Communication Strategies: Social Media in Workplace and Education

This report analyzes the use of social media in contemporary communication, focusing on its application in both the workplace and educational settings. It examines the impact of social media on internal communication within businesses, highlighting the rise of enterprise Social Networking Platforms (SNPs) and their influence on information flow, decision-making, and employee engagement. The report contrasts the views of social realists, who express concerns about security, information overload, and potential distractions, with those of social media enthusiasts, who emphasize the benefits of enhanced collaboration and productivity. Furthermore, the report explores the use of social media in education, specifically focusing on teaching students involved in emergency management how to effectively utilize communication tools. It presents a case study involving the social media site 'Emspace,' which was used to simulate real-life emergency scenarios and assess students' ability to communicate effectively with the public. The report concludes by emphasizing the transformative potential of social media in communication, while acknowledging the need for ongoing adaptation and addressing concerns related to data security and user privacy.

Communication
Use of social media

Introduction
Communication plays a pivotal role in the success of every business. Communication
efficiency is important within the organization as well as in communication done with the
external stakeholders of the company. The tools and channels used for communication have
been consistently evolving. The advent of social media and the increasing use of internet
have largely impacted how communication takes place within the business.
There are various tools that have been specifically devised to facilitate the same. This report
throws light on a crucial subject that plays a critical role in the current communication
scenario. This subject refers to the use of social media in the workplace. Two articles have
been analyzed and summarized which have provided a deepened insight on the topic. The
first topic understands the importance of social media for internal communication in the
workplace while the second topic discusses how teaching social media use can impact student
learning in the educational sector.
The hype and reality of social media use for work collaboration and team
communication.
Social media has become an inevitable part of our lives and therefore businesses have taken
steps to communicate through social media within the organization. Internal communication
taking place within the business plays an active role in ensuring the right flow of information
and quick decision making. Since a long time, there have been various traditional modes of
communication in the business which have effectively ensured smooth flow of
communication within the organization. However, with the increasing size of the businesses,
improved technology, enhanced decentralization and transparency in the organization,
various efforts have been made to introduce new forms of internal communication in the
business (Welch & Jackson 2007, 177).
This led to the birth of enterprise SNPs (Social networking platforms) which are specifically
tailored for communication in the workplace. These platforms are specifically designed to
make to the workplace communication transparent and effective. Various leading vendors
like Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco and IBM are offering sophisticated enterprise SNPs customized
for every organization. SNPs are using various tools like blogs, wikis, instant chat
messengers, opinion polls and bookmarks etc (Maina, 2013). The widespread use of SNPs

has allowed the employees of the business to be opinionated and ensured that people’s
opinions are reaching a wider audience in the business.
Different people have different takes on the advent of enterprise SNPs. The social realists
believe that there are various risks posed by enterprise SNPs including security concerns,
slower adoption and penetration. Realists also believe that potential fragmentation of
information, possible overload of information, probable distraction from work and excessive
self promotion are also few of the risks of enterprise SNPs that may inflict the workplace.
They do not see these tools as transformative for the organizational culture.
On the other hand, social media enthusiasts tout various relative benefits of social media
compared as compared to Email. They believe that enterprise SNPs represent a new wave of
communication tools that would bring about a transformation in the organizational culture.
They have claimed that enterprise SNPs facilitate effective in-person interactions leading to
increased productivity and effective collaboration (Cardon & Marshall 2015, 273). Even
though these social enthusiasts agree that use of enterprise SNPs poses certain challenges,
they do not practically see a major drawback in the idea. This group of people evidently
believes that enterprise SNPs could lead to a demise of Email in the longer run if not
immediately.
The workplace communication channels are clearly changing and enterprise SNPs provide
organizations a much needed bottom up communication approach. Nevertheless, traditional
channels of communication are still considered more effective. Most of the people which
participated in the research survey believed that face to face communication involving
personal meetings had a greater impact and assisted in developing a better connection among
team members. The idea is to build a rich communication channel that involves more verbal
and non-verbal cues. If enterprise SNPs become richer sources of communication then there
is a strong chance that they can completely replace traditional forms of communication
especially email within organization.
Teaching students involved in emergency management how to use social media
effectively
Social media in education has also been in discussion since a long time. The advent of social
media in our day to day lives is not uncommon. Young children have Facebook accounts and

are effectively managing their Instagram pages. This helps us in believing that it is rather
easy for children to adapt to technology and learn its intricacies.
This article highlights the importance of social media in young students who are likely to be
responsible for addressing emergency situations in the near future such as floods, bush fires
or cyclones. Communication tools are necessary to keep the public informed and minimise
the panic. A social media site ‘Emspace’ has been created for the purpose of teaching
students the use of these communication tools.
Problem based learning methodology is used in circumstances where real life situations
cannot be entirely reproduced. Therefore an activity was conducted where the students were
given a ‘real life like’ scenario and were asked to coordinate the scenario and deal with the
emergency. In order to teach the use and understand the effectiveness of social media, the
students were divide in two groups. The first group was given traditional tools like discussion
space and additional educational tools to conduct the activity. The second group was given a
social media site ‘Emspace’ where students published posts and responded to posts
masquerading as the public. Upon conducting certain activities, it was established that
students that used ‘Emspace’ found the tool highly realistic and effective. Their responses
were gathered by the way of asking them various questions that helped the team in analysing
their response and in turn their learning from Emspace.
The students were asked a number of questions and performance of both the groups were
analysed in order to understand the impact of social media on their learning. Social media is a
two way communication channel, hence there are two things that need to be considered while
teaching students to use social media effectively. Firstly the students must be able to post
simple, clear and easy to understand information that their audience would be able
comprehend. Secondly, students must possess the necessary tact, skills and knowledge to be
able to respond to posts that are made by the public (Ross, Taylor & Fitzgerald 2015, 21).
Through this research, it was established that students had a great time while using the social
media tool Emspace. They enjoyed the activity, ensured their participation and felt engaged
in the entire process. By using this tool, they were also able to produce high quality material
for the activity which indicated effective learning. This goes on to demonstrate that the use of
social media in the educational sector has various advantages over traditional communication
tools.

Conclusion drawn from both the articles
Social media has been widely used and even propagated in the current communication
scenario. Organizations are using social media channels to promote their business. People are
using social media and becoming brands by reaching out to a wider audience. Every sector
including education, manufacturing, services and even sports are using social media channels
to extend their target audience.
The use of social media for internal communication is the need of the hour. Not only does
this form of communication create transparency but also enabled a smooth flow of
information and makes sure that everyone within the business is heard. It assists in
developing an organization which is equipped with human resources with opinions. This
leads to increased effectiveness, improved sharing of ideas and a 360 feedback system within
the business. There are many organizations who have already adopted social media use in
their organizations and have demonstrated positive results.
Education sector of the world is rather new to social media and not many people have yet
been able to adopt to this technology (Tess 2013, 60). However, it is important to note that
young children are already using social media in their everyday lives and hence using the
same media as a tool to enhance their learning is not only innovative but also very practical.
The article clearly suggests that the students which were provided with the tool of social
media performed better and demonstrated increased efficiency.
However, complete acceptance towards any new culture or technology takes time and
currently social media is in the phase where people are starting to adapt to the changing
culture (Blankenship 2011, 39). There is still a long way to go for us to completely switch to
the tool of social media be it in workplaces or educational institutes. But the path that we
have yet adopted is sure to lead us there. Certain steps like data security and privacy of users
has to be enhanced to ensure that the risks posed with the use of social media slowly
eradicate and the technology in itself improvises to ensure its effective use. Once it has been
adopted it is sure to change the face of communication and learning within workplaces as
well as educational institutes.

References
Blankenship, M., 2011. How social media can and should impact higher education. The
Education Digest, 76(7), pp.39.
Cardon, P. W., & Marshall, B. 2015. The hype and reality of social media use for work.
Collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business Communication,
52(3), pp.273-293.
Maina, T.M., 2013. Instant messaging an effective way of communication in
workplace. Cornell University. United States.
Ross, K., Taylor, M. & Fitzgerald, M. 2015. Teaching students involved in emergency
Management how to use social media effectively [online]. Australian Journal of Emergency
Management, the, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 21-25.
Tess, P.A., 2013. The role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual)–A
literature review. Computers in Human Behaviour, 29(5), pp.A60-A68.
Welch, M. and Jackson, P.R., 2007. Rethinking internal communication: a stakeholder
approach. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 12(2), pp.177-198.