Using Social Media in the Workplace to Communicate: Study Based on Telstra

This report focuses on the communication through social media in the workplace, exploring the advantages and challenges of using social media in the workplace and providing recommendations for Telstra to implement social media communication for its employees. It highlights Telstra's use of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram to communicate with its employees and the impact of social media on the workplace. The report also discusses the advantages of using social media in the workplace to communicate with employees, such as unlocking the knowledge and expertise of employees and building personal relationships with co-workers. However, it also highlights the challenges of using social media in the workplace, such as privacy violation and inappropriate online behaviour. The report recommends Telstra to purchase cloud-based software, use social share content, identify key metrics to track the success of social media communication, follow up the writing and implement social media internal communication to build a strong social media presence of the company.

Running head: MGT502 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
MGT502 Business Communication
Report
Topic: Using Social Media in the workplace to communicate: Study based on Telstra
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:

MGT502 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 1
Executive Summary
This report focuses on the communication through social media in the workplace. This report
narrowly focuses on Telstra, the telecommunication company in Australia. Telstra already has
the internal communication system which helps the company to have better communication. In
the business world, social media communication between companies and employees is not one
with one-way direction. Telstra management forced the employees to follow some basic rules of
social media. Companies can directly receive feedback on their services and quickly shape their
strategies according to that. In a personal relationship, social media had added another way to
connect and communicate with our significant others. On top of that management creates a new
way to publicly show the relationship between two people. The employees expect an instant
response to our requests and messages in the virtual world and at the same time, we feel the need
to do this for the others. This report highlights the advantages and challenges of using social
media in the workplace exploring the recommendations on that. Telstra can use cloud base
software so that the company can merge the social media platforms with the software.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
The concept of Social media in workplace communication............................................................3
Advantages of using social media in the workplace to communicate with employees...................4
Challenges of using social media in the workplace.........................................................................5
Use of social media in communication by Telstra...........................................................................6
Impact of social media on the workplace to communicate with employees...................................8
Recommendations and conclusions.................................................................................................9
Reference List................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The age of the internet has changed the way the employees communicate in the
workplace and social media let the people connect with others virtually. Social media infiltrates
every side of life and in the workplace; connected existence can be both advantage and
disadvantage for the organisations. According to Mai & Hoffman (2014), using social media
communication in the workplace let the other employees know more about colleague’s personal
lives and the employees may get to inform about the customers. The purpose of the report is to
highlight the using of social media in the workplace to communicate and the report focuses on
Telstra, the communication giant in Australia. This report explores the advantages and
disadvantages of using social media communication in the workplace. Workplace
communication continues with technologies; however, without exchanging the meaningful
dialogue; the employees may unable to increase the ability to work in collaboration.
The concept of Social media in workplace communication
Workplace communication has evolved due to the introduction of the new channels of
communication and people in the workplace prefer online communication to share the
information. As stated in the article by Habibi, Laroche & Richard (2017), in the workplace,
17% of communication is expressed by the spoken words and 83% of the communication is
conveyed by body language, eye contact and online communication. Organisations make a
private group for the employees in social media platforms where the employees can comment
and share their concerns. In addition, the companies can share the notice or memorandum in the
social media group so that the communication reaches to the employees easily. The organisations
need to determine that the employees must follow the right norms in collective intelligence and

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the wrong process of working can stop the development of the team. In multinational companies,
the organisations generally use cloud-based software where the management links up the
software with social media pages. Cloud-based software like Zoho and Bitrix24 use
exceptionally well to connect the employees all over the world.
The utilisation of social media networks makes the management and employees easier to
provide information. The management can use organisational communications through the
Private Facebook page as this is connected with the employees where management sends the
notice to share the meeting benefits, open sharing of deadline and notices. In addition, the
organisations use the chat service Yammer as this is based on internal communication which
allows the information to share perfectly (Seargeant & Tagg, 2014). Moreover, Twitter and
LinkedIn platforms allow the organisations to manage the employees where the management
might share the internal communication and events with the announcement. Most importantly,
social media communication helps in remote access of the employees. Facebook and Twitter
give the advantage of using the software like Meerkat and Periscope with which the management
can train the employees remotely in real time. The employees can watch live videos, chat and
listen to with options having the live broadcast. As opined by Sunstein (2018), better internal
social media communication of the organisations result in removing the issues among the
employees.
Advantages of using social media in the workplace to communicate with employees
Social media is increasingly gaining the attention among the organisations to
communicate within the workplace and the organisations make the online community to carry an
influential voice to engage the employees with the people through different channels. As stated

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by Fuchs (2017), in the workplace, 61% of employees use social media and 30% of the
employee's post on social media daily. In addition, Facebook is the most popular social media
channel among the employees in the workplace. According to Kernbach, Eppler & Bresciani
(2015), using social media helps to unlock the knowledge and expertise of the employees by
allowing the employees to share the answers, questions and valuable information. The authors
further stated that social media networks unleash diverse thinking creativity and innovation of
the employees. The multinational organisations share the information through social networking
platforms so that the employees from different regions could get the information as it helps to
generate revenue and leads. Large organisations use cloud-based software aligning with
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; therefore, the employees can get the information and
notifications through all the social media platforms by improving agility, speed and efficiency.
Multinational companies get the benefits of eliminating regional and global communication
barriers.
The organisations use social media analytics to share the information, videos and images
on social media platforms doing an analysis of the needs of employee engagement. Employee
engagement can be done by aligning the communication with the employees in the right way as
allowing the employees for social media communication to take the mental break (Majchrzak et
al., 2013). Social media communication ensures the employees can take the support of the
professional connections where the employees can ask the queries to solve the work-related
problem. In addition, social media communication builds and strengths the personal relationship
of co-workers with the employees. Ultimately, the employees get a chance to enhance the
information discovery and delivery through social media fast.

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Challenges of using social media in the workplace
If the management allows the employees to use social media at the workplace; the
employees can spend hours on social media networks without doing their work and they can
spend time chatting with friends and family. The management cannot monitor the use of social
media in the workplace. Therefore, the inordinate time will be lost by spending time on social
media. As pointed out by Leftheriotis & Giannakos (2014), employees can post about current
and former employers and these posts can damage the employers' reputation. Before leaving the
organisations; the employees can post something obscene and confidential matter in the public
community through social media; therefore, this personal grudge will open the secret of the
organisations. Leaking some secret information on social media page can harm the business
communication and the employers need to take up the additional measure by taking crisis
communication seriously. Additionally, employees can harass the fellow employees just by
posting some obscene on social networking page and HR of the organisations should take the
actions if something like this happens. Large organisations have some rules regarding the use of
social media in the workplace and employers can charge the employees if the employees break
the rules of the organisation. Privacy violation and discrimination and interference are some of
the issues which can be brought in front of the organisations (Leonardi, Huysman & Steinfield,
2013).
Online communication is more like an informal communication where the employees
may tend to use the inappropriate online behaviour (Huang, Baptista & Galliers, 2013). Online
communication is very much depended on the employees and brand reputation is at the stake
when the employees post something inappropriate in front of the public.

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Use of social media in communication by Telstra
Telstra uses communication channels like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram in
order to communicate with the employees. In each of the social media platforms, Telstra has its
own private official page through which they communicate with the employees. Telstra believes
that it is important to represent what the organisation stands for. Telstra has its idea centre named
Telstra Exchange and it plays a huge part in sharing the vision of the company. Telstra Exchange
is the communication channel which provides the insights, news and opinions through
technologies. In addition, employees expect the transparency which shares exactly what the
management provides for them (Telstra.com.au, 2018). Telstra has a feedback centre where the
employees and customers both can share the issues. Moreover, Telstra has 24*7 Facebook Page
where the employees can share their concerns. Telstra also has CrowdSupport community which
helps the employees to get in contact with them.
Telstra understands the difference between speaking on behalf of Telstra and speaking
about Telstra. Social media communication of Telstra coordinates to deliver the experience to the
employees. Corporate Affairs of Telstra accredits some of the employees to speak on behalf of
the organisation and the employees can use their own social media account to talk about Telstra
(Telstra.com.au, 2018). Representation stands in the business communication of Telstra using
social media to share the information and the employees must need to imply on speaking on
behalf of the organisation. Telstra needs to take the privacy on a serious note and Telstra tries to
keep the personal information off from social media, including Cliq, Yammer and PeerSupport.
Respect is another rule in Telstra where the employees have to be polite, respectful and nice
when interacting with the people. The employees must put themselves devoid by posting
negative comments.

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Impact of social media on the workplace to communicate with employees
Each of the business organisations has existing social media platforms in order to
communicate with the customers; however, the organisations create his or her own internal
communication platforms merging the software with social media platform (Ft.com, 2018).
Telstra may think that using Facebook or Twitter in the workplace can lead the employees to be
unproductive, waste of time and distracted. Therefore, Telstra can opt to make their own
communication system using social media platforms. Social media platforms play important role
in many of the employees' lives as they connect with other employees through social media
platforms. It is an important part to stay connected with the employees with a powerful tool and
Telstra can bring the values to a life of the employees through giving them chance to stay active
on social media where they can stay connected with friends and families. This social media break
in the hectic schedule of work life will provide fresh opportunity to have a mental break from the
work. As published in the article of Financial Times (2018), Telstra has its own set of Social
Media Codes so that the employees must feel confident about what they are posting about
Telstra’s products and services as Telstra has 3Rs of social media engagement; Representation,
Respect and Responsibility.
Telstra’s internal communication through social media has the capability to provide
employee satisfaction and profits. Telstra’s internal communication system can provide the faster
decision-making without waiting for the face-to-face meeting. As pointed out by Vaast &
Kaganer (2013), social media communication makes easier collaboration on the projects so that
they can rely on the different individuals which would allow the staffs to track along with
records progress in one place. Social media communication gives greater recognition of the
employees as it gets easier to feedback once the project gets reviewed. Internal social media

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communication can boost the employee satisfaction when the management would share
admirable for the employees.
Recommendations and conclusions
Telstra forced the employees with a guideline about how to behave and conduct on social
networking sites Facebook and Twitter. This six pages guideline for the employees consists of
three major principles like representation, responsibility and respect. The guideline talks about
accuracy when expressing the opinions of the employees. Telstra has the social media internal
communication system in previous occasions and the management cannot ignore the social
media communication tool. Telstra will get an advantage if they implement the social media
communication for the employees as it can engage the employees. Telstra should encourage the
staffs to learn the social media rules as it is an integral part of the communication both with the
company and the outside world.
First of all, Telstra can purchase the domain of cloud-based software and each of the members
needs to enrol their names in the software. This software provides help in sharing the
information, keeping daily data of working hours and helps to locate the project management
tools.
Telstra should use social share content as it helps to share the content on cloud-based software
and this software will help to share the content on social media networking platform.
Telstra should identify the key metrics to track the success of social media communication
system by aligning the social media with cloud-based software

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Telstra management needs to follow up the writing and prior to the meeting, social media
internal communication system will help the management to concise the notes to keep the
information fresh.
Most importantly, social media internal communication will help to build the strong social media
presence of the company and the company will find the strong target customers.

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Reference List
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workplace. Information, Communication & Society, 16(10), 1639-1667.
Financial Time. 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.ft.com/content/d8734dfc-2dca-11de-9eba-
00144feabdc0
Fuchs, C., 2017. Social media: A critical introduction. London: Sage.
Habibi, M. R., Laroche, M., & Richard, M. O. (2014). The roles of brand community and
community engagement in building brand trust on social media. Computers in Human
Behavior, 37, 152-161.
Huang, J., Baptista, J., & Galliers, R. D. (2013). Reconceptualizing rhetorical practices in
organizations: The impact of social media on internal communications. Information &
Management, 50(2-3), 112-124.
Kernbach, S., Eppler, M. J., & Bresciani, S. (2015). The use of visualization in the
communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation. International Journal
of Business Communication, 52(2), 164-187.
Leftheriotis, I., & Giannakos, M. N. (2014). Using social media for work: Losing your time or
improving your work?. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 134-142.
Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise social media: Definition,
history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), 1-19.

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Mai, R., & Hoffmann, S. (2014). Accents in business communication: An integrative model and
propositions for future research. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24(1), 137-158.
Majchrzak, A., Faraj, S., Kane, G. C., & Azad, B. (2013). The contradictory influence of social
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Sergeant, P., & Tagg, C. (Eds.). (2014). The language of social media: Identity and community
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Sunstein, C. R. (2018). # Republic: Divided democracy in the age of social media. London:
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Telstra Social Media Communication. (2018) Retrieved from:
https://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/media/social-media
Vaast, E., & Kaganer, E. (2013). Social media affordances and governance in the workplace: An
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