Facebook has over 250 million members, Twitter has more than 75 million micro blogs and over 60 million people are signed up to LinkedIn - the popularity of social media is growing every day. Even Irish SMEs are using social media to reach out to potential customers. (Irish SMEs using social media). But have companies stopped to consider what effect it could have closer to home- in the relationship between the employee and the organisation?
For any internal communicator, a communications tool that can cover upward, downward and lateral communication in real time for virtually no cost, other than time and effort, sounds like manna from heaven.However, the uptake of social media tools for internal communications purposes has been patchy, to say the least.It is no surprise that high tech companies have been the first and most ardent embracers of social media technology.
If you look at many high technology multi nationals (eg Nokia, IBM and Siemens) they have all chosen to revamp their original internal communication strategies and venture down the social media route. Essentially they have replaced the old traditional internal communications tools-memos, newsletters and even face to face meetings and have now brought in extensive intranets, blogs, video meetings, twitter, and wikis. It is claimed that using social media can boost employee morale, improve productivity and give a positive outlook on your company, both internally and externally.But what exactly are they getting from the different tools?
- In IBM, internal blogs are seen as being a success for internal communications and IBM have more than 3600 internal blogs.Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Jon Iwata, says employee blogs give people an opportunity to voice their opinions on changes in the company and comment on projects in a comfortable informal setting.
- Siemens have integrated Yammer, the corporate version of micro blog Twitter, to allow employees give real time updates of work progress or consult with colleagues unobtrusively.
- Nokia are relying more on instant messaging which they say creates an easy way to ask a questions and communicate without taking up too much time. Instant messaging also removes the barriers and conventions of more formalised communication, such as emails. There is lots of research examining the impact of social media on internal communications and, while the research varies in quality,it looks like social media tools can offer companies the chance of reaching new levels of employee engagement with cost efficient, easily accessible tools. Incorporating social media reflects the interests of an increasingly large demographic of employees and the incoming generation of workers, who are living in a social media culture. As a number of surveys have shown recently, employees appear to be losing trust with the traditional top-bottom communications structure, preferring peer to peer communications. So maybe integrating social media is a necessity, rather than just a move worth considering?
In Ireland, internal communication teams, HR professionals and CEO’s don’t appear to be entirely convinced about using social media internally or, if they are, they’re finding it hard to convince everyone else at the top table.The real challenge is balancing the results you will get with the perceived potential risks involved - mainly the intentional or inadvertent leaking of confidential information or commercially sensitive information.For many, the jury is still out.
So what’s the answer?In a way the answer is the same as it ever was with internal communications - it’s about trust.In the days before keeping your employees informed and involved became an accepted people management practice, it was common for organizations to keep their employees in the dark. Those that involved their employees and communicated with them began to reap the rewards in terms of loyalty, engagement and innovation.
Is social media then just the next step in the evolution for internal communications?Open downward communication was never quite as scary as open upward communications.So if you are willing to give social media a go, how do you protect your organisation against leaks. Flimsy as it may seem, the best protection for this appears to be to implement social media guidelines and communicate well, clearly and regularly internally.Give your employees a set of company ‘do’s and don’ts’ for social media.Then trust them.