In the modern world of business, knowledge is one of the most significant strategic resources for organizations. It wouldn’t be wrong to call it a gizmo that can progress a company from within, along with improving consumer gratification. Knowledge offers a long-standing competitive advantage to businesses as it facilitates workers and consumers in dealing with unusual encounters that may surface at any time.
Over the last few decades, knowledge management has emerged as one of the hottest ideas among small-scale as well as large-sized companies. In the age of millennials and catapulting growth of astonishing technical solutions, almost every industry and company has comprehended that the workers’ knowledge, replicated in their proficiency, has become their critical resource.
Determined to offer improved products and services, companies are now investing in dedicated knowledge management systems. The primary objective of such an investment is to promote sharing the best practices among all employees. Secondly, a knowledge management system can be used to provide a precise source of appropriate business knowledge in the form of an organized knowledge base that is accessible for everyone.
However, choosing the right knowledge management system can be challenging and time-consuming. If you are looking for an inexpensive and user-friendly method of sharing knowledge in the workplace, social media networks could be your silver bullet.
The use of social media has greatly streamlined the challenging process of knowledge sharing among employees. However, the usage of social networks itself is not an assurance of triumph. Without effective planning, you may find yourself trapped in the mayhem of ambiguous ideas.
Best Ways Social Media can empower Knowledge Sharing
Whether you intend to use social media as a stand-alone knowledge sharing platform or wish to integrate it with your existing corporate knowledge sharing tools, here are some nifty ways of attaining real value from their usage in knowledge sharing:
- Collaborative and prompt learning
Did you know that nearly one-third of employees claim that boring content is an obstacle to their learning? Therefore, it is not unexpected that companies enthusiastic to capitalize on their employees’ knowledge select more flexible online learning methods over the old-style approaches.
With regards to flexible online training, social media networks have made a pronounced innovation. These networks have stimulated the state-of-the-art learning tendencies that consist of voluntary communication using in-house business social media groups and chat forums. Owing to the social media, workers now have the prospects of implementing new knowledge on the move, which is facilitated by prompt communication.
Along with learning on the job, they assist one another by sharing valuable knowledge in real-time. This way, they also cultivate the sense of belonging and unity among teams, which is also an important aspect.
Encouraging social network utilization for knowledge sharing can increase the efficiency of the whole staff. For example, the knowledge used by the sales team, marketing team and consumer care reps can be utilized to enhance the performance of all three departments.
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- Powerful ally to your existing knowledge sharing platform
Social media can also be a great tool in supplementing your knowledge sharing software. Majority of cloud-based knowledge management platforms are equipped with a search feature and by distributing the knowledge on social networks, individuals will recognize the presence of such information in the company’s knowledge base.
Consequently, it will significantly increase its usage statistics. However, it is important to have a team responsible for editing the content shared on social networks as you would not want imprecise information to be endorsed as practical knowledge.
- Streamlined and real-world learning content
Often employees come across problems that they are not capable of solving on their own or by simply asking a coworker. They would need comprehensive descriptions. Nonetheless, rather than offering them a lengthy guidebook and fatiguing booklets, social media networks can be utilized to provide them with an appealing knowledge base encompassing content that will aid them in learning more proficiently.
These are some simple yet engaging techniques of delivering appealing content:
- blogs and corporate articles with epic content
- eye-catching infographics
- intellectual charts and tables
- resources similar to Wiki
Along with using business social media networks to make knowledge easily available, companies can also make it effortlessly comprehensible with special preparation that is possible only with the support of your in-house teams. Consequently, you’ll save the funds otherwise required for employing external specialists, books, and other resources they may perhaps need.
- Visual learning material
They say, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’, hence, a video must worth a thousand more!
According to a study, a learner retains only 10 to 20% of written or verbal knowledge after three days while the percentage is as high as 65 for visual content. A different research suggests that a manuscript with illustrations is 9% more effectual than a simple written document when analyzing instant understanding and 83% more effectual when the analysis is conducted later on.
Therefore, although the streamlined reading content can be an exceptional means of embracing new knowledge, companies eager to spend more on generating a more astounding knowledge base should contemplate about videos.
In the light of the continuously snowballing acceptance of YouTube lessons and similar materials, you can visualize the response of your consumers if you provide them with HD videos!
Whether you wish to clarify some perplexing procedures or communicate with your customers about your business ideals, you are more likely to garner better attention by means of video content and social media in comparison with customary approaches.
- In-house community formation
Facilitating your workers in learning according to their own pace and schedule can make them more ardent or inquisitive about some particular matters. Consequently, it’d be a huge mistake not to offer them a platform where they can communicate with one another about these matters and put forward their thoughts, concepts, and suggestions.
Here’s how social media takes the center stage again: Make different groups/communities for every topic of interest and inform all workers about it. Let them exchange valuable content, and share queries. Moreover, another effective strategy is to let a trustworthy senior colleague lead the group. This way, an expert will always be available in case of more multifaceted queries that other workers can’t solve at their ends.
- Fostering a knowledge sharing culture
Employees often do not find it appealing to share their knowledge and experience in an in-house knowledge base as they feel that sharing may lessen their worth. Therefore, it is necessary to come up with an extensive strategy for encouraging a knowledge sharing culture.
A paramount approach to tackle this difficulty is to allow employees to converse about the subjects and share ideas. This is precisely what social networks facilitate. After monitoring and control, considerable amount of information found via the comments on social media can be incorporated with a cloud-based knowledge sharing platform. It will keep the information up-to-date and as precise as possible. Moreover, rewarding the one who contributes the most knowledge will give incentive to everybody to share their ideas.
- Creating a hierarchical order
Even though business social networks are regarded for their flexibility and user-friendliness, it is important to establish a straightforward hierarchical order. If you choose a satisfactory social network for your business, make groups, and discussion forums, and then let everyone operate on their own, chances are that you’d do more harm than good.
Each effective arrangement needs at least some level of organization. Therefore, you should keep your social networks systematized by selecting admins and supervisors. The primary duty of these administrators would be to not only gather and categorize information but also kindle discussions, eliminate spam and inappropriate material along with recompensing the most dynamic and well-informed individuals in the office.
- Great platform to introduce new products and services
If you think knowledge sharing is restricted only to your employees, you need to think again. Today, customers are in the forefront and form an important aspect of your knowledge sharing practices. Whether you wish to market your business, or communicate your corporate values to the masses, social media can be a very influential ally.
Want to create a buzz about your business on social media and engage consumers? Here’s what you can do: Come up with detailed guides on social networks based on the earlier experience of the consumer care department. This way, you can offer extremely valuable information about your company’s new products and services to the customers. It is also a great way to share some in-house information with a broader audience.
Communicate on the social media how your business promotes environment-friendly practices or how your product or service ensures that the consumer gets a pleasant experience when using it. Using the social networks for this purpose makes information sharing a stress-free process as probing for specific information (via search options, trends and hashtags) and sharing becomes very convenient.
However, it is important to keep in mind that consumers’ comments are never overlooked, as they offer valuable information that can be recycled to enhance the content already established in your knowledge base.
Final Words
Using social media networks for business purposes has drastically enhanced knowledge sharing practices in the companies. It is a quick yet effective way to yield results that could not be accomplished over the past few decades in the arena of knowledge sharing and management.
Hence, it should not be surprising to observe that the amalgamation of business social networks and first-class knowledge base has become an essential resource for every prosperous company.
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