Today’s marketing is all about finding and engaging your customers. Are they on Facebook? Let’s start posting witty memes and helpful tips there. Are they on LinkedIn? Let’s share some white papers and customer stories there. Are they tweeters? Let’s join that Twitterverse.

What about your internal customers? We often believe that social media is great to find your external, buying customers but is bad for company productivity and is a negative distraction for your employees. However, using the logic of “getting on the same level” as your customers but not your employees doesn’t quite make sense.

Some companies have capitalized on this theory and taken advantage of the various programs available for companies to promote the company’s “work life” and internal happenings. Some companies may choose to promote a public employee based social community with a “Life at Our Company” Facebook page or a dedicated blog to promote their employee’s stories. This not only provides for internal engagement but can create a strong, personal and positive brand image externally. People will want to join the team and customers will want to be a part of your family of clients.

Alternatively, a company may want to use a more internal social media focused on internal communications, building relationships and increasing collaboration, more “socially”. This can be done in a multitude of platforms and methods available to all sizes of business. Here we will review two of the popular options with their pros and cons using references from Sandeep Veernala over at I Love Free Software.

Yammer

Pros:

• Must have a company email address to create an account / network.
• The free version allows for an unlimited amount of employees to join the network.
• Can create groups for different departments in the company.
• There is an instant chat feature.
• Can create events and polls.
• There are both mobile and desktop applications.

Cons:

• The free version does not allow you to have an administrator with advanced.
• Lacks the ability to customize and brand.
• Lacks analytics of what is happening on the groups.

 Socialcast

Pros:

• Must have a company email address to create an account / network.
• The free version does allow you to have an administrator.
• There is some customizations available: logo, themes, etc.
• There are analytics on issues and individual members.
• Can create groups for different departments in the company.
• Can create polls.
• There are both mobile and desktop applications.

Cons:

• The free version only allows up to 50 employees to join the network.
• Limitations on the amount of praise you can send depending on the settings.
• No option for instant chat.
• Cannot create events.

A benefit of creating a private internal network revolves around comfort and privacy – both for the company and the employee. The company has control and moderation of conversations and projects while many employees feel comfortable in a familiar communication setting. Picking the network best for your employees and your business is much like choosing the best social media networks to engage your customers. Evaluate the features and the needs of your company in order to decide which network will integrate best with your employees and provide the best tool for communication. My personal experience has been with Yammer which provides great value in having instant chats and an unlimited amount of users. You can check out the Yammer and Socialcast platform for your self to see what you think.

Have you used one of these networks in your job before?

What was your experience with them?

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