Social Media to Improve (Corporate) Internal Communication
Over the last few years social media has shown phenomenal growth in mainly the business to customer (B2C) market. A study conducted by Duke University and the American Marketing Association suggests that social media budgets will spring from 5.6% to 9.9% in 2010. However, over the next five years, social media budgets will swell to 17.7% of the total marketing spend.
Although this is good news for social media enthusiasts, the reality is that we have just seen the tip of the iceberg. The coming years will bring a new series of usage and opportunities for social media technologies. One such use will be the role of social media in internal communication. As technology is getting more sophisticated and social media is penetrating even deeper, it has the potential to be used as a means to communicate amongst employees, suppliers, customers and decision makers. Making the whole process more transparent, democratic and interactive.
Social Intranets
Social Intranets is the evolution of the traditional forms of intranets, which were very tricky to use. Based on the Intranet, brands like IBM and IKEA showcased that social media can be a real asset when used for internal communication. According to figures IBM $80.3m on productivity and increased employee retention by 52%. The below presentation explains the case study of IBM and IKEA in detail.
2 Responses to “Social Media to Improve (Corporate) Internal Communication”
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I think most internal communicators now know the value of social media internally. The challenge is to overcome the barriers.
According to Towers Watson, the main barriers cited by organizations not using social media are:
Limited Knowledge of Social Media
Lack of IT Support or Technical Capability
Limited Staff /Resources to Implement
Restrictions Imposed by Our Legal Department
Lack of CEO or Senior Manager Support
Lack of Metrics to Measure the Impact
Simple, plug and play solutions that address these concerns are a step in the right direction. Here is an example here:
http://www.snapcomms.com/products/employee-blog.aspx
Can the benefits of using social media to improve internal communication be recognized by small businesses as well? It seems that the only reported success stories involve large corporations adopting this strategy. I know (from working at a small company) how horrible internal communication can be, regardless of company size… any insight or reference to outside studies/reports would be amazing!
Thank you!
*I came across your site via Twitter*