Is it Time for Employee Communicators to Make Friends with Social Media?

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Written by William Smith

More than 90 communicators braved the early March bitter cold to attend Master Communicator Ron Shewchuk’s presentation, “Is it Time for Employee Communicators to Make Friends with Social Media?”

After a brief review of different Web 2.0 platforms, Shewchuk pointed out business is slowly adapting to social media with only about 30% using blogs, RSS feeds, Wikis and social networks. Sources of resistance include senior executives uncomfortable with social media, concerns from legal counsel, and objections to new applications from the IT group. At the same time, employee engagement is low with some of the blame placed on poorly implemented corporate intranets.

To ensure success with social media as an employee communication tool, Shewchuk says it’s vital to pick the right application for your organization and make a business case for the particular tool or channel. Do not give in to peer pressure for the CEO to have a blog just because your main competitor has one. Social media can be used by employees to collaborate on projects, store institutional memory, train and reach out to internal and external stakeholders. Don’t think that just because you build it, they will come. If you want employees to use these new tools, they need to be integrated into the workflow of your organization.

Despite the great potential and promise of social media technologies, Shewchuk pointed out there is no substitute for face-to-face communication. The printed employee newsletter still plays a very valuable role in many organizations, too. Social media is very effective when used correctly, but not all employees in every organization have access to a computer. As always in communications planning, consider your audience and how they like to receive and do receive information.

Ron is an associate at consulting firm Longview Communications in Vancouver and hosts a blog about employee communication, For Your Approval, at ronshewchuk.blogs.com.

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