Motivating Employees Through Facebook

Image via west.m on Flickr

Acceptance of social media, especially Facebook, runs similar to the political spectrum. There are extremists on both sides: those who live on Facebook and those who want nothing to do with it. I, along with the rest of the American public, sit somewhere in the middle. There is a big rush in the corporate techie space to get everything on a social media platform like Facebook, from internal communication to job postings. Most of them are uncomfortable fits, but I think there is one area that does fit – corporate motivation.

During my time in television, I worked for a few massive corporations that tried to tie online motivation programs to certain goals. There’d be a website set up with a special username and password and I’d enter my accomplishments, whether it was energy efficiency or HR training, and build an interactive fish tank or fill up some digital thermometer with my accomplishments or whatever. When I’d first get the emails I’d sign up, marvel at the whiz-bang materials and then promptly forget about it a few days later. If I ever went back, I usually forgot the password and therefore wouldn’t update the status. Within a few months, the program was forgotten.

I’m not here to debate the effectiveness of motivation programs, but I have seen a common thread in my dealings with several corporations. Most companies want to build their own platform, which is red hot at first and then cools quickly. After the honeymoon period is over, executives start to get antsy about the lack of interaction. My mantra with online communities is to “fish where the fish are.” If most (I would never say “all”) of your employees are on Facebook playing games and interacting, wouldn’t it be easier to interactively track their accomplishments there? Could Facebook be used, somehow, to build a platform and leverage the interactivity there? Turns out Tom Taraci of Taraci Motivation beat me to the punch with a new Facebook app. It marries the interactivity and community of Facebook with the motivational goals many executives wish to achieve. It’s probably one of the most comfortable fits between using Facebook as a personal, social platform and a company’s desire to engage and motivate employees.

I have a friend that posts his running time on Facebook (he’s training for a 5K), another lets me know about her job search process…would I respond just as favorably if I found out my college roommate just became a six sigma green belt? My sister recently “won” an overseas trip from her company for exceeding her division’s goals and she immediately shared it on Facebook. But with an app like this, some of that information could be shared automatically so employees can receive the adulation from friends and family without the concern of sounding self-serving. It’s a process that could push the employee to engage more.

With less focus on getting people to visit  a special website and remember specific passwords, I think this blend of social media and corporate life works. What other areas of corporate life do you think make sense on a place like Facebook or Twitter?