Jeffery Adler, founder of the seven-unit Dlush Beverage Joint chain in San Diego, recently turned on his cell phone and found a couple of his employees following him on Twitter, the microblogging site that allows users to share updates about what they are doing or thinking.
“It’s emblematic of how Twitter is working here in our own nest,” he said. “Our blog,
While restaurant operators continue to explore ways to use online social media to market their brands, they also are turning to social networking to improve internal communications and better connect with their own employees. Many operators are expanding or creating their own internal social-networking sites and blogs to keep employees engaged.
Last year McDonald’s had about 10,000 users for its employee-only intranet site,
“We’re getting to the point where people feel very comfortable on the site and participate on it in a substantial way,” Hradecky said.
StationM mimics public social networking sites like
The creation of separate social-networking sites for the workplace appeals to employees who don’t want to their personal and professional communications to converge on the same site, Hradecky said.
“We’re a McDonald’s site that is different from all other places,” he said. “Other sites are for friends and family. Some may not be comfortable expressing their work life in front of everyone.”
At StationM, employees may post questions to each other on work-related issues, and they start their own discussions on such things as the best type of gloves to use while working the drive-thru window.
“You have to really listen to your audience and what they want and balance that with what your company goals are,” Hradecky said.
Like most companies with intranet sites, McDonald’s has a site manager who monitors content and blocks inappropriate comments.
“We’ve had very little that we’ve been unable to post,” Hradecky said. “The crew people are very well-behaved. You have to learn to trust them, but make sure all your controls are in place.”
Static, one-dimensional intranet sites are giving way to Web 2.0 development and design, resulting in sites that are interactive and continually updated, operators said.
Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! Brands Inc., owner and franchisor of Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W, recently launched an internal social networking site for executives to communicate with employees.
Bob Kraut, vice president of marketing for Taco Bell recently told Ad Age, “It was the desire of the company leaders to be in contact with employees on the most local level so they can share best practices and real-time information about their consumer interactions.”
Sodexo USA launched its IAmSodexo site two years ago for its front-line staff. Now the Gaithersburg, Md.-based firm is revamping its intranet, which currently has about 20,000 users. SodexoNet 2.0 will be rolled out in phases, said Eileen Daly, senior manager of e-communications.
“It’s a huge project,” Daly said. “Not only is it focused on connecting employees, but we will be rolling out wonderful new tools and different elements. It will offer a whole new content management system and RSS feeds for the newsletters we have. People will be able to pick and choose what they get rather than have a flurry of content.”
The Sodexo site will offer an enhanced phone directory for all of Sodexo Inc., which is located in 80 countries and has 350,000 employees and 30,600 client locations. Sodexo employees will be able to contact colleagues with specific areas of expertise. It also will have maps of client locations. One of Sodexo’s ultimate goals is to reduce the amount of time employees spend at the computer, searching for information, Daly said.
“Our district managers are constantly saying they get a ton of e-mail,” she said.
The transition to more social networking in the industry comes at a time when the world is connecting more often through social media than e-mail. A recent report by the Neilson Co. found that two-thirds of the “global” online population visits “membership communities,” or social networks. Social-site use is slightly ahead of e-mail use, the survey said.
The first phase of the Sodexo site will roll out in November, Daly said. That soon will be followed by the second phase, which will allow users to customize their own home pages, similar to a Facebook page.
Dlush chief executive Adler also hopes to expand the company blog into a social-networking site. The recession slowed down Web development, he said. Employees, however, are already posting pictures and commenting on the company blog.
“I believe we can never have too much community,” he said. “I would bet all my stock in the company that there is not a single employee out of 100 employees who is not on Facebook or MySpace. I can’t conceive of it. It’s like not having a toothbrush.”
