Nowadays, we have an almost infinite amount of information available on the Internet. Millions of blog posts and websites generate all sorts of information about any topic imaginable. Knowledge management software, which includes the identification and effective use of institutional insight, has introduced the opportunity for knowledge management system use in the businesses environment. Instead of simply having a lot of data and information and not knowing exactly how to use it or its significance, KMSs are used to dissect and make sense of the information found on the Web. They help turn information into knowledge and are changing how businesses interact all across the board. Then there’s social media. Social media has become deeply integrated into today’s society and opened up doors to information and ways of connection for businesses. Let’s explore just how closely intertwined knowledge management and social media are.
First of all, social media contributes to knowledge on the Internet, and can increase quality of knowledge when used properly. Communication is visible and forefront on social media, which opens doors for greater understanding of all sorts of knowledge. With a reliable source, such as social media, organizations have a higher chance of ensuring quality information and in turn, knowledge.
Secondly, social media generates social content, which also changes the nature of knowledge management. Content is content, but social content is completely different. It is more of a discussion with emotion, which means there are many faces of social content. There is no driving force to produce standard content and instead, the nature of knowledge management shifts to accommodate conversations and comments that once could be approached as simple data.
Requiring Less Management
Thirdly, social media requires less ‘management’. Knowledge management was often driven from the need to clean up data and create knowledge from it. With systems that are social-media-driven, the focus can go back to the end product, the knowledge. Instead of spending too much time on cleaning up, validating and categorizing data, systems will adapt to do this faster and better so that insight can be created sooner and organizations can use this new knowledge in their favor.
Social media is here to stay, and will probably inspire more platforms to pop up. This means the future is going to be about managing unstructured content. While there will always be curiosity and habit to load large volumes of content into a KMS, the shift will be for more people to be driven to understand the value in unstructured data. For example, say an organization wants to learn the true response to its new product line that it just launched. Unstructured content that is gathered and used to create information can drive customer service and market research shifts. Social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, can be used to pull content and create this knowledge. Another example is to understand what holiday locations people are attracted to during the season. Through a survey and social media activity, the unstructured content can be pulled together and used to best assist an organization in the travel or hospitality industry. With so much content out there these days, the list could go on. But with the presence of social media especially, the unstructured content will be where we see the major changes in years to come.