Social Media's Positive Influence on Business Communication

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Annotated Bibliography
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This annotated bibliography examines the positive influence of social media on internal and external business communication. It references several articles, including Langer (2014) who highlights social media's impact on internal efficiency, innovation, and collaboration, while Baruah (2012) emphasizes its role in customer engagement and brand visualization. Treem and Leonardi (2013) discuss how social media enhances internal communication and idea exchange, and Haddud et al. (2016) explore its use in partnering with other brands and gathering customer feedback. The bibliography demonstrates how social media has transformed business communication by making it more democratic, participatory, and open, and it is a cost-effective tool for businesses to connect with customers, monitor brand performance, and foster internal collaboration.
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Annotated Bibliography-
Business Communication

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Topic: Social Media is a positive influence on internal and external business
communication

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Introduction
This assignment comprises of the annotated bibliography which reflects the knowledge and

understanding about ‘Positive influence of Social media on internal and external communication of

businesses. The businesses nowadays are able to derive best results through effective

communication processes as a result of use of social media.

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Langer, E., 2014. What’s trending? Social media and its effects on organizational
communication.
Journal of Undergraduate Research, vol. 17, pp.1-14.
According to Langer (2014), the business world is changing drastically with the use of available

modern technologies. The biggest change as noticed is in communication processes. Social media

is a technology based on computers which facilitates the sharing of information and ideas and

building virtual communities and networks. Through social media, the processes of

communication has been changed tremendously. It is crucial for all the businesses to keep their

clients and customers close as much as possible and therefore communication is vital piece of

entire processes of a business (Langer, 2014). Originally, social media wasn’t designed for use in

business but the fact that vast number of people and organizations are using social media platforms

for communication and marketing. Social media can provide enormous expose to business by

enabling direct communication between potential customers and businesses. Based on

examination conducted by Langer (2014), all businesses are using social media increasingly to

improve their processes of internal and external communications. When it is successfully

implemented, it can impact internal efficiency, innovations, team collaborations, cultural

transformations and organizational alignment dramatically. It is becoming an important tool for

businesses as it has potential benefits. The openness and collaboration are being greatly impacted

by social media thereby resulting in internal and external communities and networks at workplace.

It is reshaping the organizational communication processes (Langer, 2014).

Social media is playing a major role in globalization of businesses and in increasing their

competitiveness by bridging the gap of effective communications and enabling the development of

relationships. There are no longer clear boundaries establishing outside and inside life of

organization and in this, social media is the biggest contributor. Social media tools are used in

organizations for rethinking innovative ideas and contributes in valuable outcomes in different

organizational cultures. It also enhances value in reputational, social, knowledgeable and

networked capital senses. It further encourages meaningful knowledge sharing and interactions

processes between employees across different departments of an organizations and with the

external customers and clients. Langer (2014) further indicated that social media uses personal and

subjective narratives in storytelling by its openness, nature, involvement, interaction and

identification. Businesses can use social media for staying in touch with their customers and can

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establish better connections with their customers through communication processes. Initially,
when the social media started, it was more relevant for people and individuals for exchanging

personal information and was more common among people sharing common interests. At that

time, business did not even fall into the equation (Langer, 2014). After that, communications

through social media among businesses has changed to dynamics of how businesses communicate

externally and internally.

Baruah, T. D., 2012. Effectiveness of Social Media as a tool of communication and its

potential for technology enabled connections: A micro-level study.
International Journal of
Scientific and Research Publications.
vol. 2(5). pp. 1-9.
Advertising is one way in which social media can be used by businesses to communicate with

customers, there are certain other ways through which the internal and external business

communications can be enhanced and the business can use them to communicate with customers.

These ways includes connections, campaigns, visualization and presence round the clock. Baruah,

(2012) insisted that the focus of companies nowadays is on engaging with customers and clients

rather than being limited to selling them products. They are using social media platforms for

connecting with customers, aligning the customer with their brand and keeping them engaged with

fresh and unique content continuously. The process of promoting products and services and getting

feedbacks from customers has been made exponentially faster by social media (Baruah, 2012).

Previously, vast amount was efforts and time were deployed for such feedbacks from customers

which through social media has been made faster and with less efforts. The customers can be

engaged with the brand and the company within 15 minutes of marketing campaign going live. It

further allows the businesses and people associated with it to constantly track and monitor the

performance of marketing campaigns.

Baruah, (2012) stated that the business can further provide better visualizations of products and

services offered to customers through social media thereby making the customers decide more

quickly on whether or not to buy the product and services from any specific brand. In the past, the

customers can be aligned with the brand only through company logo or image. However, social

media has completely transformed this concept by providing more customized and personalized

experiences to customers (Baruah, 2012). Social media has allowed the companies to stay in touch

with their customers round the clock. The top two platforms of social media, Facebook and Twitter

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can be used as an example here. A customer is not required to wait for working hours of business to
reach the company and its agents, but the company can be reached anytime round the clock. These

platforms are used by customers because they provide time flexibility and more personalized

response. Further, smartphones are a major contribution in effective communication through social

media. The customers are not required to wait until reaching home and dropping a mail to the

company, instead they can reach the company anytime they want. Moreover, with platforms of

social media, a plethora of tools are provided to company to work on, the tasks of marketers have

been made even easier, especially at the time of relaying messages to a specific target customer.

As per Baruah, (2012), social media is an extensive business tool as it can be used internally for

communications and idea sharing. It is helping the company in reaching new audience both locally

and globally. Further, it is an important element for monitoring the performance of brand of

company, its competitors and determining how people perceive the business of company. Such

process can help the company in communicating a polished image to the customers and in market.

The communications through social media has transformed the communication processes of

company as they are becoming more democratic, participatory and open than ever before. These

processes are happening at a speed which has not been seen in businesses previously (Baruah,

2012). The platforms of social media help employees of an organization remain focussed and

aligned with the objectives of their organization. Resources and information can be exchanges

effectively through these platforms. Such exchange of information can be in time effective manner.

The tools of social media flatten the hierarchy of corporates thereby empowering the employees at

all levels and providing them with a direct path for decision making.

Treem, J.W. and Leonardi, P.M., 2013. Social media use in organizations: Exploring the

affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association.
Annals of the International
Communication Association.
vol. 36(1), pp.143-189.
Treem, and Leonardi, (2013) stated that the processes of internal communications can be enhanced

using social media and pollinate ideas can be crossed among employees and they can develop

valuable insights. The employees, by using social media platforms, can develop new ideas by

communicating issues more effectively and using insights and solutions more effectively. The

employees of the company can more effectively and easily consolidate and search for skills sets to

match the specific requirements in the project. The use of social media in internal processes have a

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dramatic positive impact on horizontal and vertical communications in organizations (Treem, and
Leonardi, 2013). The biggest impacts that social media have on businesses includes generation of

revenue and brand development. It can be used to attract new customers through promotions and

getaways. Nowadays, platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are being used by companies

to communicate people about vacancies in their organizations and to make the process of

recruitment more effective. These platforms are used by companies to advertise the vacant

positions and attract deserving and skilful candidates.

Social media can be used to build networks inside and outside the company. It can be used to

exchange ideas with like-minded people for improving ways in which businesses manage their

operations and develop performances. When the company and people associated with it does not

have much time to research details on certain matters, platforms of social media can be used by

simply logging in to systems and extracting the information. In this article, Treem, and Leonardi,

(2013) deployed that the processes of communication through social media is also cost-effective. It

helps the company in saving costs of communication. Almost all the applications of social media

are free to use and therefore the company can use these sites and applications for direct contacts

with customers and other people associated with business without spending even a single penny.

Previously, the companies had to consider different channels for advertisements by paying heavy

amounts to them for communicating the prospective customers about the products and services.

(Treem, and Leonardi, 2013). However, nowadays, in era of social media, the whole cost that the

company has to pay is for drafting an advertisement which can be displayed and posted on social

media websites. Therefore, social media can be used for cost saving purposes in communications.

Haddud, A., Dugger, J.C. and Gill, P., 2016. Exploring the Impact of Internal Social Media

Usage on Employee Engagement.
Journal Social Media for Organizations, vol. 3(1), pp.1-17.
Social Media Platforms can also be used by companies for partnering with other companies and

brands. The company can connect with partners and can establish such partnering with other

brands during marketing initiatives and campaigns. Both of such brands can use social media for

effective communication and delivery of marketing strategies. Haddud, et. al., (2016) explained

that social media can provide better exposure to both the companies and these companies ca help

each other in attracting more audience. It increases the opportunities for creating unique products

and services through effective interaction and communication processes. The companies can

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communicate its audience and customers of various conferences, events being attending suing
social media. The most convenient way to gain attention in such cases is by creating hashtags

associated with that specific event (Haddud, et, al., 2016).

The authors Haddud, et. al., (2016) provided the primary reason for investing in social media

platforms for communication can be the attention of target audience that is focussed on social

media. Further, the customers can communicate their expectations and requirements to the

company which can help the company in innovating new products and services which are more

suitable to the customers and their needs. The company can learn more about the preferences of its

audience and can use such information for generating more revenue and development of business.

Before social media came into existence, the companies had to rely on the surveys, focus groups

and historical data for getting a better picture of expectations of customers and the next products

that they are required to work on. However, nowadays with the help of social media, the companies

can rely on feedbacks of customers and their demands can be generated in real time on social media

(Haddud, et, al., 2016). The social media platforms can be used as a tool of research and

development to identify what the customer really wants from the company, thereby resulting in

better delivery of products and services. The companies can use social media to stay in top news of

industry which can help the company stay in top of the mind of its customers and other people in

market and industry.

Siljanovska, L., 2015. The Influence of Social Media on Organizational Communication:

Case Study in Republic of Macedonia.
European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. Vol.
3(1). Pp 83-92.

In article on influence of social media on organization culture, Siljanovska, (2015) explained that

social media is not only great for engaging with potential customers and leads but can also be used

to interact with influences and the people can potentially link to the website of company. The

company can use social media for purposes of brand awareness. Through social media, there are

plenty of people that can be reached by the company using platforms like Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram and others. It can be used to provide exposure to new audience who are unaware of the

brand. The social media platforms can be of huge help for promoting the business of organizations

(Siljanovska, 2015). The businesses are able to collect immense amounts of data of users of social

media platforms and such data can be used by companies for communicating about company and

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its products and services to such users. The revenue of company can be generated using these
platforms of social media as these can be used to drive traffic to the website of company. On such

website, transactions can occur. Effective use of social media platforms can help the company in

establishing better connection in both internal and external environment.

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Conclusion
The social media platforms/applications are creating immense opportunities for companies to

communicate with external environment, improve employee engagement and promote

collaboration between employees. These applications provide employees and customers with an

easy way to communicate and share personal and professional information with company and other

co-workers.

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References
Baruah, T. D., 2012. Effectiveness of Social Media as a tool of communication and its
potential for technology enabled connections: A micro-level study.
International Journal
of Scientific and Research Publications.
Vol. 2(5). Pp. 1-9.
Haddud, A., Dugger, J.C. and Gill, P., 2016. Exploring the Impact of Internal Social Media
Usage on Employee Engagement.
Journal Social Media for Organizations, Vol. 3(1), Pp.1-
17.

Langer, E., 2014. What’s trending? Social media and its effects on organizational
communication.
Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 17, Pp.1-14.
Siljanovska, L., 2015. The Influence of Social Media on Organizational Communication:
Case Study in Republic of Macedonia.
European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. Vol.
3(1). Pp 83-92.

Treem, J.W. and Leonardi, P.M., 2013. Social media use in organizations: Exploring the
affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association.
Annals of the
International Communication Association.
vol. 36(1), pp.143-189.
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