Effect of Social Networks on Communication Management - Article Example

Review Article about the Effect of Social Networks on Communication Management Previous research studies by the differentscholars of the world reveal how social media in the recent past has become a major mode of communication in the world. Some other research studies have also revealed how social media usage has grown in different companies of the world. Langer (2014) examined how the social media usage has affected communication within the different organizations and with their stakeholders; customers and suppliers as well as the effect social media has on public communication. The core purpose of this research study is to interpret the effects of social media on communication management. Fifteen to twenty five journal articles by different scholars of the world were reviewed by the researcher. The results revealed that social media has an effect on both organizational and public communication management. Social media therefore has an influence on both the company and public communication. Introduction Over the last two decades, social media has become the most used form of communication in the world. Different scholars and researchers of the world attribute this fact to the vast growth and development of technology of the world that has not only expanded public communication but also expanded the organizational communication; internal and external by providing an adequate platform through which communication takes place (Leornardi et.al, 2013). Social media has a direct impact on the organizational strategies. For instance, use of social media directly impacts on the marketing strategies as well as the advertising strategies of the different companies of the world. Different scholars of the world argue that even though social media platform has been criticized for erosion of privacy in the different organizations, it has brought the customers closer to the products and further enhanced productivity of the different companies of the world through enhanced employee-employee communication (Iyengar et.al, 2012). The discussion surrounding the effects of social media is among the most recent in the field of communication. Having emerged not long ago, social media has revolutionized the communication means (Keyton, 2011). It has further taken part in transformation of the world into a global village. The speed at which information travels from one location to another in this present day has been improved by far. Following the increased interaction between people, organizations and even people and organization, commercial activities such as trade have further grown and expanded (Leornadi et.al, 2014). Nevertheless, social media has also transformed the organizational management (Fischer and Reuber, 2011). Social media has further reduced some of the costs associated with key business activities in the company. Such costs include marketing and advertisement costs. The purpose of this particular study is to show the effects of social media in communication management. The study will therefore establish how the social media has increased, decreased and maintained the success of the corporate communication strategies in different organizations as well as the effect of social media to the public communication laws and policies. Extensive research on the effects of social media on communication is vital in providing information and interpretations as to why social media usage is significant in promoting the public communication of the world as well as the organizational communication and why it should continue being embraced as a major communication platform in the world. Further, evaluation of the literature derived from different scholarly work by the researcher in this paper revealed and identified the gaps that exist in this area of study and further provided findings in relation to effects of social media on communication management. From this data, the researcher derived adequate conclusions. The research questions developed by the researcher to guide this study are; how do social media affect organization’s communication policies? And how has social media affected the public communication laws and regulations? Social media Different scholars of the world have defined social media in different ways. According to Smith (2012), social media is the “social interactions using technology with any combination of words, pictures, video or audio”. Cavico et.al (2013) defined social media as that platform that consists of integrated web-based networks through which the different individuals exchange information and communicate with each other collectively. For the purpose of this study the social media is defined as the various techniques, electronic tools as well as applications that facilitate content exchange and interactive communication between different people enabling the different users to send information and receive real-time feedback and real-time response (Marken, 2007). The social media has in the recent past continued to have dramatic effect in our societies particularly on the aspects of culture and interactions between people and relationship management (Modaff et.al, 2007). The most common social media platforms today include Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Instagram, and Whatsapp amongst others (Ellison and Lampe, 2007). The largest social media platforms today are Facebook and Twitter (Fogel and Nehmad, 2009). According to Papasolomou and Melanthiou (2012), social network platforms have completely transformed how the families, friends and the co-workers communicate and exchange information on daily basis. According to Fischer and Reuber (2011), Facebook as a social site has enhanced efficiency and effectiveness of communication between family members, workers, coworkers and friends. Having been founded in the year 2004, Facebook has grown to become the largest and the most popular social media of the world with more than two hundred million subscribers (Wilson, 2009; Kittinger et.al, 2012). Twitter significantly follow closely and happens to be more popular than Facebook following its ability to provide a platform where different persons can communicate in short real-time messages (Waters & Williams, 2011; Hughes and Palen, 2009). Linked In is more of a professional site than a social network since it is more inclined to job related issues (Wilson, 2009). Through the social network, alliances gets formed between different individuals, individuals who need help obtain it, information originates from one person and passes to others and adequate actions are taken to achieve the end results (Breslin, 2009). For the different companies of the world to fully incorporate the use of the social media platforms in the places of work, adequate communication policies have been considered vital (Wilson, 2009). Methods The primary intention of the study is to uncover the effects of the social media on communication management both in an organizational and in a public perspective. For further analysis of the study, the procedure used in the selection of the articles to the study was developed by the researcher. The research study was a novel approach under a qualitative interpretive research paradigm. The interpretive methodology was used since it would provide a better understanding and interpretation of the communication management and the effects of social media on organizational and public communication (Keyton, 2011). Also, the qualitative interpretive research paradigm was adequate in interpreting the data from the interviews conducted by the researcher. The interpretive research paradigm was therefore chosen to help the researcher establish a deeper understanding of the underling effects of social media on communication management in an organization and a public context. In order to accurately establish the effects of social media on communication management, it is important to gather the ideas and opinions of the different scholars of the world. Through the use of the Google Scholar search Engine, the researcher was able to acquire 30 research articles identified as potential for use in this study. Through use of appropriate exclusion criteria, the researcher further reduced the number of the articles to 25. The exclusion criteria was based on; the relevance of the article to the study and the date of publication. Out of the identified 30 potential journal articles to the study, 3 articles were found to only have information regarding social media as just a communication strategy. They never revealed the effects social media in this case in regard to communication management. 2 articles were more than ten years old. The researcher found little use of these articles and had to exclude them from the study. Also, the researcher conducted interviews on 10 respondents selected from a target population of senior management officers from five organizations as well as five government officials from major government agencies. Results From the analysis of the articles, it was established that the social media has an adequate effect on communication management in both organizational and public perspectives. All the senior management officers interviewed agreed that social media usage in an organization leads to development and implementation of new company policies to regulate communication between the different employees, further training on effective use of social media at work place has been witnessed in the different organizations as a means of enhancing organizational communication management. On the other hand, four government officers interviewed pointed out that the effects social media has on public communication have proved more dangerous since it has become impossible for the different governments and law enforcing agencies of the world to control what is said over the social media platforms hence resulting to development of new laws and regulations as well as independent government agencies to monitor and control the social media usage. Discussion Social media and organizational communication management In the recent past, the act of social site misuse at work place has become a common problem to the different companies of the world. The different social networks adequately allow the different users to construct public or partial-public profiles. These profiles allow the other users who are friends or non-friends to the user in a certain social site to view a post or make a comment on it (Shelke and Badiye, 2013). Imagine a scenario where an employee of a global manufacturing firm tweeting or posting on Facebook something like ‘Tomorrow we are going to start developing a brand new product’. He or she then goes on to describe the characteristics of the new brand under development. Information in relation to the company’s future brands is confidential and should not be exposed to the public for the purpose of concealing it making sure it remains inaccessible to the competitors since they may capitalize on such information. Tweeting or Facebook posting of information in relation to company’s developing brands or brand strategies can be suicidal for the company (Christofides and Desmarais, 2009). Suppose in the scenario above, the company wanted to take the competitor’s by surprise? The new brand to be released by the company in this case stops being a ‘surprise’ to the competitors and in fact competitors begin strategizing on how to retaliate with their own brands. In a different scenario, how would a manager react after noticing that his or her employees have been discussing some issues on social media concerning his or her bad leadership? Or the employees have been engaging on use of abusive languages on social media? According to the study by Langer (2014), in such a scenario, the employee is liable to his or her own actions and according to the recent laws and guidelines on social media usage; the employee takes full responsibility of his or her own actions (Christofides and Desmarais, 2009). Langer (2014) further observed that some employees were happy to have the organizational guidelines on social media usage at work place while a portion of the employees thought the guidelines were not necessary since the employees were supposed to act with decency. Langer (2014) further indicated that in the last four years the different organizations of the world have developed and implemented key organizational policies that guide the social media usage. Santra and Giri (2009) reflected on how social media platform has improved the organizational communication by making it possible for the different employees to effectively communicate. Further, Santra and Giri (2009) noted that a number of employees do not even want to be guided on social media usage at work place since they prefer keeping their personal life and professional life separate to create boundaries between their personal life and work life. This is also very adequate for the organizational culture and further demonstrates how the social media can affect the organizational policies in relation to communication management. Santra and Giri (2009) therefore concluded that social media is an independent variable to the communication management in an organization. As much as social media may need to be guided in an organization, free use of social media has over the recent past been observed to have more benefits to the organization than the constrained use. It is evident that use of social media tools leads to development of effective mediums of communication in the company and outside the company. This may enable the company to further reach out to both the clients and the customers. Social media is therefore a great initiative for the company in monitoring and taking part in online discussions with their respective client and through the social media, the different employees and managers are able to engage in fair and open discussions amongst themselves and with their respective clients. This further enables swift flow of information from one employee to another and also improves on the company relationship management. Smith (2012) observed that with the use of social media, information moves in different directions rather than just from top to down and that social media enhances the level of customer experience and enables the employees to build a foundation of change that may take place in future. Therefore, by carefully managing the social media platforms, an organization can stand a chance of successfully managing a large-scale change that may occur in future. Sashi (2012) observed that apart from being an interactive process, social media has enhanced the organizational engagement as well as satisfaction. Therefore, use of social media in the organizational perspective is an expectation for each and every organization of the world rather than a choice. In this regard, the modern organizations today are therefore supposed to plan, design strategies and implement them and monitor the social media communication medium so as to fully leap from its benefits. Social media and public communication management In the last one decade, use of social media has grown to become one of the most utilized forms of communication of the 21st century (Acquisti and Gross, 2009). From the most recent researches by the different scholars of the world, the growth of social media as a public communication platform has been experienced in every part of the world. This has had both negative and positive impacts to the general public as well as to the respective government agencies of the world. Waters and Williams (2011) observed that the social media usage has largely been incorporated as a major communication medium by the respective government agencies across the world. This has enabled real-time flow of information from the government to the general public. The general public in this regard has benefited in getting first hand information. In this regard, the government agencies have been able to carefully assess the feelings and thoughts of the people they serve pertaining to a particular agendas or action they partake. Nevertheless, social media usage in public communication has not been as easy as it sounds. To this present day and century, it is expected that people attach moral values and ethics to their actions. This is the complete opposite of what is observed today on social media, some individuals have completely assumed the moral values and ethics and use social media as a medium to attack their enemies verbally, stalk others, spread hate speech and even racially segregate others (Shelke and Badiye, 2013). In some other occasions, other individuals have used the social media as a platform to even abuse the Heads of State something that has angered the security agencies of the world and the general public. In some other parts of the world, social media has been used as a platform to recruit and plan terrorist attacks (Thompson, 2011; Homeland Security Institute, 2009). In this regard, the different governments have been forced to interfere with the citizens’ freedom of speech since it is no longer freedom of speech when the freedom is used to infringe the rights of other citizens. Today, laws and policies in relation to social media have been developed and implemented in the different parts of the world to serve as guiding principles to social media usage (Clay, 2011). Some of the government agencies in the different nations of the world have also been given powers to control and monitor the online communication and use of social media. Conclusion Social media is a very important communication platform to the world today. It has not only opened up the entire world for business but also enabled the people of the world to adequately interact effectively. Nevertheless, the continued growth of use of social media in different organization has resulted into evolution of the communication management in the different organizations of the world. Today, organizations plan and monitor the online communications. Some organizations have developed internal and external communication directives to guide the use of social media both inside and outside the organization. On the other hand, public communication has further received a boost through use of social media as a communication platform but constrained following the development and implementation of new communication laws and policies pertaining the public use of social media. The study further concluded that a longitudinal study will be appropriate in establishing a more clear understanding of the effects of social media on communication management. Reference Acquisti, Alessandro, and Gross, Ralph. (2009). 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