Social media at work is indispensable.

It may sound strange, but there are still employers who do not allow the use of social media at work. These employers lose their attractiveness and an effective fast way of communicating.

Some employers don’t like it. Employees who are active on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin or Twitter during working hours. Or employees who use one of the many chat programs that exist. While the use of social media continues to grow almost limitless. Companies such as Google continue to build data centers to handle all that data storage and data exchange.

Social media

Today’s youth do nothing but be present on social media. Just look around on the street. Who is not busy with their smartphone or tablet? Tomorrow’s employee is completely at home in social media and will undoubtedly look strange as his future employer, considering social media something undesirable in the workplace. Such employers will become a lot more unattractive for the [top] talent of tomorrow. For tomorrow’s expected tight labor market, this is something to think seriously about.

Social media is also ideally suited to keep in touch with your customers very quickly and closely. Fortunately, many companies already use social media, even with trial and error. It is often too formal, where customers have a different view. It is not uncommon for this to lead to misunderstanding and frustrated social media messages about your company. If your organization works via social media, it is important that your customer focus is at a high level. That is different from being customer-friendly. Customer focus indicates to what extent you can respond to the wishes and requirements of your customers.

Internal communications

Internally, social media are also excellent for taking internal communication to a higher level. It takes some getting used to if your young employee responds to his netbook as quickly as twitter, sends a short chat message to his colleague, but the speed and intensity of communication is increasing by leaps and bounds. It improves the effectiveness of your organization because in a fraction all parties involved are aware of the latest decisions within your organization. That saves you the necessary extra meetings. Another advantage is that you can reduce the need for heavy management layers in this way. It offers the opportunity to make your organization more self-managing.

Social media is indispensable. It is up to today’s employers to prepare well for the future to implement this new form of Business Intelligence. A future where being online and working online become as common as the phone.