It is virtually impossible to ignore the potential of social media
for any business operation. The main reason for the excitement is
the fact that social media is engulfing the population at
phenomenal rates. While it took radio and television 38 years and
13 years, respectively, to reach 50 million users, it took Facebook
less than nine months to reach 100 million users. iPhone
applications even hit 1 billion innine months.
Although social media technologies have gathered widespread
adoption, they are still gaining traction in the workplace relative
to increases in personal usage. Business leaders need to determine
the appropriate methods for leveraging the power of social media
tools to maximize learning and drive performance. This mandate is
especially important when considering that in the next five years,
more than half of the workforce is expected to be composed of the
Millennial generation.
ASTD and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) recently
partnered to explore the connection between social media and
work-related learning. Findings from the study "The Rise of Social
Media" reveal that although using social media technologies can
boost productivity, most organizations have yet to fully integrate
and formalize the use of social media in the workplace. Employers
that fail to identify how to harness social media could fall behind
both as employers of choice and as learning organizations.
The data in "The Rise of Social Media" offer a unique perspective
by exploring the business case for supporting and using social
media technologies from a learner's point of view, rather than
solely focusing on executive assessments. For learners, social
media can be a powerful tool, especially for Millennials.
Figure
1 illustrates the breakdown for each of the four
components of the Social Media Benefits Index (SMBI), which
addresses the overall effectiveness of respondents' social
media efforts. Millennials found social media tools to be more
helpful in terms of learning and getting work done than
Generation X and Baby Boomers.
The study also indicated that there is a relationship between
workers who use social media tools in their personal lives and the
benefits they derive from using them at work because they are more
familiar with the tools and therefore have fewer reservations about
using them at work.
With an understanding that social media
tools are beneficial for work-related learning, the study also
established which tools are most commonly used and their
relationship with the SMBI. The most frequently used tool is
the shared workspace, with 42 percent of respondents using it
often or all the time. This was followed by social networks
(20 percent use them often or all the time) and wikis (19
percent).
Some of the more nascent technologies, such as virtual worlds and
augmented realities, were not as widely used, with only 1.3 percent
and 0.4 percent using them often or all the time, respectively.
While these tools have useful features, most companies have not yet
discovered how they can be used most effectively within their
organizations.
Every technology was significantly and positively correlated with
the SMBI, suggesting that the more respondents reported using these
technologies, the more likely they were to report that the
technology was an effective way to learn and improve productivity
at work.
The fundamental shift in habits and expectations that the surging
Millennial generation will bring to the workplace makes it
essential for business leaders to prepare for the rise of social
media in learning and development. Although there is still a lot of
progress that can be made to leverage the tools effectively, it is
encouraging that organizations are beginning to use the tools for
learning purposes and realize their potential. t+D