For the development of every organization, communication is a significant tool. A business without effective communication cannot survive in the present era. Further, for the success of every business, some managerial process such as planning, organizing, controlling is necessary and for the success of these processes, an effective business communication is required to be there. Therefore, to state that business communication plays a vital role in the growth of businesses. Such communication can be internal and external as well that is further defined and discussed in the presented report.
Social Media is another aspect, which is required to be discussed whenever it comes to the study of business communication in an organization. In conjunction with business communication, this report will also develop it is focused on the role of social media and digital communication in the 21st Century and what benefits the same can lead to an organization along with cautions for the organizations. Apart from this implication of social media to a business named AUB group Ltd. is also a part of this report.
Role of Digital Communication and Social Media in the context of business communication
As discussed in the introduction segment, majorly two types of business communication are there. One is internal and another one is external. As the name implies itself, an internal business is that which take place between/among organizational members (Businessdictionary.com, 2018). An internal business communication presents across all levels and organizational units of an organization. On the other side, an external business communication can be understood as a transmission of information between a business organization and an outsider. Such outsider can be anyone for instance- supplier, customers, government or so on (Johnson, 2018).
Moving towards, the social media, this is to mention that this term can be referred to a collective online communication channel that makes people enable to share their ideas and content with each other via digital mode. In the 21st century, some prominent illustrations of social media are Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google+ (Whatis.techtarget.com, 2018). Social media is a significant form of digital communication that an organization can use. In order to understand the role of social media in business communication, this is to be stated that it helps to develop a good communication with clients and customers.
For instance, by using Linkedin, a business can find new customers or suppliers as well as employees (Zimmerman & Ng, 2018). They can use Facebook to make communication with clients. Not only in external business communication, but in internal business communication also these tools help a lot. By using Skype, managers from a different branch can communicate effectively without any physical movement. It saves times, efforts and energy of them. It also reduces the overall cost of the organization. Corporate Communication is necessary for the good performance of a business including marketing of products and sharing the strategies with respective people in the organization and social media fulfils this purpose so gracefully. This is the reason that in the present world, where businesses are being global, they are adopting the communication policies that recognize the role of digital communication as the same brings many positive impacts if applied properly and in an effective manner.
Safeguards for the effective use of Social Media
In the discussion made above, role and few benefits of social media have been described. However, this is to mention that use of social media should be a safe one. No doubt that this digital communication is beneficial for an organization but there are some factors, which a business is required to consider while implementing the same. Following are some of the factors that an organization should consider:-
The company AUB Group Ltd had started its business operations in the year 1985, and since then the company has come a long way in terms of expansion and growth. At present, the company is managing its business operations under the 10 different business names. The main activities of the business of the entity are the provision of the underwriting, broking and the risk related services. The services of the entity are such that there is wide range of various stakeholders both within and outside the boundaries.
In addition, the company faces a lot of external competition and therefore the company must be engaged in analysing its present business operations and strategy and review and adapt them according to the external changes. As the company’s operations are scattered around 135 business partners, 3500 employees and around 425 business locations, digital communication strategy has already been extracting benefits for the organisation in the form of company’s website. The following segment will demonstrate the benefits of the use of the social media at workplace to communicate at the Australian branch.
Improved Corporate Communications
The use of the emails have renovated the corporate communications in altogether different manner. While these are a significant means of traditional digital communication ways, they are still being used in the organisations in the form of formal communication channels. There exist a plenty of information in the organisation, which cannot be passed through the formal channels, all the time (Leonardi, 2017). Hence, the use of the social media is a good option to pass on the information other than the emails in the organisation AUB. This informal communication channels like the social media; not only aids the employees in building of the social circle and interpersonal communication skills, but also motivate them to be associated with the organisation and work to the best of their abilities (Wamba & Carter, 2014).
Technological Enhancement
One of the prime requirements of the businesses of the twenty first century is the use of the technologies in the organisation. With every technological advancements, entities make use of it to yield positive results for the business operations. The use of the social media at the workplace can aid not only in the internal communications but also in the external communications (Parveen, Jaafar & Ainin, 2015).
In terms of the internal communications, the company AUB Group Ltd. can engage in creation of employee groups on various chat applications, or say department wise groups. These can be useful for the leaders of a particular department to transfer the right information to the right group of people. In addition, podcasts or social media pages can be created to keep the employees engaged with each other as well as the leaders (Baruach, 2012). This will further improve the peer to peer sharing and positive work atmosphere.
Building the information repository
One of the significant benefits that can be yielded by the use of the social media at workplace is the creation of information repository (El Ouirdi, El Ouirdi, Segers & Henderickx, 2015). While a lot of data and information is being exchanged within an organisation, the same can be characterised and segregated into groups. This can further be stored at one place, say a group or a page for a particular related information. This way, whenever employees or the management feels the need to extract a particular information, they can simply access the group or the page and get the same. This further allows the building up of information centre or the data repository of the organisation.
Time and Cost Considerations
The social media use in the workplace to communicate needs one time major cost for implementation. However, the benefits of the same can be reaped for many more years to come. In addition, the social media communications are real time communications and even faster than emails. This is because the social media applications like Facebook, Whatsapp, and more are installed on mobile phones of almost everyone (Ryan, 2014). Therefore, even if one is not having the access to laptops or computers, one can communicate as and whenever needed.
The social media channels also reduce the distance between the individuals and allow the conduct of the meetings though mediums like video conferring and more (Stamati, Papadopoulos & Anagnostopoulos, 2015). In case of the organisation AUB Group Ltd. as the employees are scattered all around the globe across various locations and time zones, the conduct of the physical meetings is not feasible as well as possible all the time. Hence, the communication strategy would yield significant benefits for the employees of the Australian branch.
The process of implementation
Business are required to follow a well-defined procedure for the implementation of social and digital media uses in an organization in order to gain effective results. Here, the subjective organization i.e. AUB Group Ltd can follow the following procedure:-
Conclusion
As per the discussions conducted in the previous parts it can be stated that organisation of the twenty first century cannot survive in long run without employing an effective communication strategy. These are necessary because the communication is regarded as the blood of the organisation. Each business process and department of an entity is dependent upon the communication, in order to receive and transfer the information in an effective and efficient manner. As discussed in the previous parts there exist a number of social media channels which can be used by the company for the implementation of its chosen business communication strategy.
There have been described a number of benefits that makes the use of the social media channels beneficial for the communication at the workplace. The report chose the company AUB Group Ltd for the easy understanding of the strategy. While implementing the said communication strategy, a few safeguards must be taken into account in terms of the legal and regulatory requirements. In addition to the above, the report describes the step wise step procedure that can be employed by the entity for the effective implementation of the digital communication strategy.
References
Baruach, T.D. (2012). Effectiveness of social media as a tool of communication and its potential for technology enabled connections. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publication. 2(5).
Businessdictionary.com. (2018). Internal communication. Retrieved From: https://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/internal-communication.html
El Ouirdi, A., El Ouirdi, M., Segers, J., & Henderickx, E. (2015). Employees’ use of social media technologies: a methodological and thematic review. Behaviour & Information Technology, 34(5), 454-464.
Johnson, K.S. (2018). External Business Communication. Retrieved From: https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/external-business-communication-3786.html
Leonardi, P. M. (2017). The social media revolution: Sharing and learning in the age of leaky knowledge. Information and Organization, 27(1), 47-59.
Newberry, C. (2018). 8 Social Media Security Tips to Mitigate Risks. Retrieved From: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-security-for-business/
Parveen, F., Jaafar, N. I., & Ainin, S. (2015). Social media usage and organizational performance: Reflections of Malaysian social media managers. Telematics and Informatics, 32(1), 67-78.
Ryan, D. (2014). Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. (3rd ed.). UK: Kogan Page Publishers.
Smbceo.com. (2012). Considerations For Social Media Use In The Workplace. Retrieved From: https://www.smbceo.com/2012/05/24/social-media-in-the-workplace/
Stamati, T., Papadopoulos, T., & Anagnostopoulos, D. (2015). Social media for openness and accountability in the public sector: Cases in the Greek context. Government Information Quarterly, 32(1), 12-29.
Thomson, J. (2018). How to Write a Social Media Policy for Your Company. Retrieved From: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-policy-for-employees/
Wamba, S. F., & Carter, L. (2014). Social media tools adoption and use by SMEs: An empirical study. Journal of Organizational and End User Computing. doi: https://doi.org/10.4018/joeuc.2014040101
Whatis.techtarget.com. (2018). Social Media. Retrieved From: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media
Zimmerman, J & Ng, D. (2018). The Benefits Of Using Linkedin. Retrieved From: https://www.dummies.com/business/marketing/social-media-marketing/the-benefits-of-using-linkedin/
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