Work-Related Social Media Content: The Socially Mediated Workplace

• In Event: Organizational Communication Research Escalator - Extended Session

Abstract

Social networking site use in organizations is evolving at an unprecedented pace (Treem & Leonardi, 2012). SNS use enables employees to represent their organization online (van Zoonen et al.. 2014) engage in intraorganizational communication and manage relationships with external publics (Ollier-Malaterre, Rothbard & Berg, 2013; van Zoonen, et al., 2014). Moreover, the large number of work-based friendships and the notion that work is a pivotal life domain (Ollier-Malaterre, et al., 2013) results in increasing use of personal social networking sites (SNS) for work related purposes (Johnston, 2014). Hence, although a significant amount of publicly available social media messages shared on employees’ personal SNS is likely to be work- or organization related (e.g., Ollier-Malaterre et al., 2013), little is known about the content of such messages. This study aims to fill the void in current literature by examining the work and organization related content that employees publish on personal SNS.

Author

• ward van zoonen, U of Amsterdam