The organization has an incredible opportunity with the integration of social media, to reevaluate old policies and controlling behaviors. By removing obstacles and encouraging smart participation in social media, your organization’s social media plan could be realized because of the power of the people within your organization and their influence in the community.

When getting started in social media, you cannot dismiss and ignore an organization’s fears about social media engagement. Social media success is dependant upon a drastic change in corporate culture’s thinking and execution process. Already we have addressed four out of eight steps as defined by leading change management thinker, John Kotter – increasing the level of urgency, building the guiding team, establishing a relevant vision and communicating for buy-in.

Now that urgency has been established, a team in place to lead, a relevant vision is established to guide the way, and you are communicating for buy-in, so how do you empower action?

1. Set Expectations: It is vital to provide clear guidelines for engagement and disclosure, so that all employees can represent themselves and the company clearly and professionally. By allowing your workforce to do what they do best and act as your representative, your organization can gain valuable social capital, credibility, and opportunity.
2. Give Constructive Feedback: Your ultimate goal throughout these steps for successful change, is for the people of your organization to act on your vision. You don’t want to hamper their success by scolding them about mistakes they make along the way. Let’s be realistic. Mistakes are how we learn and should be prepared for when they do happen. Having clear guidelines in place will lessen these instances, but also by giving constructive feedback and remaining positive will encourage future behavior promoting ideal interaction.
3. Relay Experiences: Shout out all experiences from the mountain top! Share stories and feedback throughout the entire company to spur change and believability in your organization’s vision.

How are you empowering action within your organization? What has worked and what has not? Please share your lessons learned. Stay tuned for the remainder of change management steps and tips every Monday through this month and February!