The Hype and Reality of Social Media Use for Work Collaboration and Team Communication
Communication plays a pivotal role in the success of every business. Communication efficiency is important within the organization as well as in communication done with the external stakeholders of the company. The tools and channels used for communication have been consistently evolving. The advent of social media and the increasing use of internet have largely impacted how communication takes place within the business.
There are various tools that have been specifically devised to facilitate the same. This report throws light on a crucial subject that plays a critical role in the current communication scenario. This subject refers to the use of social media in the workplace. Two articles have been analyzed and summarized which have provided a deepened insight on the topic. The first topic understands the importance of social media for internal communication in the workplace while the second topic discusses how teaching social media use can impact student learning in the educational sector.
Social media has become an inevitable part of our lives and therefore businesses have taken steps to communicate through social media within the organization. Internal communication taking place within the business plays an active role in ensuring the right flow of information and quick decision making. Since a long time, there have been various traditional modes of communication in the business which have effectively ensured smooth flow of communication within the organization. However, with the increasing size of the businesses, improved technology, enhanced decentralization and transparency in the organization, various efforts have been made to introduce new forms of internal communication in the business
This led to the birth of enterprise SNPs (Social networking platforms) which are specifically tailored for communication in the workplace. These platforms are specifically designed to make to the workplace communication transparent and effective. Various leading vendors like Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco and IBM are offering sophisticated enterprise SNPs customized for every organization. SNPs are using various tools like blogs, wikis, instant chat messengers, opinion polls and bookmarks etc (Maina, 2013). The widespread use of SNPs has allowed the employees of the business to be opinionated and ensured that people’s opinions are reaching a wider audience in the business.
Different people have different takes on the advent of enterprise SNPs. The social realists believe that there are various risks posed by enterprise SNPs including security concerns, slower adoption and penetration. Realists also believe that potential fragmentation of information, possible overload of information, probable distraction from work and excessive self promotion are also few of the risks of enterprise SNPs that may inflict the workplace. They do not see these tools as transformative for the organizational culture.
Teaching Students Involved in Emergency Management How to Use Social Media Effectively
On the other hand, social media enthusiasts tout various relative benefits of social media compared as compared to Email. They believe that enterprise SNPs represent a new wave of communication tools that would bring about a transformation in the organizational culture. They have claimed that enterprise SNPs facilitate effective in-person interactions leading to increased productivity and effective collaboration. Even though these social enthusiasts agree that use of enterprise SNPs poses certain challenges, they do not practically see a major drawback in the idea. This group of people evidently believes that enterprise SNPs could lead to a demise of Email in the longer run if not immediately.
The workplace communication channels are clearly changing and enterprise SNPs provide organizations a much needed bottom up communication approach. Nevertheless, traditional channels of communication are still considered more effective. Most of the people which participated in the research survey believed that face to face communication involving personal meetings had a greater impact and assisted in developing a better connection among team members. The idea is to build a rich communication channel that involves more verbal and non-verbal cues. If enterprise SNPs become richer sources of communication then there is a strong chance that they can completely replace traditional forms of communication especially email within organization.
Social media in education has also been in discussion since a long time. The advent of social media in our day to day lives is not uncommon. Young children have Facebook accounts and are effectively managing their Instagram pages. This helps us in believing that it is rather easy for children to adapt to technology and learn its intricacies.
This article highlights the importance of social media in young students who are likely to be responsible for addressing emergency situations in the near future such as floods, bush fires or cyclones. Communication tools are necessary to keep the public informed and minimise the panic. A social media site ‘Emspace’ has been created for the purpose of teaching students the use of these communication tools.
Problem based learning methodology is used in circumstances where real life situations cannot be entirely reproduced. Therefore an activity was conducted where the students were given a ‘real life like’ scenario and were asked to coordinate the scenario and deal with the emergency. In order to teach the use and understand the effectiveness of social media, the students were divide in two groups. The first group was given traditional tools like discussion space and additional educational tools to conduct the activity. The second group was given a social media site ‘Emspace’ where students published posts and responded to posts masquerading as the public. Upon conducting certain activities, it was established that students that used ‘Emspace’ found the tool highly realistic and effective.
The students were asked a number of questions and performance of both the groups were analysed in order to understand the impact of social media on their learning. Social media is a two way communication channel, hence there are two things that need to be considered while teaching students to use social media effectively. Firstly the students must be able to post simple, clear and easy to understand information that their audience would be able comprehend. Secondly, students must possess the necessary tact, skills and knowledge to be able to respond to posts that are made by the public.
Through this research, it was established that students had a great time while using the social media tool Emspace. They enjoyed the activity, ensured their participation and felt engaged in the entire process. By using this tool, they were also able to produce high quality material for the activity which indicated effective learning. This goes on to demonstrate that the use of social media in the educational sector has various advantages over traditional communication tools.
Conclusion
Social media has been widely used and even propagated in the current communication scenario. Organizations are using social media channels to promote their business. People are using social media and becoming brands by reaching out to a wider audience. Every sector including education, manufacturing, services and even sports are using social media channels to extend their target audience.
The use of social media for internal communication is the need of the hour. Not only does this form of communication create transparency but also enabled a smooth flow of information and makes sure that everyone within the business is heard. It assists in developing an organization which is equipped with human resources with opinions. This leads to increased effectiveness, improved sharing of ideas and a 360 feedback system within the business. There are many organizations who have already adopted social media use in their organizations and have demonstrated positive results.
Education sector of the world is rather new to social media and not many people have yet been able to adopt to this technology. However, it is important to note that young children are already using social media in their everyday lives and hence using the same media as a tool to enhance their learning is not only innovative but also very practical. The article clearly suggests that the students which were provided with the tool of social media performed better and demonstrated increased efficiency.
However, complete acceptance towards any new culture or technology takes time and currently social media is in the phase where people are starting to adapt to the changing culture (Blankenship 2011, 39). There is still a long way to go for us to completely switch to the tool of social media be it in workplaces or educational institutes. But the path that we have yet adopted is sure to lead us there. Certain steps like data security and privacy of users has to be enhanced to ensure that the risks posed with the use of social media slowly eradicate and the technology in itself improvises to ensure its effective use. Once it has been adopted it is sure to change the face of communication and learning within workplaces as well as educational institutes.
References
Blankenship, M., 2011. How social media can and should impact higher education. The Education Digest, 76(7), pp.39.
Cardon, P. W., & Marshall, B. 2015. The hype and reality of social media use for work. Collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(3), pp.273-293.
Maina, T.M., 2013. Instant messaging an effective way of communication in workplace. Cornell University. United States.
Ross, K., Taylor, M. & Fitzgerald, M. 2015. Teaching students involved in emergency Management how to use social media effectively [online]. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, the, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 21-25.
Tess, P.A., 2013. The role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual)–A literature review. Computers in Human Behaviour, 29(5), pp.A60-A68.
Welch, M. and Jackson, P.R., 2007. Rethinking internal communication: a stakeholder approach. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 12(2), pp.177-198.
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