BUS500: Social Media Communication Strategy for Woolworth's Report

This report presents a proposal and subsequent analysis of implementing social media for internal communication within Woolworths. It begins with an introduction to social media and its impact on organizational communication, followed by a background on Woolworths' operations and the need for effective internal channels. The proposal outlines the benefits of social media for employee interaction, knowledge sharing, and overall business efficiency. The report then delves into the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for internal communication. Finally, it suggests the implementation of a social media platform to facilitate communication between stores and back-office employees. The report emphasizes the importance of communication in improving employee satisfaction and, consequently, customer satisfaction, highlighting the potential of social media to enhance Woolworths' competitive edge.

REPORT

Table of Contents
Assignment 2:..............................................................................................................................................1
PROPOSAL...................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction:............................................................................................................................................1
Background:.............................................................................................................................................1
Context:...................................................................................................................................................2
Proposal:..................................................................................................................................................2
Report:.........................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................................4
Communication in the organisations...........................................................................................................4
Social media as a communication tool:.......................................................................................................5
Implementation:......................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations...................................................................................................................................8
References:..............................................................................................................................................8

Assignment 2:
PROPOSAL
Introduction:
Social media refers to the medium that helps the people to make interactions with each other.
These interactions include sharing and creating of information and ideas by the networks. Some
of the social media platforms act as the medium to frames such networks. The major platforms
that are used by the users are Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube etc. Social media
use is not limited to the individual interactions but even the organisations are making use of it for
communication at internal and external level (Baruah, 2012). This is the proposal that projects
about the research and implementation of social media communication in the organisation called
Woolworth. This proposal provides the background of the research and the context of the topic.
This proposal is made to support the report that has been made in the next section of the
assessment.
Background:
Social media is the much known term these days. It is the virtual world in which people are
living a different life and thus this media is affecting the life of the people and the way they
interact with each other. Its impact is not restricted to the individuals and their communication
style but the companies and the businesses these days are also adopting new technologies to
communicate (Schmitz & Fulk, 1991). The communication with regards to business is not only
between the business and the customers but even the employees working in the organisation
needs a medium to communicate. This need has been raised up because of the enhancement and
the development of the organisations in different places and such big organisation require a
process and a technical platform to communicate internally (Skeels & Grudin, 2009, May). Thus,
it is required by the companies to implement and develop a platform that are exclusively used by
the employees of the company for making the internal communication effective. This is because
communication is the most important part of an organisational performance and effectiveness of
the communication makes the performance of the individuals effective.

Context:
Woolworth is one of the leading supermarket chain headquartered at Australia. It is the
supermarket that is leading the market since years and giving tough competition to other
competitors like Sainsbury, Coles etc (Cao, et al.2012). this company serves the customers with
almost all the products such as food products, drinks etc. it has been realised that the company is
growing year after year in terms of market share and in terms of product expansion. This
suggests that the business in increasing and hence the number of employees in the business. The
company has around 998 stores all over the Australia and thus have many employees working in
the same. As the company is so big thus it requires a better and effective communication channel
so that its employees can connect with each other. There are many communication channels that
the company can use for communicating such as emails, phones, messages etc. this company can
also make use of the social media sites for internal communication as well (Jones, et al.2004). As
Woolworth is considered as one of the most innovative firms thus it has the capability and the
requirement to make the communication better and efficient for the employees. It has been
analysed that in the organisations that serves the market with consumer products have to be more
effective and have to hire the people who have great communication skills. As per the analysis, if
the employees at the stores are satisfied, it results in satisfaction of the customers as well. This is
because employees give their 100% to satisfy the customers in such case (Leonardi, 2014). So, if
the employee engagement is required to satisfy the employees, it is required to provide them with
the platform that allow them to communicate freely within the organisation. Interaction amongst
the employees directly affects the performance of the employees at the workplace. It has been
analysed that if the employees are happy and the workplace environment is good and pleasant
than they feel motivated to work from the company also retain in the company itself (Leonardi,
Huysman & Steinfield, 2013).
Proposal:
This report below initiates with the discussion of the social media platforms and the types of
social media available that can be used for internal communication the organisation. It has been
analysed that human communication is always central to the organisation as the employees have
to communicate when work together. Thus, this requires the organisation to make use of
different communication media for different genres of communication. It focuses in the various
types of social media networking sites that helps the individual to interact and can be

implemented in the organisations like Woolworth for the internal communication of the
employees (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012). A brief description of the company has been given to
explain what the company is all about and why it requires a great internal communication
facility. The next part of the report provides the description about various journal articles that
have been discussed in assignment 1. This part provides the theoretical point of view and the
prior researches evaluation that has been conducted on social media use in the organisation. It
not only provides the information about the bright side of its use but also provides the
information about the dark side of suing social media platforms in the organisation for the
purpose of internal communication. The later part of the report focuses on the implementation. It
discusses about the social media platform that can be implemented at Woolworths to make the
communication easier from store to store. The proper communication from store to store is
required so that the employees at the store can easily make the products available for the
customers and share information with each other (Treem & Leonardi, 2013). Another important
aspect of implementing the communication platform for the employees at the back office is to
make their communication process easier. Following a formal process to communicate
information takes a lot of time and efforts and thus, it is required by them to use a more sorted
and easy way of communicating internally on the same level.
Report:
Executive summary:
Communication is the integral part of the organisation and it is required by the employees to
interact with each other in order to work effectively. This report will focus on the important of
communication and integration of social media tools in the internal communication at the
workplace. Woolworth is taken as the company for the study and the implementation part
provides the information about how this company can implement the social media networks in its
process so that its employees can make effective use of it.

Introduction:
Communication refers to the interaction between the two parties in order to share and exchange
information and ideas. This is the basic part of every one’s life and thus it is required to be
effective in nature. A communication or the conversation can be effective only if both the parties
understand the information that has been shared (Yates & Orlikowski, 1992). Communication is
not the process that takes place in between the individuals at personal level but the employees in
the organisation also have to communicate with each other regarding the work they do and
activities they perform. This is the report that focuses on implementing and using social media as
the communication too in the organisation. The organisation that has been selected for the study
is Woolworth. This organisation has been selected because it is a big firm with many
departments that needs to communicate with each other timely. The report continues with the
discussion of social media challenges that may be faced by the companies in order to use the
same for internal communication (Schermerhorn, et al. 2014). The later part throws light on the
implementation part and the last part provides the conclusion and the recommendations to the
company regarding the implementation.
Communication in the organisations
In the recent times, internal communication in the organisations has undergone many changes. It
has been realised that any of the change in the organisation affect the workplace and in turn its
employees also. Organisations are wider and global these days than before. These changes
develop pressure for the employees work in such wider organisations to take and adopt better
and more coordinated approach to work. researchers suggests that effective communication
within the organisation amongst the employees results in improved moral, development of
positive relationship between the employees and better the employees and the management of
the company, the employees become more informed etc. these goals results in shift in the
internal communication of the organisations from one way to two way (Cardon & Marshall,
2015).
Innovation in the technology has make the things bit easier for the employees in the organisation
to communicate with each other. There are many traditional mediums that were used by the
organisations to communicate within the departments or at inter department level. These medium
involve memos, emails, newsletters, telephones, online databases etc. these methods are mostly

one way and the generally the people from upper level use these mediums to communicate one
or the other information to the employees all over the organisation (Collins, Shiffman & Rock,
2016). There are some of the informal conversations that need to be made between the people at
the organisation and those conversations require the employees to get out of their desk and reach
to the target person they wants to talk to. For communicating to the superiors, it is required by
the employees wait till they call them formally and thus it results in ineffective communication.
Social media as a communication tool:
Social media as the tool for communication and information sharing is particularly important for
the members of the company who works in team or work together from distances whether in
separate sides of the office or from the other side of the planet. The traditional methods of
communication such as emails and memos are losing their place in the communication space of
the organisations (Fuchs, 2017). Many companies are supplementing email systems, and in some
cases replacing them altogether, with corporate social networks. For example, Atos looks to
completely eliminate the use of email for internal communication within the next 18 months,
giving the nod instead to instant messaging and the company’s corporate social network. These
social networks that are installed in the organisations allow the employees to post their queries,
answers, ideas, photos, videos, presentation etc. communication is not just limited to emails now
and it becomes a discussion rather than a directive meeting in which only on party of the
communication speaks.
Yammer was one of the first social networks that were released for the commercial purpose. It
has been identified that around 100,000 companies are using this platform as an internal
communication tool. Some of the other social networking tools such as Social Cast, Chatter etc.
it is not the technology that creates value for the employees through these tools but it is the type
of behaviour these tools supports and promote at the organisation and between the employees
that provides value to the communication system (Karanges, et al. 2015). These social networks
at the corporate level help in improving the knowledge sharing process and the environment of
the organisation. Most of the companies work in teams and these teams are geographically

distributed. These geographically distributed teams also require a network to communicate with
each other and social network is the perfect platform for the same. Also, the number of people in
the same field can also be linked with each other through the online medium. Communication
with regards to business is not only between the business and the customers but even the
employees working in the organisation needs a medium to communicate (Uysal, 2016). This
need has been raised up because of the enhancement and the development of the organisations in
different places and such big organisation require a process and a technical platform to
communicate internally.
There are several advantages that the company can enjoy in order to implement social media for
communication between the employees. The first advantage is that, it encourages employee
engagement in the company (Baruah, 2012). When the employees feel heard and informed, they
feel encouraged to work for the company. Most of the organisations use micro blogging or
Facebook for communicating with the employees. The groups are formed on the Facebook
corporate page and the information can be circulated in those groups. Most of the other
employers use video sharing to keep their employees up to date about the happening in the
foreign subsidiaries of the company or the other part of the company. The employees can make
use of the chat options to make small conversations and thus it helps to save the time of reaching
to that employee or conduct a meeting on a small issue (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012). Even the
information in the team can be circulated to the employees on the chat options by the team
leaders.
Implementation:
Woolworth is the company that operates in supermarket industry. It is one of the leading
supermarket chain headquartered at Australia. It is the supermarket that is leading the market
since years and giving tough competition to other competitors like Sainsbury, Coles etc. It has
been analysed that this company has its operation in all over Australia and its headquarters are at
Bella Vista, New South wales (Cao, et al.2012). The implementation of the social media network
for internal communication of employees from one store to another or in a headquarter office,
following steps needs to be followed:
Understanding the goal:

This is the step in which the company needs to identify the gaols of communication or the issues
that the employees are facing in the communication process. According to those issues the goals
needs to be framed for implementation of the new social network. In case of Woolworth, the
social network can be built for the store managers to contact each other along with the
implementation of the same network for the internal communication in the headquarters
(Leonardi, 2014).
Selection of the tool:
As Woolworth is the very big brand thus it can develop its own application or the software that
can allow some of the features just like Facebook. The features can be chat, sharing videos;
tracing the location etc. These features can help the employees to engage themselves with each
other and be informed about the occurrences in the stores. Each and every employee should have
the idea about what is happening in the other stores at that time.
Training:
As and when the software or the new application is installed, it is required by the company to
train the employees regarding its use and its featured. Training to the employees help them to
learn the features and the process to use the application or the software, ineffective training can
result in wring use of the application.
Follow up:
Follow up is also very important. It is required by the company to prepare a team who will look
for to the messages and the data that has been exchanged between the employees. That data
should be secured but needs to be recorded so that no misuse of the application can take place at
the workplace. Recording of the data also helps the stores of the company to function smoothly.
Implementation of any of the application or bringing any change in the organisation requires the
company to follow some of the steps so that the implementation can be efficient enough to bring
the expected results (Jones, et al.2004).

Conclusion:
It is concluded from the report that social media refers to the medium that helps the people to
make interactions with each other. These interactions include sharing and creating of information
and ideas by the networks. Social media has entered the communication world not only for the
individuals but also for the corporates. It has been analysed that most of the companies these
days are making use of the software and the social networking applications for internal
communication of the employees. Woolworth is the company that operates in all aver Australia
and has around 995 stores thus it is required by the company to implement such social
networking system for its store employees so that they can communicate with each other and
also with their superiors in case of any emergency. This portal can also be used to share the
information with the employees.
Recommendations
It has been recommended to the companies like Woolworth that it is require identifying the
communication issues before implementing any software tool or the social networking tool to the
companies. Another recommendation for the company is to train the employees properly before
the actual implantation of the tool. This is because if the employees are not trained then it may be
possible that the results so using such networks would not be efficient. The last recommendation
is to follow-up the whole process so that the employed cannot make mis-use of the tools and the
features available to them.
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