Business Communication Report: Social Media Impact on IBM

This report examines the impact of social media on business communication within IBM. It begins with a proposal outlining research objectives, questions, and a discussion of social media's role in facilitating communication and stakeholder relationships. The report then delves into digital communication strategies, including the use of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, and their influence on marketing and internal communication. It explores the benefits and drawbacks of social media in a business context, such as enhanced employee engagement and the potential for misunderstandings. The report concludes with recommendations for leveraging social media to enhance brand awareness, improve customer service, and align communication with business goals, offering valuable insights into how IBM can optimize its communication strategies.

Running head: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Business communication
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Part A: Proposal...............................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Research background...................................................................................................................3
Research objectives......................................................................................................................4
Research questions.......................................................................................................................4
Discussions...................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................5
Recommendations........................................................................................................................5
Part B: Report..................................................................................................................................6
Introduction..................................................................................................................................6
Digital communication with the involvement of social media....................................................6
Social media platforms changed the way of communication......................................................7
Communication strategies............................................................................................................7
Benefits and drawbacks of social media......................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Part A: Proposal
Introduction
The proposal is done to focus on the impact of social media on the management of
communication at the business organisation IBM. Communication is essential, not only for
enabling coordination of work among the employees but also can lead to effective decision
making, furthermore allow the organisation to perform its tasks within less time (Ibm.com,
2017). The digital communication is an easy and convenient way of communicating with each
other through social media use and even makes quick decisions that can be successful for the
management of business (Cambie, 2012). There are various channels of enabling communication
between the employees and it is possible with the involvement of social media channels like
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Research background
The background of research illustrates the use of social media for managing
communication within the organisation and its efficiency in managing good relationships
between the stakeholders and allowing them to commit to the organizational excellence. Gmail,
Google hangout, facebook, instagram and Twitter are relevant platforms for enabling
communication transparency and make people communicate with each other within the
organisation and discuss about matters to fulfill the roles and responsibilities with ease and
efficacy (Chesher & Kaura, 2012). Social media involvement is also essential for making people
communicate with its customers and obtain their opinions and feedbacks to determine the market
conditions and fulfill he needs and requirements of the customers easily (Ibm.com, 2017).

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Research objectives
 To identify the role of social media in facilitating the processes of communication at IBM
 To evaluate necessary measures for utilizing the social media and bringing out the best of
benefits for the company
 To assess the probable impact of social media involvement on the management of
communication at IBM
 To recommend probable measures for improving the communication process and
maintaining string relationships with the business stakeholders
Research questions
What is the impact created by involving social media on the communication process at IBM?
How could the various ways or approaches be used for facilitating the social media involvement
and obtain business benefits?
What kind of impact is created by using social media for the purpose of communication within
the organisation?
What are the methods or techniques recommended for enhancing the efficiency of
communication process at IBM?

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Discussions
The discussions are mainly based on the kinds of data and information that have been
collected for understanding the impact of social media on the management of communication
and facilitating the relationships between the stakeholders of IBM (Clark Jr & Cain, 2013).
Conclusion
By analyzing the report, it could be understood that the social media usage had brought
great benefits such as proper communication was enabled along with management of proper
relationships between the stakeholders in business.
Recommendations
Few recommendations included:
 To use social media for enhancing brand awareness, enhance the visibility of products
and services to make customers know about those and ensure that their buying
behaviours are influenced too.
 To use the social media channels for promoting effective communication between the
employees and making it easy for them to make decisions too
 To utilize the social media for improving the customers’ services
 It is also recommended to integrate the use of social media by aligning it with the
business goals and objectives

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Part B: Report
Introduction
Social media platforms are effective channels for promoting effective communication and
enabling higher engagement of the employees within the organisation. Social media involvement
could increase the speed and rate of information flow and exchange, furthermore increase the
employee engagement and reducing communication activities done through face to face
meetings and telephonic conversations (Glisic & Leppänen, 2013). The social networking within
the workplace not only facilitates the communication process but also improves the
organizational productivity by distributing information among the employees working at IBM. It
improves the effectiveness of communication process, helps in identifying the new information
and data and even allows the employees to discuss ideas and share opinions among themselves
(Godlovitch et al., 2013).
Digital communication with the involvement of social media
The personal communications at IBM are managed with the help of providing a platform
for managing accessibility to data, information and applications that are present on the host
system. The personal communication feature at IBM include the virtual terminal emulation and
system network architecture that can provide multiple functionalities such as proper networking,
communication and other features of administration including the emulation of host terminal,
client server applications and better connectivity (Ibm.com, 2017). The major component of IBM
Host Access Client Package and IBM Host integration solution could also facilitate the social
media involvement and enhance the processes of communication largely.

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Social media platforms changed the way of communication
One of the major effective social media platform is the facebook, which has been a top
priority for the businesses to allow people connect with each other and share personal thoughts,
opinions and behaviours. Twitter is another fast-paced network that has allowed the users to
share data and information by using hash tags and allow the content to be seen by the targeted
audiences (Kotz, Kozubowski & Podgorski, 2012). The employees of IBM have managed to
communicate with each other through these social media platforms and this has facilitated the
marketing activities and ensured proper communication at the workplace. Snapchat is also used
as a temporary social media platform that allows the employees working at IBM to share the
content and it can be seen for maximum 24 hours (Kwok & Yu, 2013). It is effective for the
managers and higher authorities to communicate and share their messages and information that
are confidential and so Snapchat can be used to make the messages visible for 24 hours and then
get automatically removed, so that it cannot be accessed by any other person. This would
communicate the messages and instructions properly to the subordinates and allow for making
quick decisions too (Leonardi, Huysman & Steinfield, 2013).
Communication strategies
With the involvement of social media in business, there are more scopes and
opportunities to enhance the business contacts and target wider audiences. It is also useful for
managing advertisements and the recruitment process, which can further enhance the market
research capabilities and develop marketing campaigns by enabling proper communication
between them. The implementation of marketing campaigns would also deliver effective
communication and direct the individuals to various websites for making them acknowledged
with happenings within the company (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012).

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The companies to communicate and connect with its customers and other stakeholders
while selling the products and services use the social networks. By involving the social media, it
has become easier to develop trust and loyalty among the individuals within the business and
ensure that ideas and opinions are circulated properly. The social media sites can be created to
focus on personal broadcast network and fare well above the traditional advertising, furthermore
share both positive as well as negative responses related to the business transactions or decisions
that are needed to be made (Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016).
The most suitable online communication strategy is to invest in social media and think
strategically about how to make the best use of these social media platforms. The social media
communication strategy could create a proper networking event and monitor the content that
should be provided by the people. The blogs are used as an excellent platform for managing the
business communication strategy, share insights into the business and develop relationships with
the customers (Wang, Yu & Wei, 2012). The blogging in social media can help in producing
quality content for engaging the individuals within the company and determine the needs and
preferences. The content posted through blogs could also make people know about the industry
trends and facts and share about the business success stories too (Ibm.com, 2017).
Benefits and drawbacks of social media
Digital communications have been largely influenced by the involvement of social media
to foster the development of relationships and setting connections between the staffs within the
workplace of IBM. Conversations are easily managed with the use of social media platforms by
communicating through open body languages and connecting it with the staffs, managers and
subordinates. Few drawbacks of social media communication within organizations could be the
lack of skills and abilities to read, write or spell due to lack of accessibility of keyboards

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(Cambie, 2012). Though social media usage could promote effective communication, still the
lack of physical cues and face-to-face interactions might create misunderstandings and
misconceptions. Information overload could be caused due to the busy online discussions and
communications through useof social media. The time taken for commenting or receiving a
particular response might be high, which could create other issues as well. While using social
media platforms for facilitating the communication process, negative comments might be posted,
which in turn, could result in deteriorating the brand image as well (Chesher & Kaura, 2012).
Conclusion
The report was developed to focus on the various aspects of social media and how it had
impacted the process of communication at the organisation IBM, India. Social media platforms
had helped in creating effective channels for managing communication between the individuals
and ensured successful functioning of the business organisation. The social media platforms
enabled the staffs of IBM to communicate and at the same time, improved the marketing
activities’ efficiency to share and exchange messages and information, furthermore make
effective decisions with ease and effectiveness.

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References
Cambie, S. (2012). International Communications Strategy: Development in Cross-cultural
Communications, PR and Social Media. Strategic Direction, 28(6).
Chesher, M., & Kaura, R. (2012). Electronic commerce and business communications. Springer
Science & Business Media.
Clark Jr, G. C., & Cain, J. B. (2013). Error-correction coding for digital communications.
Springer Science & Business Media.
Glisic, S. G., & Leppänen, P. A. (2013). Wireless communications: TDMA versus CDMA.
Springer Science & Business Media.
Godlovitch, I., Monti, A., Schäfer, R. G., & Stumpf, U. (2013). Business communications,
economic growth and the competitive challenge. Study for the European Competitive
Telecommunications Association (ECTA) and the International Telecommunications
User Group (INTUG. Bad Honnef, Germany: WIK-Consult GmbH.
Ibm.com. (2017). IBM - India. [online] Available at: https://www.ibm.com/in-en/ [Accessed 23
Nov. 2017].
Kotz, S., Kozubowski, T., & Podgorski, K. (2012). The Laplace distribution and
generalizations: a revisit with applications to communications, economics, engineering,
and finance. Springer Science & Business Media.
Kwok, L., & Yu, B. (2013). Spreading social media messages on Facebook: An analysis of
restaurant business-to-consumer communications. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 54(1),
84-94.

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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.
Macnamara, J., & Zerfass, A. (2012). Social media communication in organizations: The
challenges of balancing openness, strategy, and management. International Journal of
Strategic Communication, 6(4), 287-308.
Schivinski, B., & Dabrowski, D. (2016). The effect of social media communication on consumer
perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), 189-214.
Wang, X., Yu, C., & Wei, Y. (2012). Social media peer communication and impacts on purchase
intentions: A consumer socialization framework. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(4),
198-208.