An increasing number of construction businesses are discovering the value of social media. Certainly, it contributes to marketing efforts and can highlight what is unique about your brand. However, it’s important to understand how this can be a more agile tool for your company.

Social media can also be a practical component of your workplace safety program. Its short content formats make messaging more digestible and may improve the clarity of your communications. With some planning, your social media channels will support the wellness of your staff, business, and clients.

Let’s look closer at using social media to spread work-related safety information.

Identify Areas of Focus

Social media is often best utilized with a solid strategy. This doesn’t just apply to marketing and audience growth, but also when you’re using it as a tool for safety on construction sites. You need to be clear on what your communications goals are when it comes to safety, and which specific issues you want to address. You can then develop your content with this in mind.

For instance, reducing the potential for human error is a common goal, as these mistakes often lead to injuries and disrupt productivity. It’s important to assess what issues contribute to human error, such as cluttered workspaces and lack of communication. From here you can design the formats of social media posts to best address these activities, like diagrams on organizational practices or videos demonstrating communications protocols.

Create Engaging Content

Simply posting safety advice on social media is unlikely to be effective. You also need your workforce and industry colleagues to willingly interact with and retain the knowledge you provide. This means designing the social media content to be as engaging as possible.

This can involve prioritizing the format of content for platforms that are known for audience engagement. For instance, TikTok is a key space to post highly creative micro-content. Short and visually striking posts are great for capturing attention and communicating clear safety messaging. 

There’s potential, too, for making safety posts not just informative, but also funny with the use of sounds, music, and trends. You can also encourage your employees to respond to posts using TikTok’s Duet function to further the discussion about the challenges of construction safety. 

Bolster Training Sessions

Spreading work-related safety information on social media doesn’t have to be an isolated activity. You can also utilize it in conjunction with your formal safety training sessions. This effectively makes your social media content another format for educational materials, which can make for a more diverse, engaging, and impactful wellness program.

It may be effective to create social media posts related to each specific safety module you are training staff on. Short Instagram or TikTok posts can highlight the risks involved with overlooking the practices outlined during in-person teaching sessions. You can direct staff to these during lunch breaks and utilize them in discussions during afternoon recaps.

Conclusion

Social media can be an effective part of your wider construction safety program. It’s important to make strategic choices about your posts, establish how to make your content engaging, and incorporate these materials into training sessions. 

Beyond this, your company could also consider how your safety posts can have a further impact on your company and industry. Perhaps there is potential for safety trainers to collaborate with marketing teams to create content. This may boost your reputation for responsible project management and influence other construction businesses to implement more effective safety communications.