Communication in the 21st Century - Literature review Example

SOCIAL EDIA COMMUNICATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY Student’s Name Name of class Name of professor University Location of city and state Date Table of Contents Introduction 3 Communication in the 21st century 4 Internal communication platform 4 Increase productivity 6 Innovation 7 Crowdsourcing 7 Open innovation 8 Increase sales revenue 8 Limitations of social media as a communication tool in business 10 Negative feedback 10 High risk 10 Costly 11 References 13 Introduction Competition is turning out to be intensive in today's business environment. Couple with dynamism, competition is a reality that businesses ought to live with. Therefore, in order to survive the storm, businesses need to develop strategies that help it achieve competitive advantage. Proper communication within and without and organization is one of such strategies. Businesses need to identify effective and relevant forums to communicate. In the 21st century, a century characterized by advanced technology, most businesses have opted to the use of social media to enhance communication. Infact, according to Paniagua and Sapena (2014), organizations are striving to transform their corporate resources into business operations through social networking Social media is defined as a special set of communication applications that enables various users to exchange content in a collaborative community setting (Kenly and Poston, 2017). Dowerah Baruah (2012) asserts that social media offers a variety of avenues through which people can communicate with each other. The use of social media in business has both positive and negative impacts. Some of the advantages of the use of social media in business are that it fosters innovation, leads to increased productivity, increased sales revenue and enhancement of effective internal communication platforms. On the other hand, negative impacts resulting from the use of social media include Negative feedback, high cost, and high risks. This essay, therefore, aims at establishing the advantages of using social media in business in the 21st Century Communication in the 21st century In the 21st, the century of technological advancement, social media has eased communication more than ever. Infact, Zhu and Chen (2015) notes that social media has turned out to be the new and modern communication paradigm that facilitates company-consumer message delivery. In the 21st century, people longer need to pick up phones and make calls or even write letters. Similarly, people don't necessarily need to travel long distances to convey important messages. Apparently, technological advancement in the 21st century has made it easy for people to log into social media platforms and pass whatever message they need to pass. It has helped people connect with others, in spite of the fact that they could be geographically displaced. Research shows that over 500 million people use faced book. Research also indicates that of the 500 million users, 250 million people log in to Facebook on a daily basis (Charlotte, 2017). This shows how social media is turning out to be a very popular communication medium particularly in the 21st century and businesses can opt to capitalize the popularity to advance their businesses. Businesses can use the social media platform to enhance communication within organizations tool Advantages of social media as a communication tool in business There are a number of advantages that accrue to businesses as result of making use if the social media as a communication tool. Some of the advantages include: Internal communication platform Businesses can capitalize the available social media platforms to enhance communication among its employees. Similarly, businesses can also opt to create their internal communications platforms or forums to better their communication. In fact, according to Charlotte (2017), businesses prefer creating their own internal communication forums because of the fear that most employees will turn out to be productive and totally distracted, hence opting for internal communication forums where messaging is minimal and the company can control the intensity of communication. Businesses can use any of the already existing social media platforms for communication among employees, but many create their own internal communication forums. If businesses decide to use Facebook or any other social media site, there is the risk that employees will become unproductive and distracted and waste time, which is why many opt to create their own communication systems with instant messaging as a minimum. An example of a business that has developed its internal communication forum is Shopify. Shopify came up with its internal communication platform called "Unicorn" (Charlotte, 2017). This platform helps employees communicate with each other particularly regarding the progress of company projects, besides also sharing their success stories. In fact, one of the things that made Shopify's unicorn very successful is that employees were rewarded or rather received cash incentives for actively participating (Charlotte, 2017). Employees use the platform to monitor projects and consequently get monetary compensation for offering their required skills and expertise. Businesses that are not in a position to create their own internal communication platforms can make use of ready-made available communication platform like "Sales force" (Charlotte, 2017)." Sales force" is a communication platform that businesses can use to enhance creative thinking and improved leadership skills. Use of social media platforms like "Sales force" is important because employees across all divisions available in a company can freely share beneficial, interesting and innovative ideas that can be used to advance business operations. The benefits of using internal communication social media platforms range from improved decision making, close monitoring and collaboration of projects to increase employee recognition. Therefore the advantage social media has offered to businesses in the 21st century is that it has helped businesses enhance communication a great deal. Increase productivity With increase competition n dynamism in the business environment, businesses ought to be innovative in order to increase productivity and obtain a competitive advantage. Productivity levels of employees in an organization even determine retention levels, besides also determining the rate of employee turnover in an organization. As V.B.DEVIBALA, Dr.P.ANBUOLI and T.JOTHIMURUGAN (2011) note, productive businesses retain productive employees. Therefore, productivity is key in determining organization's competitive advantage. One of the ways businesses can help employees become productive is through the use of social media. Social media has improved employees' productivity in a number of ways Firstly Social media is as a communication platform helps employees communicate, share important, beneficial and innovative ideas. Though the social media platforms, employees can monitor the progress of projects and even share helpful ideas regarding best possible ways of improving the coordination and timely implementation of projects (Gracielle, 2016). For example, employees working in the public sector can attest to the advantages social media contributes to their productivity (Gracielle, 2016). Social media makes it easy to disseminate information to various parties in a timely manner. Disaster management and mitigation departments in organizations increase productivity through the use of social media. Secondly, social media fosters employee retention in the organization, thereby boosting productivity. Most organizations usually recognize the input of their employees through internal communication platforms (Gracielle, 2016). This boosts the morale of employees, therefore increasing productivity. For example, Shopify gave monetary incentives their employees for actively participating in their internal communication platform known as "unicorn" (Charlotte, 2017). This aspect of compensation motivates employees, consequently increasing productivity levels. Increased motivation boosts on productivity, which in turn reduces employee turnover and increases retention Innovation Innovation is an important aspect of an organization's growth. Through innovation, businesses are able to grow and achieve competitive advantage. In the current 21st century, the business environment is turning out to be intensively competitive and very dynamic and the only way to remain relevant and competitive is to be innovative (Roberts, Piller and Lüttgens, 2016). Social media has enhanced innovation among businesses, thereby enabling most businesses to achieve competitive advantage. The use of social media can be an excellent and appropriate platform that companies can use to reach both existing and potential customers and capitalize on their creativity. Social media can be an innovation agent in business to develop new products and services through the use of either crowdsourcing or even the use of open innovation. Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves networks sharing ideas in order to provide solutions to a particular problem (nibusinessinfo.co.uk, 2017). Crowdsourcing has enabled businesses to be highly innovative. For example, in the year 2014, McDonald gave their customers a choice or free reign to propose ad submit ideas regarding the kind of buggers they would like to see stocked (Kearns, 2015). What McDonald did was to let customers all over the world create their own buggers online so that others could vote for the best burger. In fact, according to Kearns (2015), creators in German were asked to come up with their own campaign, which included developing viral videos and use of other marketing techniques, of course at no cost to McDonald's. After the campaign and voting and winners eventually crowned, McDonald's went ahead and released the burgers on a weekly basis, together with the picture and a short biography of the bugger creator (Kearns, 2015). Therefore, businesses can be innovative through the use of social media, though the use of crowdsourcing Open innovation According to nibusinessinfo.co.uk (2017) Dr. Henry Chesbrough, the founder of open innovation, open innovation can be defined as a paradigm where firms can use and should use internal ideas as well as external ideas in order to advance its technological advancement. Open innovation is an important tool that enables businesses to get external ideas, through the social media. Businesses in the 21st century have adopted and are using open innovation to advance their business operations. For example, GE, a couple of years back, ran an Eco-imagination challenge. The challenge was focused at start-ups community (nibusinessinfo.co.uk, 2017). The company had high levels of social media interaction and interestingly, the company launched a new initiative called First-Build. Therefore, through the use of social media, companies can be innovative Increase sales revenue The main reason companies exist is to be profitable by maximizing revenue and minimizing total cost (Opper, Wong and Yang, 2012). Operations in today's business environment are proving to be hard and expensive because of increased production and operational costs. Therefore, the only remedy to increased costs of production is to increase revenue. To increase revenue, customer satisfaction is important. Through the use of social media, companies can be in a position to monitor the progress of their products by obtaining feedback from customers and making the necessary changes. As Kenly and Poston (2017) notes, customers play a vital role in product development. In product development, companies need to factor in feedback and suggestions from customers in order to produce products that meet the expectation and requirements of customers. Some feedbacks and suggestions are relayed by customers through the social media like Facebook, tweeter or even through the use of official company site. Therefore by factoring in customers feedbacks and suggestion, companies will produce products that meet the requirements of customers, consequently selling more and increasing sales revenue, besides also improving on the corporate image identity trough positive referrals (Keisha and Mittal, 2015). Companies should have active social media accounts through which customers can channel in their complaints, suggestions and positive applauses of the product. For example, if a customer complains about the specifications of a particular company product, the customers can communicate the same complaint through an official company social media page. The company should, on the other hand, consider the complaint and if genuine, incorporate the complaints into its production. A research that was undertaken by Kalypso indicated that social media has a potential of adding value in various aspects of product management throughout the product lifecycle (Kenly and Poston, 2017). Limitations of social media as a communication tool in business Negative feedback Corporate image identity is important to an organization as it is how the organization is viewed by the outside world. Once company's corporate image identity is tainted, it's viewed badly from the outside world. The negative image threatens to even downwash a company's goodwill. Goodwill refers to a business ability to make more profits as compared to other firms operating in the same industry. Goodwill arises out of a good name. In as much a social is advantageous to accompany because it creates a platform through which customers can sent feedback to the company regarding their products, it could as well be disadvantageous. The use of social media turns out to be disadvantageous because unsatisfied customers can give negative feedback regarding a company's products, even if the product has been tested to be good, thereby tainting the company negatively (WebpagefxInc, 2017). In as much as satisfied customers will give good feedback regarding the company's products, the negative feedback from unsatisfied customers will portray the company to be bad. Research shows that disgruntled employees from within the company could take into social media to negatively taint the company, making the company look bad (WebpagefxInc, 2017). Therefore, if not wisely used ad managed, social media could be harmful to a business because it could turn out to be an agent through which a business entity is negatively tainted. High risk In as much as the use of social media is advantageous to a business entity, it is disadvantageous in that social media carries with it high risks. The risks include the risk of negative publicity as well as the risk of hacking. In fact, of late, hacking has been a big problem associated with social media. Hackers could be close competitors or even agents of competitors who are out to negatively taint a business. Hackers can hack social media platforms like tweeter or Facebook of a company and post negative comments about the company, making the company look bad. For example, recently, the Associated Press's tweeter account was hacked (Sharma, 2013). A tweet that read "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured" was posted on the Associated Press's tweeter account (Sharma, 2013). The tweet sent a lot of shocks all over the world. The Press later confirmed that their tweeter account had been hacked. If hackers can hack social media accounts of large renown and prestigious companies, other companies are at risk too. Companies should develop and implement powerful policies that tame the negative use of social media within an organization. Similarly, companies and other business entities should strongly safeguard their social media accounts from being hacked. Therefore in as much as social media is a powerful marketing tool in the 21st century, if not properly used and guarded, it could turn out to be disastrous to a business entity. Costly Most companies are going online to market their products. Infact, Chandy ( 2014) notes that due to its cost reducing effect, most businesses prefer social marketing as marketing tool especially in the current environment competition and turmoil. The use of social media as a communication tool for businesses in the 21st century is costly in terms of its maintenance. To be effective as both as communication and marketing tool, social media should be regularly updated. This can turn out to be costly to a business entity as it requires a lot of commitment. Failure to regularly update company social media accounts and blogs can send a negative message to existing and potential customers that if the company cannot manage its own social media accounts and blogs, then it can't be in a position to provide customers with necessary services. Managing social media accounts could be very costly in terms of time. Social media is equated to a living beast. If the beast is well fed, the beast works for you, otherwise, the result will be vice versa. Social media a times may not be used in isolation but in conjunction with other communication tools which makes it even much more costly, especially for small companies which might not be in a position to effectively manage it. Conclusion As Kietzmann et al., (2011) puts, in relation to communication between organizations, communities and individuals, social media has greatly introduced pervasive changes. It is evident that in as much as the use of social media as a communication tool in business in the 21st is advantageous, it also comes with negative consequences. The 21st century is characterized by advanced technology and businesses should struggle to remain relevant, even in the manner in which it communicates. Research shows that even big companies like Samsung and apple have incorporated social media into their communications. The use of social media as a communication tool helps companies to be innovative, a key element of success in the modern, 21st-century business world. In conclusion, therefore, the advantages the uses of social media as communication tool have on business outweigh the disadvantages. Therefore, businesses should incorporate social media into their communication and develop good measures to guard against and minimize negative impacts. References Chandy, R. (2014). MAKING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY WORK. Business Strategy Review, 25(1), pp.77-77. 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