Why Retailers Need to Train on Social Media

Retail Social MediaThe Internet and social media have changed the way individuals, including your employees, communicate with each other and the rest of the world.

Whether it is Facebook, YouTube, Vine, Instagram or any of any number of social media outlets, retail companies need to recognize that with today’s technology, what goes on in your business could end up being exposed to hundreds, thousands, even millions of people online.

Take the Domino’s YouTube fiasco a few years ago. Two Domino’s employees were filmed doing gross things while preparing food in a Domino’s kitchen. The video was uploaded to YouTube and was viewed by hundreds of thousands of viewers virtually overnight.

This was an instant public relations nightmare and as we all know, it has not been the only one. The temptations of social media sites are not going away, so what does a retail owner do? The first step is to establish reasonable standards of workplace behavior regarding social networking and online use and then communicate those expectations to your employees in one of your weekly retail training meetings.

 Retail Social Media Policy

Your company should have guidelines that apply to your employees’ use of social media, both on and off duty that address issues such as:

If your company decides to adopt a social media policy all employees should sign a copy of the policy and be trained in its meaning. The best way to do this might be to hold a mandatory staff training meeting and discuss it with a question and answer session.  We would also recommend that you make this policy a key part of your retail new employee orientation training program

A sensible social media policy, effectively communicated to your staff, should go a long way toward addressing the risks inherent in today’s online world.