Can We Surmount Obstacles to Internal Communication through Social Media?

In almost every organization I've ever worked, internal communication has been a slippery slope. Twenty years ago, forward-looking CEOs tried to open the channels by creating employee newsletters and holding focus groups to obtain feedback, but each of these initiatives had its drawbacks. The communication in employee newsletters was often "top-down" and employees rarely cared to air their true opinions in manager-led focus groups, fearing reprisals if their opinions were not politically correct.

    Consequently, it gives me great joy to see social media make its way into the workplace as a tool for informing, obtaining feedback, generating discussion, and creating solutions.

SME-TV: Behind the Scenes with Best Buy

Blue Shirt Nation

It is far more nimble than any print publication, which is usually long in the making, and allows for immediate two-way communication. As we have seen in Groundswell,

  it also has the same revolutionary potential to alter the path of bureaucracies that was demonstrated in the Arab Spring, but in ways closer to home, such as Best Buy's Blue Shirt Nation rolling back corporate's proposed cut in the employee discount (p. 218).

   In her excellent article, "They're just not that into you: Can social media revitalize employee communication?", CEO Alison Davis comments: "Social media has the potential to engage employees like never before, transforming their role from passive, indifferent spectators to active participants." This is something we are beginning to see more and more, as corporate leaders realize that they need to risk putting power in the hands of their workers, if they want their companies to grow and thrive (Li and Bernoff, 2008, p. 216).

Email is so last century.

Is it time to try out new web tools

for internal communication?

Burton Goldfield "How Social Networks Can Boost Productivity"

    The unexpected benefits of using social media often show themselves through increased productivity. Web 2.0 tools -- such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, company blogs, and internal networks, like Microsoft Communicator and Central Desktop -- can help business owners align corporate goals, drive employee engagement and streamline operations. In his Feb. 2011 article in entrepreneur.com, author Burton Goldfield points out: "The goal of internal social environments is to create a collaboration-focused community where teams stop working in silos." Internal networks give all parties working on a project instant visibility into each of its components. Setbacks can be instantly communicated and redundancies, as well as "rogue projects" not in sync with the objectives of the business, can be eliminated.

    Goldfield comments that internal social networks are increasingly being used as a strategy to empower employees to be creative and give them a voice in the direction of the company. One of the ways this can be done is through creating a discussion board on the Intranet to encourage staff to provide ideas on new products, programs, or ways to improve work processes. Soliciting this type of feedback, and offering opportunities for participation, lead to greater employee engagement, satisfaction and motivation, which ultimately result in higher levels of productivity, revenue and profit. In conclusion, Goldfield tells us: "Investing the time and resources to roll out an internal social network has the potential to deliver benefits to all corners of an organization's business and operations."