Employee social media usage in the workplace: Internal marketing's new found friend

The paper carries out a review of the extant literature on social media to develop an understanding of the underlying principles for employees to use social media. The authors suggest that employees' use of social media can have a strong positive impact in the workplace by strengthening internal communication amongst colleagues, an integral part of internal marketing and employee satisfaction. The authors suggest that social media can be used by employees as an internal communications tool and incorporate it into an internal marketing strategy. We propose that social media usage among employees is viewed not as an independent uncontrollable phenomenon, but as a primary internal marketing executive tool to be encouraged and managed in and beyond the workplace. An instrument to be utilised towards achieving job related activities, providing development opportunities to employees and instilling strong social ties among organisational members to attain internal, and ultimately, external customer satisfaction.