Social Media refers to information-based tools and technologies that help share information and facilitate communications with an internal and external audience. The exploding growth of Social Media networks has significantly changed the way people communicate at home and office. Not just that, social media applications have offered great opportunities for businesses to create strong public relations, recruitment, organizational training, collaboration, and more.

In this blog, we shall discuss how social network development platform has become a knowledge-sharing platform where employees collaborate to improve their work productivity and workflow. Also, we will present some potential risks associated with employees creating their social media accounts while at the office, and how to address these issues by enforcing social media policies and keeping tabs on the legal landscape of social media.

Social Media Background

Social media applications are not limited to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but they can take various forms. Those forms may include internet forums, online profiles, podcasts, pictures, videos, e-mail, instant messaging, voice-over IP, and more. Sometimes, social media applications get addressed as “web 2.0,” a term encompassing blogs, texting, wikis, Google Docs, and business linking apps.

Companies and business organizations can use social engine forum in a variety of ways. Teams can hold brainstorming sessions, share work practices and research case studies, share blogs, or record podcasts. Private social network for business is relatively a new territory for both employees and the employer. There are many undiscovered aspects and sensitive areas of these tools that shouldn’t be operated at the workplace.

For instance, the ultimate goal of using social media networks should be how to get business benefits through these applications and how employees maintain consistency in their work deliverables instead of getting distracted from the core mission.

How can businesses get benefitted from social media applications?

A recent survey found that 80% of the organizations own social media policies at the office, and 70% of these enterprises take disciplinary action against the employees found violating their policies. Organizations that do not add social media in their business strategy may lose their relevance in the market in the long run. A traditional “brick and mortar” company should also mark its presence online, be it the product’s Facebook page or the CEO’s Twitter account.

With that being said, more and more businesses are including social media strategies as part of their marketing plan, including recruitment, knowledge sharing, sales, promotion, and influential change. With thoughtful implementation, social media policies can help enterprises reduce training costs and increase self-directed employee skill development. Henceforth, social media can reinforce organizational culture to alter the traditional principles of communication.

Benefits of social networking platforms

As with most technologies, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for an organization to use social media applications. Over the years, communication and connectivity have been the biggest challenges for organizations, where several problems occurred due to a lack of coordination. The role of social networking platforms in the office is to create an internal network to connect with the employees for the betterment of the enterprise and make their investments worthwhile. Here are the key benefits of using enterprise social networks that help strengthen the foundation of any business and take it to next level:

• It helps facilitate open communication, thus leading to enhanced information discovery and delivery

• Allow employees to share new ideas, post updated news, resolve queries, and share links

• Create an opportunity for the enterprise to expand their business opportunities

• It helps target new audiences while retaining the old customers

• Improves your brand reputation and client base with minimal expense on advertisements and campaigns

• Promotes diversity and inclusion

• It helps expand market research, implement marketing campaigns, establish great communication, and guide the audience to their interested website.

Drawbacks of using enterprise social networks

Although the business benefits of using social media tools are huge- they may also raise security concerns when weighing the risks. Some of the major drawbacks of using personal social media accounts inside office premises include:

• The possibility for hackers to commit cyber threats or launch spam and virus attacks increases.

• Employees falling prey to online scams, resulting in data or identity theft, and a company’s compromised computer security.

• Legal consequences if the employees access sites to view or distribute objectionable, illicit, and offensive data.

Final Thoughts

Organizations should encourage knowledge sharing to create a sustainable social media strategy that expands business and promotes ROI. It will further build a team that delivers competencies dedicated to managing and promoting social media initiatives. Are you planning to incorporate these advanced collaborative tools to enhance your business range of metrics? Get connected with our well-accomplished team or become a part of our social engine community to form a secure and user-friendly internal network for businesses.