This post originally appeared in April 2012 on the multi-contributor site Project Social HR. Although now defunct, this is a great site to review for any HR professional who is looking to get into social media. Enjoy!
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Shhhh…I work in Human Resources and I love social media.
It sounds ridiculous to say something like that in such dramatic tones, doesn’t it? But the truth of the matter is that there are many HR people out there who distrust social media. Some think that employees will play Farmville all day, others can’t understand why you would want employees being brand ambassadors: “Isn’t that what you pay your marketing department for?”
I think others are still lost in that world where Human Resources means SERIOUS business…of the hiring and firing type. Don’t get me wrong; those are serious issues. But sometimes HR assigns itself an almost parental role where we are immediately suspicious of anything new on the scene. Kind of like our grandparents when Elvis started swinging his hips. If the Arab Springhas taught us anything it’s that Twitter and Facebook are not just about fun and jokes. Anything the Iranian government tries to ban I’m cool with.
So why am I such an advocate for social media? I am a better HR person because of my involvement in social media. Here are three other short reasons why:
- I have connected with HR colleagues all over the world. With those connections comes an amazing diversity of thoughts, opinions and best practices.
- I actually know what employees are talking about when things spill into the social media sphere. When you know how this stuff works, it’s a little more difficult for people to try and put one over on you. Oh and even if your employees aren’t on Facebook (which they are), you probably should know something about it, because the NLRB certainly has some opinions on social media.
- Being in social media and promoting my blog through it has forced me to become more confident promoting myself and defending my opinions. You may work in an office where everyone agrees with your awesome ideas but in social media you are more likely to run into people who disagree with you. Debating and defending your opinions is valuable experience.
So now that I’ve talked for an entire post about how great social media is you are going to run out and join Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Foursquare right? You should! Think about standing at the edge of the pool, you dip your toe in slightly and start to feel the goosebumps but then your mean older brother comes by and pushes you in. Instead of slowly absorbing the cold and feeling every goosebump you are now completely drenched and your senses are in overdrive. The upside is that you are now completely acclimated and the water doesn’t feel cold anymore.
You didn’t have a mean older brother who did this to you? Okay forget it; just go jump into social media…head first! Deep end!
Great post -really like the parental analogy. Its a great explanation for why we in hr have been so slow to embrace a set of tools that make recruitment, engagement change, learning and most of our jobs significantly easier.
Thanks for the comment Robbie. As I\’ve progressed in my career I\’ve seen a LOT of resistance to change. Sometimes I think people are scared of change because the results are an unknown. We can say what could happen but we have no way of guaranteeing that. HR is not the place for people who are reticent or only see things in black and white.
Great post Melissa. I’m glad you jumped on the bandwagon cause I probably would never have connected with you and you add so much value not only to my little world, but to the HR community.
Susan, thank you for the kind words. It\’s been great to network with so many great people (such as yourself), my next step is meeting IRL.
Melissa,
I think there is often resistance to social media from people who don’t really understand it.
For example, I know I didn’t “get” Twitter when I first heard about it. But once I started using it, I gained a much better understanding of how it can be really useful.
This was one of my favorite parts of the post:
“With those connections comes an amazing diversity of thoughts, opinions and best practices.”
I completely agree. Social media can help you can learn so much by connecting with other people and their opinions, ideas, etc.
Thanks for the comment Greg. Like you, I had similar suspicions about Twitter and other social media platforms but can\’t see myself without them now.