Social networks have become an essential communication and information tool in companies. That is why the management of organizations needs to be increasingly focused on the use of 2.0 technologies, although it should not lose interpersonal relationships and the adaptation of networks to corporate culture.
The power and accelerated expansion of social networks is public knowledge. Countless studies show its massive growth day by day, with indexes that reflect the importance of media such as Facebook and Twitter to socialize and "connect with the world. " The Internet, and specifically the networks, are changing the models of relationship, communication, learning and business.
The phenomenon of social networks has been strongly transferred to the workplace, in which they have entered both as means of advertising and business communication. Currently, it is estimated that some 300 thousand companies around the world use social networks and corporate blogs for commercial purposes and as internal communication tools.
The impact of networks on Internal Communication
Twitter, blogs, social networks and other 2.0 tools are modifying the modes of corporate communication, not only externally, but also internally. The changes in communication paradigms that we experience every day have a direct impact on companies, since outside of them, employees communicate with SMS, write in blogs, post videos and participate assiduously in social networks.
The old Intranet has been revolutionized by tools such as wikis, blogs, e-learning platforms, forums, collaborative digital whiteboards or communities in social networks that enhance interactivity between the different members of a company.
Social networks as internal communication tools have bidirectionality as their main characteristic, compared to other more traditional channels such as the corporate magazine or the Intranet. However, we must be careful when implementing social collaboration tools, adapting Web 2.0 to the culture of each specific company.
Among the advantages of using social networks as an internal communication tool are:
• Faster communication of internal documentation
• Reduction of costs and times in collecting opinions
• Improving teamwork
• Networks increase the interest and motivation of users who find a horizontal and democratic virtual space where their opinions can be heard.
• They improve key aspects in the organization such as collaboration, cohesion and leadership, which directly affect productivity.
Those who still resist the introduction of new technologies as part of the company's internal communication often have multiple questions: how much will the new social tools change in the way information is transmitted in my company? What will be the impact of the application of Web 2.0 on my employees? How will it affect them? How to measure success?
To account for this, the theory of the psychologist Kurt Lewin is interesting, who describes the origin of the individual's behavior as a function of two variables: person and environment. Each of us behave differently in groups and individually.
This thinking, which is the basis of social psychology, has been extended to the 2.0 domain. Starting from the variables "behavior", "person" and "environment", it has been concluded that the success of the use of social networks will be directly related to the type of people who are part of the organization as well as the environment of work. It is useless to include a corporate blog as an internal communication tool if there are not involved and participative employees who lead and energize the spaces.
Regulating employee behavior 2.0
More and more companies are beginning to take a dimension of the power that social networks have as sources of information and opinion makers, which is why they have begun to deliver manuals to their employees to guide the use of Twitter and other networks within the company. One of the reasons for this has been the latent danger of the impossibility of controlling what employees may say about the company.
One of the even more controversial points is that of privacy and autonomy. To what extent can an opinion in a personal profile be linked to the company for which one works? What is raised from the companies is that employees cannot be spokespersons unless they are expressly called upon to do so. If they write on your behalf, they should clarify that they are personal opinions. It is also suggested that if an employee talks about the company, they should only publish and share that information that is publicly available.
Towards the management of human capital
Social networks have become one more communication tool, just like the mail or the telephone, and for that reason they not only favor the interrelation between the own employees of a company, but also of these with the groups of interest of the company. Therefore, the idea that the use of networks should be part of the communication strategy of any company is beginning to spread.
The advancement of communication technologies seems to be vertiginous, but if they are not used properly, they will not make sense. HR departments will have to start focusing not only on the management and control of social networks, or the appearance of the company within them, but also on the management of people, their links, the acquisition of knowledge and the fundamental collaboration of the teams. In this sense, the writer, psychologist and consultant Sergio Sinay affirms that “there is something that technology will not be able to supplant: the links. When these are cut, it will no longer matter which theory of work we use ”.
