Do we publish the next job promotion via Twitter?

Lots, in fact heaps, has been written about using social networking for work. Wading through what’s been written on the subject, two articles drew my attention. And more than the actual pieces, it’s the combination of these that I think can change the way we relate in the office.

Yesterday in his blog, Mario Belmonte published the results of a study conducted by Watson Wyatt which stated that 65% of management plan to increase the use of social networking in 2010 as part of their strategy for improving communication with their employees.

I don’t know if this is spurred by a lack of communication with employees or because they have realized that these “communicate” better through social networks.

And that is where the second article comes in. According to the Annual Report from the Information Society in Spain (Informe Anual de la Sociedad de la Información en España), when it comes to the percentage of users who participate in social networks we are the top country in Europe and second in the world.

Reading through the report, we can confirm that Spaniards have a very strong presence in the network, especially those between 10 and 34 years old, way ahead of the European Union. Rather surprising, even though it’s the country most affected by the financial downturn, Spanish homes have most heavily invested in technology services, particularly in mobile phones.

With these figures on the table, I’m not surprised that managers have decided to jump on to the “social networking” bandwagon to communicate with their employees. There are interesting conclusions to be had from the report, like 48% of managers have reduced their printed communication and 78% increased electronic communication. And face to face communication increased by 55%—not bad at all.

Clearly companies are still experimenting with the possibility of using social networking as a new communications channel, not just with their employees but also with clients, partners and others. Despite this growing interest, it hasn’t drawn investment in personnel nor resources. Some 36% of the managers indicated that the main reason for not using social networking in employee communications was due to a lack of IT support or technical capacity. A further 40% said they had limited knowledge on the subject and another 45% blamed the dearth of qualified personnel for not taking up social networking.

What do you think? Will social networking in the office improve internal communication?