Social Networks and Internal Corporate Communication: Help or Hindrance?

An innovative, forward-looking organization has a different kind of internal structure, different Marketing and a different way of processing things. Innovative organizations have methods and processes that help them avoid stagnation. In the 21st century we have embraced a whole new technological world. Communicating through social networks is a new phenomenon and organizations must follow this trend, otherwise they will not endure. Companies need to be close to clients and the best way to achieve this is by exploring the new tools that online social media provide (social media includes e-mail and social networks and other such applications). The way people are exposed to information and publicity suffered a real change, as nowadays almost everything is also advertised online. Internet usage and social networking will be the focus of this article. The main research question of this paper is: what is the impact of using social networks on the performance and competitiveness of organizations? This question is relevant since almost every company has access to the Internet, as do their employees. Social networks may also be used for professional purposes as networks that connect everyone to expedite and facilitate communication. On the other hand, social networks may influence productivity negatively. To better discuss the main issue, we will use a Portuguese company as a case study. Thus, we interviewed an employee at BRABBU - the head of the BRABBU Press & Communications department - to establish patterns in the usage of social networks for internal communication during working hours. BRABBU is an award-winning company which won the Best Viral Instagram award, in January 2018, attributed by the Maison et Objet. Furthermore, a sample of the general population was surveyed (we received 352 answers to the survey) to deepen the study of this topic and so as to ascertain whether people think that online social networks help or hinder business performance. The result was clear: social networks may be a great help for internal communication, but this does not replace human contact. Finally, this usage of social networks in the work environment has to reach a consensus amongst the younger generations (e.g. millennials, in favour of this usage) and older ones (e.g. baby boomers, not so receptive to new technologies).