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

This article discusses the role of social media in workplace communication, using L'Oreal as a case study. It explores the benefits of social media for communication, including faster decision-making and internal transparency. The article also provides recommendations for effective social media use in the workplace.

Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA 0
Loreal
Business communication (assessment 2)

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Concept of social media........................................................................................................................3
Role of social media in the workplace for communication....................................................................4
Role of social media in L’Oreal.............................................................................................................5
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Social media is an essential tool in order to make the communication effective and faster. In
today’s fast changing and complex business environment, several changes occur quickly.
Therefore, it is required by the organizations to implement those strategies that help in fast
transferring of information, ideas, and knowledge. Communication through digital
technology helps the organization in taking fast decision. Whenever organizations are
required to take fast decision, social media is quite helpful. In addition to faster decision-
making, social media also help in conveying the several information’s and changes that are
going on. Social media also ensure the internal transferring of information regarding the
organizations policies, rules, and regulations to the newly employed employees (Cardon &
Marshall, 2015). For completing the task, L’Oreal organization is chosen. L’Oreal is one of
the most reputed cosmetic brands that are operating across different parts of the world.
Besides, this also, company faces several issues due to the use of social media sites at
workplace. However, in order to address the issue, recommendations are presented in the
report. Recommendations are provided to address the issue that can occur by using social
media sites (Forsgren & Byström, 2018).
Concept of social media
A computer based technology that helps in facilitating the sharing of knowledge, information,
and ideas. It also helps in building the network among various people. It offers various
communication advantages and sharing of contents (videos, photos) and personal
information. The user of social media engages through tablet, computer or smartphone, web
application or web based software. As per Ashley & Tuten, (2015), social media is the most
popular communication tool that is used by today’s business organizations for
communication. In recent time, every organization uses the social media but only some of the
organizations are able to get the productivity by making effective use of social media.
However, among those successful organizations, L’Oreal is one such organization that
effectively uses the social media. It truly understands the importance of social media in the
workplace for communication purpose (Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014). Whenever any
employee comes in the organization, he or she is not aware of the organization rule, policies
or people. Therefore, in this case social media is of great importance. It is also not possible
for big organizations to take the personal meeting with every newly employed employee. In

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this situation, social media helps the organization to communicate the organizational policies,
rules, regulations with the employee. L’Oreal also uses the social media so that fast decision
can be taken in case of emergency. Besides this, social media also creates a sense of
belonging within all the employees in organization (Dyer, 2011).
Social media also facilitates the continuous flow of information from one person to another.
Through social media, smooth and fast flow of information can be possible (El Ouirdi, El
Ouirdi, Segers & Henderickx, 2015). Numerous social media sites and Facebook pages help
the organization in updating their employees regarding the current changes happening inside
and outside the organization. It is true that most of the employees desire to know what is
going internally in the organization. Therefore, social media tool helps in creating the internal
transparency that results in greater satisfaction among the employees. Dyer, (2011) stated that
social media not just limited to branding and marketing. It also assists in communicating the
messages within the whole organization. It also believes that it is cost effective tool as
compare to the traditional tools such as email. In today’s complex business environment,
companies are required to use the social media as communication tool at workplace.
Role of social media in the workplace for communication
Social media plays an essential role for communicating in a better way at workplace. It
provides the easy path in organization to communicate across various departments. It is a
powerful tool in communicating at workplace (Carlson, Zivnuska, Harris, Harris & Carlson,
2016). This tool is especially helpful when employees work from distance or in different
departments of the organization. Social media provides the easy flow of information to the
employees at workplace. Besides this, employees also are updated regarding new information
that is essential for the employee to know. Social media helps in creating the positive
environment at the workplace by communicating in a better way among all the employees.
Through social media, companies also able to recruit the talented and skilled workforce at
workplace. For this, organization required the proper social media strategy so that quick
transfer of information can be possible. In this way, social media holds the great importance
in those organizations who are operating at different places. Today’s business environment is
also fast changing (Leonardi & Vaast, 2017). In this case, social media plays an essential role
in giving success to the organization. Thorough social media, organizations are able to
communicate in many people at shorter time duration.

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Role of social media in L’Oreal
 Official website of organization holds an important place in communicating among
different departments at one time. In order to remove the communication barrier, L’Oreal has
created a website for internal communication. The communication team at organization helps
in developing the good relationship with media and thus implement the corporate social
responsibility. Solution of all the problems is the main aspect of this strategy (Ngai, Tao &
Moon, 2015). As result of this strategy, all the queries of the employees are solved in an
effective and efficient manner.
 L’Oreal also has its person and official website from where employees get updates
regarding the current changes and trends going on in the organization. with the help of its
official site, employees come to know the information regarding various current events of the
company.
 It is essential for the company to inform the new employees regarding various things
of the organization. It is essential because when productivity is only possible when
employees are well informed and aware about the rules and regulations. By keeping this in
mind, L’Oreal launched the HR app in order to help the newly employed employees in the
organization (Fuchs, 2017). The name of social media technology that L’Oreal has launched
is “fit culture app.” This app is developed by the organization to support new employees
when they newly enter in the organization. Through this, employees come to know about the
organizational culture so that they communicate in a better way.
 The business of L’Oreal is diversifies due to its operation and supply of products in
different parts of the world. It required the L’Oreal to communicate timely in order to avoid
the hindrance in its functioning. It is also not possible for L’Oreal to meet personally with
each employee (Turban et al, 2017). Therefore, it makes use of its personal website for
transferring the ideas or any information. This facilitates the quick transfer of information to
many people at one time.
 It also uses Yammer for the purpose of internal communication in the organization. It
assist the organization in sharing information by the help of mobile app. It ensures the easy
way of transferring the information to the employees in shorter time duration. It adds several
benefits in the company due to its easy access available to the employees.
 Communication through Email also ensured the faster communication in L’Oreal.
Various advantages generated by using email for communication purpose. It helps in easy

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transfer of information and information is reached to many employees at one time. It also
saves the printing cost of company by sending information at one time.
 By creating the network through intranet, L’Oreal is able to manage the techniques of
digital communication. This private network provides the valuable information to the
employees reading the new policies of HR (Sadamcik, 2017). With the help of intranet,
employees can also share their views regarding various things. All the shared views are taken
into consideration by the organization.
 In L’Oreal, social media tool is also used to punish or reward the employee. With the
help of social media, employees are updated regarding the new roles that are given to them.
Employees in today’s time are addicted to social media so they can check the notifications
quickly when any information is sent to them (Wicks, 2015). When employees are reward for
their good performance on the social media sites, their morale already increases.
 The use of social media in workplace increases the engagement of employees at
workplace. In order to create a sense of belongingness and community in business, it uses
social media. The use of hash tags helps in creating this. Besides this, it has also started a
campaign through which employees are encouraged to express their ideas and experiences. It
assists and benefit the company in increasing the employee’s engagement in order to
understand the brand effectively as well as customers knows the value of its brand product.
 In addition to use the twitter for public purpose, it also uses twitter for sharing the
other information related to new implemented policies. Team also uses the twitter page to
collaborate and encourage. This helps in developing the teamwork. Besides this, employees
are also free to comment about their feelings on the post (Simpson, 2015). However, there are
certain conditions given to employees regarding using the social media strategy in
organization.
 Blog of the company also helps the employees to get update regarding the important
information. It helps the company to get involved the workers regarding the changes in
policy, getting direction as well as in knowing the company strategy. Strategy related to
social media helps the employees in communicating the changing positions, roles in
organization.
Recommendations
In today’s time, social media proves the effective tool for communication purpose. After this
also, organizations have to face various issues in the organization. Therefore, to address these

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issues, organization should recruit the effective person who has the knowledge of handling all
the social media sites. L’Oreal has also launched a “fit cultural app” for newly employees. In
order to boost the morale of employees, it should also start the proper training session for the
newly appointed employees so that they will better understand the rules and regulations of
organization. Besides this, top management also faces the disturbance due to the continuous
query raised the employees. In order to remove this barrier, it can decide a specific time for
solving the queries of employees. However, it should solve the urgent query of employees.
Besides this, in fast changing environment time-to-time training is required by the employees
to take so that employees come to know about the changes. Besides this, information can also
leak from the social media sites. In order to avoid this, it can make some strict rules for the
proper use of information available on social media site. This will assist the company in
smooth functioning. Additionally, it can also adopt social media policy to set the limit under
which the employees will use social media sites.
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that social media proves to be
effective tool in the organization for communication purpose. It is not only the medium of
publicity but also use in effective sharing of knowledge and idea among various departments
of the organization. It is not possible for the top management to ensure the personal meeting
with each of the employees. Therefore, in this case social media is the effective
communication tool. Various social media sites are used by the business organization to
communicate internally. Among all the social media sites, official website of company and
intranet is more useful. Through social media, quick transfer of information is possible as
compare to any other mode of communication. L’Oreal also effectively uses the social media
for communication purpose. It helps the company to quickly transfer the information
regarding various things. It also helps in solving the queries of employees faster. Therefore,
in the 21st century, it is necessary to keep the employees aware about the changes that are
occurring in the outside environment. All these updates are possible with the help of social
media only.

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References
Ashley, C., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology &
Marketing, 32(1), 15-27.
Cardon, P. W., & Marshall, B. (2015). The hype and reality of social media use for work
collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business
Communication, 52(3), 273-293.
Carlson, J. R., Zivnuska, S., Harris, R. B., Harris, K. J., & Carlson, D. S. (2016). Social
Media Use in the Workplace: A Study of Dual Effects. Journal of Organizational
and End User Computing (JOEUC), 28(1), 15-31.
Dyer, P. (2011). Using social media as a communication tool. Retrieved from:
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/using-social-media-communication-tool-
infographic
El Ouirdi, A., El Ouirdi, M., Segers, J., & Henderickx, E. (2015). Employees' use of social
media technologies: a methodological and thematic review. Behaviour &
Information Technology, 34(5), 454-464.
Forsgren, E., & Byström, K. (2018). Multiple social media in the workplace: Contradictions
and congruencies. Information Systems Journal, 28(3), 442-464.
Fuchs, C. (2017). Social media: A critical introduction. London: Sage.
Leftheriotis, I., & Giannakos, M. N. (2014). Using social media for work: Losing your time
or saving the time. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Leonardi, P. M., & Vaast, E. (2017). Social media and their affordances for organizing: A
review and agenda for research. Academy of Management Annals, 11(1), 150-188.
Ngai, E. W., Tao, S. S., & Moon, K. K. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs,
and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information
Management, 35(1), 33-44.

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Sadamcik. (2017). The L’Oréal Group: Building an online community one hashtag at a time.
Retrieved from: https://smbp.uwaterloo.ca/2017/02/the-loreal-group-building-an-
online-community-one-hashtag-at-a-time/
Simpson, J. (2015). How L’oreal uses social media to increase employee engagement.
Retrieved from: https://econsultancy.com/how-l-oreal-uses-social-media-to-
increase-employee-engagement/
Simpson, J. (2015). How L’Oréal uses social media to increase employee engagement.
Retrieved from: https://econsultancy.com/how-l-oreal-uses-social-media-to-
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Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J. K., Liang, T. P., & Turban, D. C. (2017). Electronic
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https://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/role-social-media-marketing-
business