Social Media – as relevant internally as externally…
Posted under: Last month we talked about how important social media is to external communicators. We’ve also been running a poll, asking if social media is just another channel or more of a game changer for communications professionals. 70% say Social Media is just another channel, while 30% believe it to be the future of communications.
But how does social media change the landscape internally?
In our recent BLCS launch event, where we shared the outcomes of the survey, we found the audience polarised in their views on social media – with the strongest proponents arguing strongly for its impact internally –while others eschew how internal social media channels can facilitate cultural change at a pace that would otherwise be impossible…
This is supported by the significant increase we’ve seen over the last 6 to 12 months in the number of specialist social media roles – where the requirement is for candidates to understand both the internal and external social media landscape and be able to develop a strategy that combines internal and external needs. We’ve also seen a significant increase in the number of more generalist roles that require candidates to have a knowledge and understanding of social media. It feels like the internal communications industry has fully woken up to the importance of social media as a vital tool in an organisations channels mix, but more importantly, as a way of flattening organisations, by facilitating true dialogue between the most senior people in a company and those ‘at the coal face’. In this way, organisations are becoming far more transparent internally, and enabling junior employees to gain a far greater understanding of and contribute to their organisations strategy and direction.
