6 benefits of Social Reach Optimization for HR managers

Social Reach Optimization (SRO) is about putting real people at the center of your social media strategy and improving your reach organically. You may have read about the benefits of SRO in connecting with customers, stakeholders, and job candidates. But what about the relationship with your employees? In this blog post, you’ll discover 6 benefits of SRO for HR managers. You’ll also learn how an SRO strategy supports collaboration between your marketing and HR departments.

Retention

Retaining your employees is more important than ever, now that we’re dealing with a tight labor market. After all, in order to truly solve your staff shortage, you don’t just need recruitment. You need your current employees to stay as well. How can Social Reach Optimization (SRO) help? The benefit of a marketing strategy including SRO is that it encourages social exchanges within your organization. This includes helping each other, providing feedback, or sharing support and encouragement. As a result, employees are more involved in what’s going on in your company, improving social binding. And according to researchers at the Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, these are exactly the types of exchanges that help improve employer branding and retention¹. 

Communication

Employees can become your strongest supporters on social media - or your most vocal critics. That’s why it’s important to boost engagement and strengthen your relationship with them. Indeed, research in the field of communication management suggests there’s a link between a high level of employee engagement and positive employee communication behaviors². So again, how can SRO help? A key component of Social Reach Optimization is developing a clear, consistent, and personalized branding strategy. This will have a significant effect on how your employees perceive their workplace and talk about it on social media.

Engagement

Speaking of engagement, did you know that engaged employees are more productive, efficient, and happy in their work? Research on employee advocacy, marketing, and engagement also showed that employees feel more connected to their organization after sharing work-related content³. Sound familiar? That’s right! One of the main objectives of SRO is motivating your employees to share authentic content about your organization. In other words, SRO not only helps your brand, but also drives engagement.

Wellbeing

As we mentioned before, SRO fosters a culture where people within your organization interact with each other more often. This not only improves retention, but works wonders for your employees’ wellbeing as well. Researchers examined the relationship between employee brand ambassadorship, social media usage, and employee well-being in the workplace⁴. Their findings suggest that social media use is associated with higher levels of commitment, fewer absences, and greater work satisfaction. Again, this shows that SRO may benefit both your organization and your employees.

Alignment

When you want to optimize your reach on social media, consistency is key. You need your employees to share content that is in line with your company’s values, culture, and goals. Because ultimately, this influences your organization’s bottom line. Market research by LSA Global shows that highly aligned companies grow revenue 58% faster and are 72% more profitable than their competitors. And that’s where SRO comes in. An important component of Social Reach Optimization is providing your employees with guidelines for their social media posts. Not to dictate their stories, which you want to remain personal and authentic, but to provide guidance in what’s appropriate for your organization. This way, your employees will know what’s expected from them, and your organization benefits as well.

Marketing

Working with SRO encourages your employees to play a more active role in your marketing efforts. Where other advocacy programs are often managed top-down, SRO is more focused on bottom-up communications. That means that employees and other brand ambassadors can share their ideas for relevant content with your marketing department. Research suggests that employee advocacy may even benefit from additional training, without pushing a strict agenda on your ambassadors. With this bottom-up approach, you’re more successful in creating and sharing authentic stories. And as we’ve seen, these are exactly the kind of stories that improve your company’s reach on social media, and in turn, support your recruitment efforts.

How SRO benefits your organization

In conclusion, Social Reach Optimization not only benefits your online reach and employer branding on social media, but provides a solid foundation for your marketing and HR processes as well. Win-win! Want to read more about the research we cited or the benefits of SRO for employee advocacy? Download our white paper!

‍