Analyzing Social Media's Impact on Business Communication Strategies

This essay examines the significant influence of social media on both internal and external business communication within organizations. It explores how social media platforms enhance communication between top management and employees, highlighting the effectiveness of tools like Facebook at Work and Facebook groups for information dissemination, time-saving, and improved employee engagement. The essay also discusses the impact of social media on external communication, focusing on how companies utilize platforms like Facebook and Instagram to promote products, gather customer feedback, conduct surveys, and manage recruitment processes. While acknowledging potential negative aspects such as information leakage and brand image concerns, the essay concludes that social media has a predominantly positive impact, fostering long-term growth and operational efficiency. The author provides a self-reflection, emphasizing the importance of social media for effective communication and sharing personal observations on its benefits and challenges. References to relevant academic sources support the analysis.

Running head: Business Communication
Business Communication

Business Communication
Social media has a great influence on internal and external communication
In the present scenario, it can be evaluated that social media plays a great role in
enhancing the communication between the employees and with the customers. Internal
communication is the communication that takes place with the top management and the
employees. External communication takes place with the customers and suppliers (Schivinski
and Dabrowski, 2016). It is seen that social media helps the company to communicate with both
the customers and employees in an effective manner but it can be analyzed, that Social media
also give negative influence on the business communication. Through social media sometimes,
the productivity of the employees hampers and there is more chance of private information
leakage through social media (Kwahk and Park, 2016).
Therefore, in this paper, the discussion will be on the social media that has a great
influence on the internal and external communication of the company. Internal communication
takes into consideration top management and the employees. Social media has an internal
influence and in the recent scenario, communication is more effective if a comparison is made
with the older one like through group emails, the top management can convey the information.
By considering the social media, it can be easy for the company or the top management to
convey the information in a proper manner (Mishra, Boynton, and Mishra, 2014). Especially it
has been evaluated that the large companies consider social platform to interact with the
employees.
Recently Facebook launched an application, which is named as Facebook at work, which
helps the users to open the company accounts. The companies who have more than 100
employees are using this feature so that communication can take place in a proper manner. In
addition, the small companies make Facebook groups with the employees through that the
information is transferred to a large number of employees in a second. It not only helps to save
time by giving information to a large audience but also saves the time of the top management
(Kwiatkowski, 2017).

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(Source: Kakroo, 2015).
However, through social media, many companies also faced an issue like leakage of
information, which give adverse impact on the activities of the company. Nevertheless, if the
focus is given to the overall impact it can be seen that social media has a positive influence more
as compared to the negative impact on the internal communication.
Social media has an influence on the external communication. External communication is
related to the interaction made with the suppliers and customers. Social media is a platform
through which the company can promote the product and can communicate the message related
to the product with the large audience in a less time. The cost, which is incurred at the time of
communicating with the suppliers and customers, is also high but through social media, the cost
is low as the information is transferred to a large audience. Social media is a platform through

Business Communication
which the products and services are also promoted in a proper way. Now a day's people use
Facebook and many other social sites, through which they can gain the knowledge. The company
focuses on social networking sites and tries to contact the customers so that growth can be
achieved.
Through social sites, only the customers give feedback to the company and they focus on
their feedback. If the customers give positive feedback then the company takes it as an
appreciation and if negative feedback is given company tries to improve the issue faced by the
customers. The company can interact in a proper way and can evaluate the needs and wants of
the customers (Blaschke and Schoeneborn, 2016). The requirement of the customers can only be
analyzed by the company through feedback and by conducting the survey through social media.
Like on Instagram many companies select the poll option between the products that help them to
take a correct decision in context to the products (Dwyer, 2012). This also helps in analyzing the
requirements of the customers. The best thing about social media platform is that companies get
to know the exact position of the company by analyzing the mindset of the customers. The
company tries to communicate with the customers on the social platform. The queries and
complaints are also solved on this platform, which helps to enhance the satisfaction level of the
customers, and the information can be gathered in a proper way (Austin and Pinkleton, 2015).
Social media is also a platform that helps to conduct recruitment and selection process of
the company. Through this platform, the company can externally select or search for the eligible
candidates. The company focuses on conducting recruitment process and they conduct the
preliminary round in which analyzes of the candidate are made. The company can recruit or
select the candidate on a global basis with the help of social media. They can interact with the
people who are interested in the job opening and can solve their queries related to the job post
(Habermas, 2015). For example: Deloitte offers an application form on their website as well as
on their page through which the interested candidate can fill the forms. Through this, the
company can select the talented candidate for the job opening. However, many negative aspects
can also be evaluated. It is seen that company brand image can be spoiled if customers are giving
negative comments on Facebook. The response given by the company can also be taken in a
negative manner that gives adverse impact on the activities and image of the company. By

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analyzing these points, it can be said that there is a positive influence of social media on external
business communication.
By evaluating the paper, it can be concluded that through social media the company can
easily achieve long-term growth and can conduct the activities with more efficiency. Hence, it is
seen that social media platform gives positive influence of the external and internal business
communication.
Self-reflection
In my view, it can be said that social media has a great influence on internal and external
communication. I have seen that without the use of social media it can be difficult for the
company to communicate effectively. I believe that the application which is launched recently
by Facebook helps the users to open the company accounts. The companies who have more than
100 employees are using this feature. This is one of the best ways that company should focus on
so that communication can take place in an effective manner. I have observed that in small
companies Facebook groups with the employees are made through that the information is
transferred to a large number of employees in a second. It assists in saving time and the
information is transferred easily. This is one of the effective examples which I have discussed in
this paper.
Also in this paper I have analyzed that, through social media, many companies face a
problem related to leakage of information, which give adverse impact on the activities of the
company. Nevertheless, if the focus is given to the overall impact it can be seen that social media
has a positive influence more as compared to the negative impact on the internal communication.
When I have given focus on external communication, I have analyzed that Social media
has an influence on the external communication as well. External communication is related to the
communication made with the suppliers and customers. Social media is a platform through
which it can be easy for the company to sale the products to large audience in a less time. The
cost, which is incurred at the time of communicating with the suppliers and customers, is also
high but through social media, the cost is low as the information is transferred to a large
audience. I have observed that Social media is a platform of promoting the products in an easy
manner. I have seen that now a day's people use Facebook and many other social sites, through

Business Communication
which they can gain the knowledge. When I browse the sites there are many promotions done by
the companies and from that I can get knowledge. Therefore by analyzing this I can say that
social media platform gives positive influence of the external and internal business
communication.
References
Austin, E.W. and Pinkleton, B.E., 2015. Strategic public relations management: Planning and
managing effective communication campaigns (Vol. 10). Routledge.
Blaschke, S. and Schoeneborn, D. eds., 2016. Organization as communication: Perspectives in
dialogue. Taylor & Francis.
Dwyer, J., 2012. Communication for Business and the Professions: Strategies and Skills. Pearson
Higher Education AU.
Habermas, J., 2015. Communication and the Evolution of Society. John Wiley & Sons.

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Kakroo,U.,2015. Social media has impacted company communications.[Online] Brandaname.
Available at: http://www.brandanew.co/3-ways-in-which-social-media-has-impacted-company-
communications. [Accessed on 17 May, 2018].
Kwahk, K.Y. and Park, D.H., 2016. The effects of network sharing on knowledge-sharing
activities and job performance in enterprise social media environments. Computers in Human
Behavior, 55, pp.826-839.
Kwiatkowski, C., 2017. Effective Communication as a Major Key to Successful Organizational
Change. Journal of Quality and Environmental Studies, 7(2), pp.22-29.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded
role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2),
pp.183-202.
Schivinski, B. and Dabrowski, D., 2016. The effect of social media communication on consumer
perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), pp.189-214.