

Departments can hold brainstorming sessions or maintain ongoing conversations with questions and answers on a blog teams can use wikis to manage projects, share best practices and research case studies the CEO can keep a blog or record a podcast and organizations can immediately deliver news to employees.Ĭollaborative technologies are valuable in the workplace because of their effectiveness in improving understanding and teamwork, building relationships and developing lateral communication. Organizations can make use of social media in a variety of ways. Social media also include applications sometimes known as "Web 2.0," a term encompassing technologies such as blogs, texting, wikis, and other applications like Google Reader and Google Docs. Well-known examples of social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but social media can take many different forms including Internet forums, online profiles, podcasts, pictures and video, e-mail, instant messaging, music sharing programs, and Internet-based voice services (voice over IP), to name just a few. Social media are information-based tools and technologies used to share information and facilitate communications with internal and external audiences. HR often takes the lead in developing, communicating and enforcing social media policies and on keeping up with the changing legal landscape of social media. The development and administration of social media use policies is a top concern for employers.

Concerns with employees using their personal social media accounts during work hours, "friending" of subordinate employees and potential misuse of social media platforms. There are also potential issues with social media use in the workplace. Not only has social media changed the way we communicate, but it presents great opportunities for businesses in the areas of public relations, internal and external communications, recruiting, organizational learning and collaboration, and more. Common social media applications include sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. The growth of social media has significantly changed the way people communicate at home and at work.
