The vast majority of organizations have some kind of presence on Facebook or Twitter. Others have LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts, which are an integral part of their overall social media marketing strategy. Increasingly, organizations are coming around to the realization that their employees have their own personal social media profiles and that these could be used as branding and marketing tools. As a team, consider the following:

a. Consumers don’t tend to buy brands as such; they buy from people that they know and they trust.

b. When consumers search the Internet for products and services, social profiles should appear and these should support the brand and the marketing strategies.

As a team, come up with a strategy that recognizes these statements and how you could encourage employees to post content that presents an organization in a positive light. The purpose is to drive traffic to a Web site or to generate sales. Entitle your strategy “Leveraging your employees’

social networks” and suggest how you would train employees to do this.