Role of Social Media in Workplace Communication: L'Oreal Case Study

This report discusses the role of social media in workplace communication through the L'Oreal case study. It explains the concept of social media and its importance in today's fast-changing business environment. The report highlights the various social media sites that L'Oreal uses for smooth functioning of the organization. It also provides recommendations to remove the issues faced by organizations regarding the misuse of social media. The subject is business communication and the course code is not mentioned. The college/university is not mentioned.

Running Head: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 0
Business communication- assessment 2 “B”

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Introduction
Social media is an important tool to make the communication faster and efficient. In
today’s fast changing environment, various new changes occur frequently therefore it is
needed for the organisation to implement such strategies that leads to faster transfer of ideas,
information and knowledge. Digital communication in the organisation enables the faster
communication at workplace. Many organisations are successful by using effective social
media techniques in the organisation for communicating at workplace. The use of social
media sites lead to faster decision-making in the organisation. Besides using digital
communication strategy for faster decision-making, organisation have to convey various
changes and information regarding organisation policies to the employees and different
stakeholders. The report is prepared on the L’Oreal in which the role of social media in the
organisation for communicating at workplace is explained. It focuses on the various social
media sites that can be used in businesses for smooth functioning of the organisation. L’Oreal
is the most valued cosmetic brand of the world due to its effective strategies and better
communication techniques. However, sometimes company face several issues from social
media sites in the workplace. Therefore, to remove these issues recommendations are
provided so that efficient communication can be taken at workplace.

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Concept of social media
Social media is a computer-based technology that facilitates transferring of
information from one place to another in effective way. In today’s business environment, the
complex situation arises that requires the hasty actions from the organisation. In this case,
social media proves effective medium for quick sharing of information and ideas. According
to Merrell, (2013) social media is a best way to involve employees in the organisation for
sharing information, news, or resources. In recent days almost all the organisation uses social
media but only few is able to generate the productivity by making effective use of social
media sites. L’Oreal is one of the best organisations that make productive use of social
media. From the report, it is founded that L’Oreal is the first organisation who started using
social media to support new employees in the organisation. It is understood that when new
employees join the organisation, it is essential for them to get familiar with the organisation
environment. However, it is not possible for big organisations to take orientation training for
each of the employee personally. In this case, social media proves to be effective to familiar
the employees regarding rules, regulations, policies of the organisation (Safko, 2010) Besides
this, social media is an effective way to update employees regarding the changing policies or
any expectations. L’Oreal uses social media that in turn benefits the organisation to take
quick decision in case of emergency. The use of social media in L’Oreal creates a sense of
belonging among employees.
Communication through social media at workplace facilitates smooth and fast flow of
the communication among employees. Facebook pages and various other social media sires
keep employees update with the current changes and event that act a sort of interaction
among workers in various offices. In this way, social media can be source of avenue for
creating a sense of affirmation among business partners and employees (Vaast & Kaganer,
2013). It is clear that “happy employees are more productive employees,” as a result it leads
to creativity and success at organisation. However, companies who are more active on social
media likely to have more status in the outside environment that in turn helps to recruit best
talent from outside. Communication through social media helps the business to gain various
ideas from different employees. If organisation is facing any problem, it can get the
assistance from the employees by updating them regarding the problem (Fuchs, 2017).

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Role of social media in workplace to communicate
Social media plays an important role in workplace to communicate with employees in
various departments. As the role of communication technology is constantly changing that
requires the organisation to create such environment in which innovative ideas and
information is shared (Wicks, 2015). The use of social media provides easy access to the
employees regarding any new update that require by the employee to know. Social media
creates positive environment in the organisations by creating sense of belonging among
employees. With using social media at organisation, it can recruit efficient and skilled person
in the organisation. For communicating effectively within the workplace, it is necessary for
the organisation to have effective social media strategies do that faster transfer of information
and ideas is to be done. In this way, social media is essential in those organisations that
operate in various places. In today’s fast changing business environment, social media plays
an important part for the success of any organisation.
In this way, the role of social media is essential for the organisation to communicating
effectively with employees at any time (Haddud, Dugger & Gill, 2016). Due to its easy
access, employees are updated regarding various new things going on in the environment.
Role of social media at L’Oreal
 It has created a website for corporate communication. In this, the corporate
communication teams develop the reputation by creating awareness at organisation. In this
communication technique, teams develop relations with the media and implement the
corporate social responsibility. Solving crisis is the main base of this strategy. It enables the
organisation to solve the queries of the employees so that they can work effectively.
 It is necessary for the organisation to help the new hiring regarding the culture of the
organisation. When employees are familiar with the organisation and people who are working
there, it leads to productivity in the organisation. L’Oreal launches an HR app to help the new
entrant of the organisation. L’Oreal generated a social media technology named as “fit culture
app.” Through media report, it is founded that L’Oreal HR team developed an app to support
the employees regarding the culture of the organisation; this helps the organisation to
communicate at workplace (Ganesan, 2017).
 L’Oreal has its own website that helps the employees in keeping them update
regarding any changes that are occurring in the organisation. Through this website,

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employees come to know about recent changes made by the organisation. Besides knowing
about changes, they come to know about the event that are going on in the company.
 As business of L’Oreal operates in different place and it requires the L’Oreal to
communicate time to time with them. It is not possible to communicate personally so L’Oreal
makes use of its personal website in spreading the information. This facilitates the quick
transfer of information that leads to smooth functioning of the organisation (Stirly, 2018).
 L’Oreal business is using yammer for internally communicating with the employees.
It allows them to share the information through the mobile app. It facilities the easy way of
communicating with employees in real time. It added various benefits to the L’Oreal due to
its easy access with the employees at workplace (L’Oreal, 2018).
 The use of Email is proved faster communication channel in the L’Oreal. It gets many
advantages by using it. It proves to be easy for communicating with anyone at the
organisation in real time. Through Email, messages are sent faster by saving the printing cost
of the organisation.
 L’Oreal effectively manages the use of digital communication techniques. By creating
the private network through intranet. It provides the useful information regarding the new HR
policies. Through intranet, employees of the organisation can share their views (Taurasi,
2015). The views that are shared by the employees are taken into consideration that results in
beneficial for the organisation.
 Annual report is also a type of communication strategy through which employees get
to know about the financial performance of the organisation, it is required by the organisation
to convey the useful information to the employees so that they can work accordingly. In this
case, annual report of the company proves to be beneficial for the organisation.
 In L’Oreal, social media helps the organisation to reward or punish the employees.
Using social media, it updates the employees regarding the new roles that are assigned to
them. Most of the people these days addicted to social media sites due to which they can see
the notification quickly sent by the organisation (Stevenson, 2018). It believes that rewarding
the employees on social media sites of its company helps in boosting the morale of
employees as well as productivity.
 L’Oreal uses social media to increase the engagement of employees. It is using social
media to create a sense of community in the business. For communicating various things,
L’Oreal uses hash tags in order to create community. It started a campaign in which
employees are encouraged to share their experiences. It helps the company to increasing its

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employee’s engagement to understand the brand better as well customers to know the value
of their product.
 Besides using twitter for public, it has twitter to share private information regarding
benefits and new policies of the organisation. Departments and teams use this page to
encourage and collaborate. This helps in getting together and uploading the information that
develops teamwork. By seeing the information, employees of the organisation can comment
about their feeling regarding the post (Baruach, 2012).
 Blogs of the organisation help the workers to stay updated regarding the significant
information. By using the blogs, it helps the L’Oreal to involve workers in company strategy,
policy changes, and direction (Sponder, 2011). Social media strategy communicates the
employees regarding the position of company and their role in helping the company in getting
this position.
 The use of You Tube is done effectively in L’Oreal. It created a channel in which
employees can subscribe and upload their own video. This helps the company to make their
employees feel motivated. Through using this social media site, employee can connect to the
outside environment and know their feedback that in turn helps the employee to increase the
productivity accordingly.
Recommendations
The use of social media proves to be effective for the organisation these days. In spite
of this, organisation faces several issues regarding the misuse of social media. So in order to
remove the issues faced by organisation, company should appoint a technical person for the
continuous check of these sites. Besides this, as L’Oreal has launched the “fit cultural app”
for the new entrant. Therefore, to keep employees motivated, it should start a training session
for these employees so that they can understand it better. In additional to this, sometimes top
management faces the disturbance due to any query raised by the employee so to remove this,
it should specify a timing regarding any query except the urgent query of the employee.
It should start the training session time-to-time so that employees can learn new skills. By
proving twitter account information, it can happen that they leak the personal information. In
this case, company can make strict rules for the proper use of the sites. This can help the
company to ensure smooth functioning in the organization. Therefore, to remove the misuse

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of the social media in the organisation, it should adopt a policy for this that describes the limit
under which social media sites will be used.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is concluded that social media is effective
communication technique for today’s businesses. In complex business environment, it is
required by the organisation to communicate time-to-time with employees. However, it is not
possible for organisations to meet employees personally. In this situation, social media proves
to be an effective way. In today’s business environment, the complexity in business situation
requires to communicate quickly within various departments and with employees. Using
various social media sites, companies can keep employees updated regarding various changes
and events going on in organisation. Using Social media, communication is done quickly
than using any other mode of communication. L’Oreal uses various social media sites in its
business for communication purpose. Quick communication through its various social media
sites helps the L’Oreal to take quick decisions and thus solve the queries of employees at
employee’s faster. Therefore, in 21st century businesses, it is required to keep the employees
updated regarding various changes going on in environment and this can be possible with
using social media.

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References
Baruach, T.D. (2012). Effectiveness of social media as a tool of communication and its
potential for technology enabled connections. International Journal of Scientific and
Research Publication. 2(5).
Fuchs, C. (2017). Social media: A critical introduction. California: Sage.
Haddud, A., Dugger, J.C., & Gill, Preet. (2016). Exploring the impact of Internal Social
Media Usage on Employee Engagement. Journal of Social Media for Organizations.
3(1).
Loreal. (2018). Corporate Communication. Retrieved from:
https://www.loreal.hk/en-hk/careers/whoyoucanbe/communication/comm-corporate
Merrell, J.M. (2013). The Power of Social Media for Workplace Communication. Retrieved
from: https://workology.com/social-media-enterprise-communciation/
Safko, L. (2010). The social media bible: tactics, tools, and strategies for business success.
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Sponder, M. (2011). Social Media Analytics: Effective Tools for Building, Interpreting, and
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Stevenson, M. (2018). Embracing social media as a means to achieve employee engagement.
Retrieved from:
https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/employee-engagement/articles/embracing-
social-media-as-a-means-to-achieve
Stirly. (2018). L’Oreal Creates a World First Within Social Media to Support New
Employees. Retrieved from: https://smbp.uwaterloo.ca/2018/02/loreal-creates-a-
world-first-within-social-media-to-support-new-employees/
Taurasi, L. (2015). 7 Ways to Use Social Media for Employee Communications. Retrieved
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communications

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Vaast, E., & Kaganer, E. (2013). Social media affordances and governance in the workplace:
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