

Before you start “outsourcing” social media content creation to other departments, determine what your goals are and how new posts will fit into your overall marketing strategy. Do you want to share stories about what it’s like to work at your company? Do you want to give customers an “inside look” at how products are developed? Could employees help you answer customer questions, take photos, create educational videos or offer ideas for using your products?

Next, determine how employees will get their content to you for review. Will all items need to be placed in a central folder for review? Will there be one person – such as a social media manager – in charge of approval? Who determines what gets posted and when? Will content creation be open to anyone in the company, and if so, do managers in other departments need to be consulted?

2. Share your plan …

Once you’ve developed a plan of action, it’s time to share it with your employees. Depending on company size, you may want to schedule a meeting (or several) to explain to employees what you’re looking for, how they can be involved, how to get content to you and what your timeline looks like.

3. … but be open

Maybe a member of your accounting team is an amateur photographer who does regular photo shoots on weekends. She might be the perfect person to get shots of new products or staff members. Or maybe a member of your technical support team has tips or commonly-asked questions that could be presented in a short video.

Be open to suggestions from staff and see if there are ways to incorporate their ideas into your plans.

4. Give feedback and results

Providing feedback is key to understanding how your plan is working and keeping contributors motivated. Track your social media results carefully and find ways to share the outcome with staff in emails or reports. Let them know which posts have helped drive traffic to your website or YouTube channel, have gotten lots of likes or shares on various platforms and if you’d like to see similar posts.

Have more questions? Need help creating an overall social media strategy or custom images for social? Contact us today.