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Social Media for Effective Communication at Work

Organizations have been focusing on leveraging social media for business growth and promotion. However, they often overlook the potential of social media for effective communication at the workplace and strengthening employee-to-employee relationships.

Social media can play an important role in bringing the workforce closer together and enhancing collaboration and communication between employees. It can also simplify the process of information sharing besides encouraging enhanced employee engagement.

Why are Organizations against Social Media Usage?

Social-Media

The lack of interest of organizations to harness social media often stems from the fear of its misuse by employees.

Often, organizations believe that giving employees freedom to use social media at the workplace can reduce their efficiency and productivity.

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They believe that employees would spend significant time interacting with their friends and updating their status on social networking sites.

Hence, it would impact their productivity and efficiency adversely.

Many organizations have completely banned access to social media for their employees, which can be counterproductive.

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Moreover, most employees access social media through smartphones, so banning such access on the corporate network might not work.

So rather than curbing social media usage, organizations should find ways to use it for effective workplace communication.

How Can Social Media Improve Communication in the Workplace?

Social media platforms can help improve workplace communication and contribute to developing a positive work culture in different ways:

A few of these are discussed in brief as follows:

1. Establishing strong personal relationships with co-workers

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The various social media platforms provide an informal environment for employees to connect and interact, at a personal level.

Hence, it makes it easier for co-workers to connect and work towards building strong bonds.

Employees find it easier to share ideas and opinions with co-workers, with whom they already interact freely on social media. 

This, in turn, results in better coordination and collaboration between employees, especially those working in different teams within the organization.

2. Adds value to employee recognition

Social-Visibility

Using social media to recognize employee efforts and achievements helps in adding value to the entire process.

It also can open up channels of communication between co-workers.

When employees are congratulated by their peers on social media, it enhances their motivation significantly. It also increases their willingness to interact with less familiar co-workers.

This results in breaking barriers between individuals and teams, besides enhancing the overall engagement of the workforce.

3. Discuss professional problems in a relaxed manner

Often employees find it difficult to discuss work-related problems with co-workers or supervisors at the workplace, formally.

Hence, in such cases, social media sites provide a good platform to discuss such issues informally with the concerned people.

The very nature of social networking sites makes it easier for them to have an informal conversation about serious work issues. 

A significant chunk of the corporate workforce is already doing this over WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

4. Create internal social networks

Communication

Organizations can also consider building internal social networks to enhance corporate communication which could save both time and money.

These internal networks can be used for conducting online meetings, carrying out discussions, etc.

This can facilitate faster decision-making and also enhance the overall productivity of the workforce.

It can also be an effective forum to increase employee involvement by seeking opinions and feedback.

5. Gain information and support

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Social media be a great source of valuable information for employees, which they can share with their co-workers. 

They can connect with experts to get advice and opinions on challenging technical or business problems.

Also, by sharing this information with their teams, they can spread the knowledge further.

This, in turn, can help in developing the capability and effectiveness of the workforce.

6. Provides a break time for employees

Work from Home

Also, social media can offer employees an opportunity to relax and refresh their minds without venturing too far from their workstations.

They can enjoy such breaks without disturbing their co-workers or indulging in other useless activities.

Most importantly, any data gathered during such breaks can be used to improve employee communication at the workplace.

This information can be used by employees to share a laugh, improve general knowledge and even to simply entertain one another.

Hence, it can help in creating an informal work environment and make employees more comfortable spending long hours at work.

How can Organizations Manage Social Media Usage?

social media usage

Organizations need to set the boundaries for the usage of social media the Dos and Don’ts as part of the policy and monitor its usage.

Social media is here to stay and is already an important aspect of almost every employee’s personal life.

Most organizations have overlooked the potential of social media for effective communication in the workplace.

They should harness social media to enhance the freedom of expression among employees.

This can help them develop a great workplace culture based on mutual trust, understanding, and team spirit.

Bottom-line

Rather than completely banning social media usage, organizations should look to make social media integral to their internal communication policy. Such a measure can provide a multitude of benefits for the organization.  

Sagar Chaudhuri

Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurship experience. In the past, Sagar has worked with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank, in leadership roles. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn

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HiFives is a global employee rewards, recognition and engagement SaaS platform that enables organizations to digitize, automate and transform their employee experience. It is used by 100+ large enterprises, small businesses and startups in manufacturing, retail, technology, financial services and media, across 25+ countries.