Internal Tweets
Thus far this blog has explored Twitter’s use in corporate communications, but mainly when communicating with external publics. However, internal publics, such as employees, are a huge group of stakeholders that are important to a company. Employees need and want to know what is going on within a company, and now that communication is changing the corporate memo is probably not the best form of communication within a corporation.
Social media is changing the way that companies communicate because it allows for feedback, immediacy,participation, transparency and dialogues. All of these aspects are ideal for establishing relationships with employees. The truth is many people are already using social media, therefore if a company is still communicating with their employees through traditional channels, they are behind.
Using social media, but specifically Twitter, within a company, has many benefits. First, relationships can be established through conversations. And, communicating with various people is easy. Lower level employees can speak with high level management, that they may not run into at the water cooler on a regular basis. Or, if a specific company has various offices, or worldwide offices, Twitter allows for easy (and free) communication. Additionally, employees may feel more comfortable to speak their mind with the computer screen in between the conversation. Even though Twitter is not anonymous, it is just a little easier to type something sometimes than speak the words. Plus, this means that a company is getting true feedback from their employees. Finally, Twitter is fun and interesting. Using social media is a way to spice up a boring e-mail or memo.
The idea of a company using social media to communicate makes a lot of sense. Employees are going to be having conversations anyway, so why not provide a space for them to have these conversations, and better yet, everyone can participate.
However, social media should not completely replace traditional forms of communication such as meetings and e-mails, but Twitter is great to remind others of upcoming meetings or send a quick direct message instead of an e-mail, as everyone’s inbox and BlackBerry is constantly full these days. Finally, Twitter and other forms of social media are great to discuss certain issues, but always remember that sensitive subjects are simply not fit for the Internet, and nothing can replace face-to-face communication.
This video from Ragan Communications features Shel Holtz explaining the use and benefits of social media for internal communications.
Filed under: Corporate Use of Twitter, Twitter | 3 Comments
Tags: Internal Communication, Ragan Communications, Shel Holtz, Social Media, Twitter
Another perk of using social media in the workplace (Twitter or blogs) is that the latest updates are right there for everyone to see. For example, if numerous customers kept calling and complaining about the same malfunctioning product the blog or Twitter message could be updated immediately so the employee can visit the one-stop shop for the answer, that way the employee knows immediately how to help the customer, thus improving the company’s customer service. Though I do think social media is a great idea for the workplace, I feel the process of implementing it could be a problem. Instead of just checking e-mails frequently the employees now have to check Twitter, the company’s blog, and what ever other type of social media tool the company decides to use. This can be overwhelming as well, and getting used to checking all these different sites could be tiresome… unless there is an RSS feed on each so you can subscribe and view the updates in one place on a reader.
I think that companies that are not using social media technologies to communicate with their internal publics are missing out on a crucial channel of communication. Twitter is quickly becoming the hottest new social media tool, so why not take advantage of its allure by setting up an account for the sole purpose of communicating with employees? Like you said in your post, this could be an easy way to inform employees of meeting times or schedule changes. Having a Twitter account for internal communications could also make it easier for employees to express their ideas or concerns to executives without filling up their inboxes. Of course it will not replace the formal email any time soon, but I do not see how a company hoping to have a successful future would not at least have a trial with the new social media tools at their disposal.
I think that using Twitter internally is a great way to keep all of a companys’ employees on the same page and to make sure that they are not forgetting to communicate with each other. I feel like some employees are more concerned with getting their job done and communicating with external publics than they are with building relationships with those that they see and work with on a daily basis.
When I read this post a particular company came to mind… Zappos.com. I did a post on Zappos.com a few weeks ago and I learned a lot about how that company is using Twitter externally and internally. Tony Hsieh, the CEO, encourages all of his employees to use Twitter and to tweet about work-related and personal activities. There is even a page on Zappos.com dedicated to its employees tweets: http://twitter.zappos.com/employee_tweets and over 436 Zappos.com employees are on Twitter. I think that companies that are using Twitter internally should consider creating an aggregated employee page like Zappos.com did.