Tweet Inside: Microblogging in a Corporate Context

By applying genre analysis, this case study finds that microblogging in this corporate context is vastly different to its public equivalent and argues that decision makers should trust in their employees in putting microblogting to productive use in their group work environments.

Abstract

With the advent of Twitter, Microblogging has become increasingly popular. The service is simple, easy to use and its success has company executives wondering if using the short message service in their Intranets would benefit organisational information sharing and communication. At the same time, others have cautioned against transferring social media inside the corporation as this might lead to importing unwanted procrastination behaviours. Against this backdrop, our case study explores communication patterns in a team that has adopted Enterprise Microblogging. By applying genre analysis, find that microblogging in this corporate context is vastly different to its public equivalent. We discuss our findings in light of contextual differences and the open nature of communication platforms, which impact on user appropriation. Moreover, we argue that decision makers should vest trust in their employees in putting microblogging to productive use in their group work environments.