The Use of Social Media in

Knowledge Management Risk or Reward?

By Ivory S. Banks

9/1/2011

ABSTRACT

Knowledge management plays a vital role in an organization. Every member brings a level of

knowledge to an organization that is used to not only ensure it functions competitively in its

given industry, but also that each member is competitive individually. Social media plays a role

in our society as a vital and often credible resource for real-time, accurate information on many

subjects. Salvatore Parise, in his article, “Social media networks: What do they mean for

knowledge management?” discusses how the power of online social media will be leveraged to

enhance and improve knowledge management systems. Based on Parise’s research, this article

will discuss the two key functions he argues social media technology offer knowledge

management systems; social context around knowledge activities and the use of social

navigation. Though many authors in the industry agree with Parise’s assessment of the impact

social media can have on knowledge management, opposition to the idea stems from the threat to

the information security of a company.

Today, social media such as blogs, wikis, and social networking sites are a ubiquitous

form of communication for individuals and organizations alike. The use of these resources is also

on the rise for implementing enterprise knowledge management systems. A great deal of money,

time, and effort is spent to build effective knowledge management systems to store and facilitate

both tacit and explicit knowledge. Senior employees and subject matter experts add the value of

their expertise and the tangible connections they have made with other people in their respective

industries. However, the point of Parise’s article is how that knowledge is used and

promulgated has drastically changed for the better and should be leveraged for the benefit of

knowledge management systems.

“…A big challenge with traditional KM technologies was they often lacked the social

context surrounding both the content and the source/seeker of information (Parise, 2009).”

Parise illustrates how the attendees at his presentation at Babson College quickly disseminated

information about his topic via social media. He points out that the benefit here is being able to

use online social media to disseminate information to a large audience in a very short amount of

time (Parise, 2009). This is unlike traditional social networks that relied mostly on a group of

local people, the control of the network spanned only locally, and were often small in size (Lea

et al., 2006).

A communication vehicle such as Twitter allows users to quickly communicate vital

information in 140 characters or less, or updating a status message on Facebook spreads

information quickly and to a large amount of people. In addition, this method of knowledge

sharing means the information has a shorter time lapse from receipt to being transmitted which

could also lessen the chance of it being shared inaccurately. How can these benefits be tied to

and used for the enhancement of knowledge management? Let us break down the two key

functions Parise says are significant to improving knowledge management systems; social

context and social navigation.

Social context, which Parise defines as the metadata associated with the individuals who

are sharing the knowledge such as their formal title, roles, interests, knowledge activities, and

relationships, must be created to provide a rich knowledge sharing experience (Parise, 2009).

According to C. O’Dell et al., the lack of relationship between the source of information shared

and the author presents a barrier to knowledge sharing (Kane, et al., 67). This analysis supports

the idea that merging the social context of an author to his or her explicit knowledge breaks

down this barrier. “The main principle of social networking sites is the use of explicit

representation of user information and mechanism. They provide automatic inference of

common interest and experience of members through logical reasoning and hence offer

matchmaking services and resource identification to solve tasks arising in the community”

(Neumann et al, 2005).

Traditional knowledge management technologies present a major challenge in

promulgating information because they often lack the social context that ties the author (or

source) and the content of the information together (Parise, 2009). For example, LinkedIn, a

business social networking site, is primarily an online network of professional members who

publish profiles which lists such metadata as their industry expertise and experience, employers,

educational institutions and backgrounds, and professional associations. The information

provided in a member profile serves as a common denominator or query parameter to retrieve

resources matching users, documents, and concepts (Neumann et al., 2005). “Knowledge loses

its meaning when it is detached from its context (Parise. 2009).”

The second key function Parise describes as significant to improving knowledge

management technologies is social navigation. “Social navigation is the process of finding

relevant knowledge sources (people and content) on the social media network (Parise, 2009).”

This process or function is based on human behavior that the actions of one person will influence

the actions of another. He describes the scenario of a user on a site may “follow” a colleague,

Jim, because he or she shares the same interests, expertise, and or work in the same industry. By

virtue of such connections, the user will be influenced by the information Jim publishes (Parise,

2009).

The emergence of social media sites, blogs, and wikis has created a paradigm shift in the

speed, accuracy, and validity of knowledge sharing among colleagues of like industries and

interests. In the scenario Parise describes, ten years ago, the colleague following “Jim” would

have had to collect a business card from someone who knew Jim or Jim himself. Or, he or she

would have to rely on connections to be introduced to Jim to find out what media he has

published, how he can be reached, and where he would be speaking next. “In a social network,

people tag themselves to their interests and can be located by using the tags” (Mulholoan, 2010).

The benefits of leveraging web-based social media resources are clear and apparent to

companies whose goal is to have a robust and accurate knowledge management system.

However, allowing employees to access and share in such an “open” venue poses information

security risks that are not a factor in most traditional knowledge management systems. The

integrity of data presented on a social or professional networking site is inherent. The fact is,

most sites have no restrictions on membership and registration is not subject to approval or

moderation (Neumann et al., 2005). It presents a security challenge to companies when their

employees can publish information about other employees and the company to a public domain.

Organizations express major concern when it comes to implementing social media into

their knowledge management strategies. They fear fraud, loss of control, wasting time, corporate

governance, and the confidentiality (“Knowledge Management,” 2008). According to The

Bureau of National Affairs (2010), sharing data and sensitive company information via Twitter,

Facebook, and LinkedIn pose great threats to protecting proprietary data. Is the threat however,

linked to the fact of companies allowing their employees to use social networking sites as a

communication vehicle?

Though web-based social media has become one of the most prominently used business

tools, many companies do not have policies in place to govern its employees on the use of such

tools. The Bureau of National Affairs (2010) reported that The Institute of Management and

Administration (IOMA) conducted a survey of 300 security executives. Only 47.6 percent,

approximately half, said their company policies on computer use addressed social media. In the

same report, Former FTC regional director, Anthony E. DiResta, advises companies to “adopt

social media policies clearly articulating the type of disclosure employees must include when

they speak or blog about their employers’ media.”

The rapid growth of social technology is a testament to the user adoption of this vehicle

of communication. Salvatore Parise et al. present a strong case for the advantage of incorporating

social media into knowledge management systems. This research validates two essential points;

the importance of knowledge sharing to an organization and the growing popularity of web-

based social networking as a means to share knowledge. The other factor, which is evident but

unproven to be a deterrent, is the threat to data integrity or information security. In order to

conclude whether the benefits of using social media to enhance knowledge management systems

outweigh information security risks, one would have to determine whether the same level of

risks exist even without incorporating online social media. For example, such concerns as loss of

control of information flows, disgruntled employees publishing disparaging remarks about the

organization, or the mistaken communication of internal company memorandums (Burrus, 2010)

are all incidents that can and do occur without social media networks facilitating the

compromise. Information security risks should not impede the advancement of KM systems.

Instead, organizations should implement information security policies that are fluid with how

information is shared.

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