Marketers have turned to all manner of social channels in their efforts to tap into the social media craze, from engaging in formal blogger outreach efforts to stuffing YouTube channels with videos in the hopes that others will embed link to them from their Facebook profiles. But marketers continue to ignore one group that, if approached correctly, could have a greater impact than all the rest combined.

Companies just don't seem to recognize the value of turning to their own employees. I'm constantly bemused at the number of companies that don't consider their own workforce a channel for promoting products and services.Of course, it is not unusual for an organization's leaders to ask their employees to evangelize the company's products or services. But the thinking is limited to face-to-face encounters with family and friends. When it comes to the social space, companies are generally more interested in restricting employees' activities than in empowering them to support the company's marketing efforts.

Employees, after all, have a vested interest in helping the company succeed. Marketing drives sales that leads to better job security. Plus, it's just plain fun to work for a successful company. (Think the people working for Apple and Google don't love to get up and go to work?)

But in focus groups, interviews and surveys I conduct for my clients, I'm constantly gobsmacked by the number of employees who are unfamiliar with all or part of the company's product line and unaware of impending product launches.

The value of getting employees engaged as part of a strategic marketing effort goes far beyond the word-of-mouth your workers can create at PTA meetings, family dinners, and church picnics. Employees talking about the brand on Facebook, Twitter, and other social venues can reach hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of people with sincere, passionate messages.

At every company, there are employees sitting on the edges of their seats just waiting to be activated. I see evidence of them in social channels every day, employees conveying genuine pride and excitement about what they're up to in their jobs or what their employers are doing.

In most organizations, employees are either restrained from talking to their online networks about work or they're doing it in a purely organic manner. Consider a new-product introduction. How much knowledge do your front-line, rank-and-file employees have about the product and the campaign being launched to support it?

A short news article on the intranet doesn't cut it, not if you're going to employ models to integrate employees' organic social networking as a resource for your strategic marketing plans.

Adopting these models requires a rethinking of a number of issues, from social media access policies to the role and mission of the employee communications department. Business- and product-literate employees will increase the reach of your marketing messages. Companies are loaded up with employees with limited business and product literacy and can't access their networks anyway.

It's difficult for a lot of organizations to see the benefits persistently networked employees bring to the company. First, you have to break through the paranoia that has been whipped up about the risks of letting employees talk about work online. They tend to fall into three categories:

• Productivity:  Employees spending time on their personal online networks won't get their work done. Actual evidence supports exactly the opposite. Employees get more and better work done when they have access to their networks. One University study found employees with unfettered access to their online networks were 8% more productive than their network-restricted peers. (The many ways open access enriches the company is a subject for a whole different post.)



• Network security: Employees will introduce all kinds of viruses, bots and malware to their computers and infect the network. The fallacy of this argument is evident in the companies that do allow employees access yet are not victimized by malicious code. These companies, from large corporations to hospitals, mitigate the risk through a variety of technical and behavioral practices. It's not necessary to block access in order to protect your networks; it's just the lazy way out.



• Illegal and inappropriate behavior: Employees who don't understand or follow the rules will compromise our intellectual property or make statements in violation of the regulations with which we must comply. Other employees will engage in behavior that will damage our reputation. This is not a technical issue. It is a management issue. Paul Levy, CEO of one of Boston's biggest hospitals, said the prospect of HIPAA violations would not prompt him to block his employees' access to Facebook or other social sites, noting that it was just as easy to violate HIPAA in an elevator. Rather than focus on the excuses for blocking access, though, organizations should be exploring the various means by which those networks become an organizational asset. Why spend the money on recruiting a new engineer when your engineers (who network with other engineers) already know exactly whom the company should pursue? Which brings us back to marketing. Employees need only two things to become a marketing force: the knowledge to engage intelligently in conversations and access to the networks where they participation in those conversations.

In order to equip your employees to support marketing efforts, consider the following adjustments:

Make business and product literacy a priority.
Employees mostly know the products and services with which they work. Those employees who don't work directly with products generally don't know much about them. They can't build interest in what they don't understand. Take steps to ensure a solid understanding of the company's product line and the marketing plans for those products.

Create an online resource of marketing materials.
A site on your company's intranet should provide insight into the company's various marketing strategies and provide employees with assets they can use when talking about the company and its products. Whether it's a widget they can add to their blogs, links to resources they can share with their Facebook friends or photos they can post, these should be just a few clicks away.

Include an internal plan for all your launches.
Employees should share in the excitement of a product launch. When they're pumped, they'll share the excitement with others. Create a microsite on the intranet for the launch where they can get a sneak peak at collateral, from TV commercials to print ads. I worked at one company where we set up a booth in the cafeteria for every launch, staffed by marketing reps working on the product. They could show off the product itself, the materials being used to market it and answer any employee questions. The launch of a product or service or new institutional campaign should be as big a deal in the company as it is to external audiences.

Set positive policies.
Most online policies are filled with negatives, elaborating on what employees can't do, shouldn't do, will get fired for doing. Try a different approach. Let them know what they CAN do and the right way to do it. Emphasize authenticity, candor and transparency. You don't want your employees to be shills or astroturfers, but nobody will fault them for genuine enthusiasm about a new product.

Recognize your biggest champions.
Show employees exactly what evangelism looks like by spotlighting employees who do it right.

So, how does your company involve its employees in its marketing efforts?