How to use Social Media in Internal Communication?
Internal communication is crucial for a company’s productivity. As we already highlighted — employees have more time to actually work — and not only do tasks that facilitate their job like answering emails— if the internal communication in a corporation is efficient. Moreover, employees feel more satisfied by their job if they feel that they have access to the company information they need and are motivated to do their best if they receive public recognition.
Social networks — both general and specific ones — make internal communication easier and more efficient than ever. A successful internal communication manager (ICM) may use both specific networks — such as Slack — and the good old social media — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn — to connect the employees and managers, to organize the tasks in the best way and to motivate the staff to show their best.
Here’s how:
Slack
Slack is a collaboration tool developed by Slack Technologies. Their starting idea is rather simple. They noticed that professional mail inboxes are absolutely flooded by messages, in average 304 emails per week. While at the average employee checks his inbox 36 times an hour and needs 16min to refocus[1]. Moreover making chain of emails is hard to follow and employees often miss important emails.
Those statistics make obvious that something should be made to improve the situation. That’s where Slack comes into action. Slack offers an instant messaging app for businesses that enables coworkers to centralize their discussions, organize them in different subchannels and on all devices (desktop, smartphone, tablet …), making communication much easier between big groups of coworkers.
On top of that the platform integrates over 600[2] third-party apps such as MailChimp or Twitter pushing the centralization aspect even further, facilitating internal communication for coworkers.
Slack’s popularity is growing really fast, major companies such as Deezer or Ebay are using it. In fact Slack is the fastest growing B2B SaaS company[3] thanks to its functionality allowing companies to improve workforce efficiency. It is a good example of how the digital can improve internal communications.
Social media and internal communication
Not only company chat software like Slack can be used as internal communication tools. Social media may also be helpful for a successful communication manager in a company.
From simple group chats in Facebook, which can help the staff of a small company to communicate with each other, to the opportunity to let the employees actively participate and represent the corporation by their achievements — social media can be useful for a communication manager.
There is controversy whether linking personal and professional life of employees through social media would be beneficial for the company. However social networks offer tools that can facilitate the working process without mixing it up with private life. In 2016 Facebook announced the debut of Facebook Workplace — the company’s workplace-focused collaborative app that allows colleagues to communicate through a web interface or mobile app. It is available for free since May 2018.
Many companies use private Twitter groups to share company news, news about promotions and retirements. In this way coworkers feel free to talk to managers and are more included in the company.
The two-way communication helps to build trust and honest relationships between employees, writes Christopher Hannegan[4], senior adviser in employee engagement, culture, communications, and inclusion and diversity.
LinkedIn is without doubt a powerful tool for an internal communication manager. Not only because some companies require the communication manager to keep in touch with the HR team that uses LinkedIn on a daily basis. This social network can enable a company to be represented by the employees, who, on the other hand, can share their accomplishments and qualifications. In this way the image of the company improves to the potential clients and the potential future employees.
Internal communication managers can encourage the employees to follow external experts who publish useful content or to organize a group of internal specialists who post articles that are beneficial for the new employees or interns. They can then participate in discussions on the topics.
Employees may also be encouraged to share content uploaded by the communication managers on LinkedIn with their own networks. This develops sense of involvement and trust, according to many experts.
Social networks — both general and specific ones — are useful tools for an internal communication manager. They do not only facilitate communication between employees and managers. They also help to build trust in a company. Employees usually feel more motivated to do their best when the organization of the tasks is clear and when they can easily communicate both with each other and with the superiors.
Collaboration tools such as Slack enable managers to organize the work in a corporation. Social media can go even further — they give opportunities for the employees to acquire new skills and to show their achievements — and in this way improve trust and motivation in a company.
And if you are wondering how internal communication managers use all of these tools every day — check our page for Advice from a Professional ICM.
[1] https://www.atlassian.com/time-wasting-at-work-infographic
[2]https://guce.oath.com/collectConsent?brandType=nonEu&.done=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2016%2F07%2F19%2Fslack-now-with-600-apps-on-its-platform-pours-2m-into-11-slackbot-startups-via-its-slack-fund%2F%3Fguccounter%3D1&sessionId=3_cc-session_a62af471-4051-4307-968f-13076c9d5163&lang=&inline=false
[3] https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/slack-fastest-growing-b2b-saas-business-ever
[4] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140903194537-10686617-five-ways-to-use-linkedin-as-an-employee-engagement-tool/
