|
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
For more information about "The Rise of Social Media" report, please visit www.astd.org/research.
Laleh Patel is research associate for ASTD; lpatel@astd.org. |