TechWag

Image via WikipediaGlobal Neighbors is running an excellent entry on why you should be focusing on social media now and not cutting your social media staff. Business has grown to the point where they are thinking quarter to quarter and not thinking in the long term. Quarterly performance sets pay and bonuses for senior executives, but the staff is more likely to have a longer term view of the company, which is one of the many reasons why you do not want to cut your social media staff.

As unemployment grows, and as companies lay off more and more staff, there are going to be a lot of people on line with little better to do than troll company sites looking for a job. This is where your social media staff and those that are interested in working for you are going to first interact with your company. You also want people on your social media staff who are thinking they are secure in their jobs. People who think they are going to be fired act in unusual ways, and you do not want your social media staff anxious or wondering what is going to happen next at the company.

While social media might be a two edged sword, and you want your staff happy, not worried about what is going to happen next. As we go through another cycle of boom and bust in technology (1992/1993, 2000/2001, and now 2008/2009) people are figuring out that there is a form of survivors guilt when it comes to surviving a layoff. You should be communicating with your social media staff to make sure that they at the very least are not anxious about their jobs. We are in an age where one smart response or snarky comment can derail an otherwise excellent social media campaign. You do not want scared people talking about your company on an official company web site.

In addition, this also gives a company a chance to engage with people who are looking for a new job. You might not have anything open, but the better you can engage them, the more people will want to come work for you when the immediate crisis is over with, in a year or two. You also want people to be putting the company’s best foot forward and engaging with people in a positive way. You can think of this as one big way of making your company the place that people want to go work at when the economy improves. The potential here is phenomenal, but only to the company that plays this one right.

Firing your social media staff, could be the biggest concern for a company in the Web 2.0 world.

Tags: staff, hire, fire, social, media, social media, layoff, survival