Individuals working in teams are the heart of any successful endeavor, but acknowledging and drawing attention to achievements above the call of duty is not always easy. Quick thinking that keeps a project on track can go unrecognized as new problems arise. Showcasing the skills of your team to current and potential clients in specific and meaningful ways can be challenging.
Social media offer great ways to share these stories. As marketing materials, they create opportunities for current customers to connect with their contractors as people and illustrate the smaller successes that add up to produce larger ones. In addition, these stories can highlight employees’ skills and strengths for prospective customers.
However, the nature of social media adds value to these efforts in ways that go beyond the strengths of traditional marketing materials. If you are mentioned in your company’s print newsletter, you might take it home to share with your spouse. If you appear in a blog post, with a link to the recognition page on the company website, then it’s easy to share with all of your friends, family, and other contacts through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and email. The benefits to morale are clear, and these efforts may even help to recruit new staff and clients.
Here is an example of an achievement that deserves recognition and a brief outline of the sequence of social media events that a project manager/principal can use to highlight the work of his or her crew.
On a site walk, you learn of your superintendent’s amazing effort to rally together with the rebar sub in order to satisfy a city inspector and keep the project moving forward.
- Shake the super’s hand and get a photo of him and anyone else involved in the game-saving event. You can post the photo and a message to Twitter on the spot, praising the super by name for a job well done.
- Upon returning to the office, write up the story in one or two paragraphs and post it to the company blog with the photo.
- Post another announcement on LinkedIn including a link to the blog post and more kudos to the super for a job well done.
- A two-to-four-paragraph version of the description might incorporate quotes from the super, others involved, and possibly even the client to reinforce the significance of this accomplishment for the project. This version can be e-mailed to the whole company, with a link to the recognition web page and the blog post, where colleagues can add their own notes of congratulation.
To sum up, social media are the perfect venue to capture and bring attention to the kind of smaller-scale successes that can get overlooked in the press of daily activities but are critical to reaching any larger goal. Your employees’ accomplishments can be recognized quickly and disseminated widely, with great results for morale while informing your customers about the individual and collective skills that your company can offer.