We talk regularly about social media being a significant business platform, and that it needs to be fully embedded in everything we do… EVERYTHING! From recruiting to employee engagement to performance, everything is inherently social. Why? Because people are social, and we spend most of our time being social. Now imagine for a second that your core business is social media, so not only do you have to build awesome products and sell them, you have to use the tools within your organization. Not an easy task to say the least, particularly when you’re growing faster than the speed of light… like Hootsuite is.
Hootsuite is a globally recognized social media company that has one of the strongest brands today. It was born in the greatest city in the world, Vancouver, and has offices all over the world in Canada, United States, Singapore, United Kingdom, Romania and Australia.
Not only did Hootsuite host SocialHRCamp Vancouver 2015 on January 31st their VP of Talent, Ambrosia Humphrey led a fantastic session titled, “Growing Up Social: The Hootsuite Case Study”. It was fascinating to hear from Ambrosia how social media has become fully integrated into everything they do at Hootsuite, within all business functions. Yes, this means HR and Recruiting too! However, the biggest ah-ha moment for me came the week after the Camp when I read the 3 articles/papers Ambrosia recommended. The links can be found below. The one thing that I read that raised my right eyebrow (yes I can do the eyebrow raise) was that, “a recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute showed that digitally prepared companies can unlock up to $1.3 trillion in annual business value by leveraging social technologies”. EXCUSE ME… did that read $1.3 trillion? After blinking a few times and shaking my head, I realized this is not a typo… and that many organizations are leaving a lot of money on the table.
The specific white paper that the above quote came from is called, “Social Media Education: New Edge for Success” and I highly recommend you download it, read it and understand it. The second paper is titled, “8 Tips For Social Business“, and the third is titled, “How to Build an Instant Social Media Following For Your Company“.
At the end of the day business is made up of people, and people are social. To truly maximize employee talents it’s absolutely critical that organizations become social businesses. Have a look at the top global brands and you’ll likely see a common trend… they’re all social businesses. Case in point: IBM, Adidas, Procter & Gamble, HP, Google and of course Hootsuite. Not only does Hootsuite have a globally magnetic employer brand, they are a source of amazing content to support the HR Community understand how social media can boost our efforts in driving business value.
