The benefits of using social media in internal communications

Why use social media in internal communications? If you want to talk to Dawkins in accounts you could just get up from behind your desk and walk over there, right? But what if the accounts team is based hundreds of miles away or Dawkins works from home? Graeme Harvey, managing director of HuzuTech, looks at the reasons why businesses should be utilizing social media for their internal communications.

The increase in remote working and flexible working practices

Tuesday’s Guardian quoted a CBI report which revealed that 46% of businesses were allowing their employees to work from home, and this was in 2008. You can bet that that figure has gone up.

Businesses have increased their use of flexible and remote workers because of the massive benefits in increased productivity and morale, to say nothing of the vastly reduced sickness absences. But, as with everything there are drawbacks. What about communication? How can employees talk to each other if they don’t share an office? How can managers talk to them?

Many businesses have found social media to be the answer.

Familiar technology

Social media and social networking is everywhere. We all have at least one employee that uses sites like Facebook and Twitter, and this familiarity affords businesses the chance to use social media as an internal communications tool, helping the business reach its objectives.

Measureable impact

Like any business improvement activity, social media should be properly budget whether it’s being used as a marketing tool or an internal communications device. Proper budgeting will allow the manager to look back and know what benefits the system has delivered.

Brainstorming

The days when the manager would call the team into a meeting for a quick, unscheduled, brainstorm around a topic, are quickly disappearing. With more people working outside the office, some may not even be there to share their ideas, which would have a negative impact on the business. Social media tools allow team members in a myriad of locations to hold discussions at the click of a button using tools such as Skype to talk to each other and exchange information during the conversation.

A 2010 survey of internal communications professionals by Melcrum identified innovation and idea exchange as the main benefit of using social media internally, with employee engagement, knowledge management and collaboration coming in at second and third place.

The same survey highlighted how important the respondents felt it was to encourage employees to collaborate, especially when some of the employees were based overseas. They also found it invaluable for community building and engaging Gen Y.

The way that the world does business is changing and internal communication practices need to keep up with theses changes if businesses don’t want to be left behind. For more details, including what businesses should do once they decide to implement social media for internal communications, see our new insight guide “Innovation and Idea Exchange”: social media and its role in internal communications, available from our website

http://www.huzutech.com/Insight/social-media-and-its-role-in-internal-communications.html