The Role of Social Media in Business Communication

This article discusses the challenges and opportunities of using social media in business communication. It highlights how social media improves communication skills and promotes self-representation. The author also explores the positive and negative impacts of social media on communication.

Part 1
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Table of Contents
Article 1......................................................................................................................................3
Article 2......................................................................................................................................3
Article 3......................................................................................................................................4
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Article 1
Decarie, C. (2010). Facebook: Challenges and opportunities for business communication
students. Business Communication Quarterly, 73(4), 449-452.
The article highlights the use of social media opportunities and challenges for the students of
business communication. The article has been written by Decarie (2010) and according to her
study, social media plays an important and interesting role in teaching the students of
business communication. The author admitted for having an initial discomfort with the use of
social media but later, her perception changed when she understood the role played by it in
improving the communication skills of the users. The author said that the participation of the
business students in conversations on the social media platforms improves their
communication skills and, it also allows the faculties to deliver valuable communication
skills to the students. The social media has been found to improve both the verbal as well as
the written communication skills of the business students. It promotes authorship among the
students and acts as a means of self promotion and self representation for them where they
can write their views exclusively (Decarie, 2010).
Article 2
Evans, C. (2014). Twitter for teaching: Can social media be used to enhance the process of
learning? British Journal of Educational Technology, 45(5), 902-915.
Evans in 2014 conducted a study for investigating the role of social media in improving the
process of learning. According to him, the social media has become an integral part of the life
of the students. For exploring the role of social media in teaching the students, the author
asked 252 undergraduate students pursuing degree in business management, to use Twitter
for 12 weeks to communicate with their tutor. The survey was carried out considering the
students’ experiences and attitudes and Twitter usage. The data collected were analysed using
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the factor analysis. There were three findings which emerged from the analysis. First, the
student engagement in the university associated activities and Twitter usage were found to be
positively correlated. Secondly, the students were not involved in any interpersonal tweeting
with their teachers and the tweeting was strictly related to course related materials. Third, the
class attendance of the students was not impacted by social media usage. Thus, social media
enhanced the engagement of the students and helped in better learning (Evans, 2014).
Article 3
Akram, W., & Kumar, R. (2017). A study on positive and negative effects of social media on
society. International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering, 5(10), 347-
354.
Akram and Kumar in 2017 conducted a research on understanding the positive and
negative impacts of social media on communication. Social media has become a platform for
the people to express their ideas and thoughts. The social media is transforming the way of
communication of the youth and has both positive and negative impacts on their
communication skills. The positive impacts include accessing information at any part of the
world; consulting doctors anywhere; increased accountability; freedom to express thoughts;
providing the writers a platform to write blogs and express their thoughts; and such others.
The negative impacts include that the social media reduces the command of people over the
use of language and the writing skills. The experimental writing abilities of a person decrease
through excessive use of social media (Akram & Kumar, 2017).
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