Technical Communication Unbound: Knowledge Work, Social Media, and Emergent Communicative Practices

The Importance of Publicly Available Social Networking Sites (SNSs) to Entrepreneurs

“…In another study, researchers surveyed workers in technically oriented online groups (e.g. meetup groups and Google groups) about their work-related use of publicly available online services (PAOSs) such as Twitter, Linked In, Basecamp, and Google Docs [13]. German researchers asked workers and students about the activities they conduct using publicly available SNSs [23].…”

“…IBM employees present themselves on Beehive by posting personal photos, discussing hobbies, highlighting Finding people who share similar interests [7,29] Participating in professional groups [28] People sensemaking [7] Learning about colleagues to prepare for an initial conversation [25] Keeping in contact with others [7,8], media sharing (photos and videos) [11] Finding business partners [23], recruiting employees [28] Planning offline activities [11] Developing associations [13], strengthening relationships through information exchange [25], Increasing feelings of connectedness [30] Soliciting help [11] Managing contact information [23], keeping a relationship alive after meeting someone in person [25] Promoting projects to executives (potential supporters) [7] Building social capital by connecting contacts to each other [25] Staying in touch with past colleagues and alumni [23,25,28] …”

“…Reaching out to ask questions [29] Following technical news [28], keeping up on industry trends [25,30], learning about a topic [13] Searching for experts [23] Finding current product reviews [30] Self Presentation Presenting oneself [7] Presenting oneself [23], sharing personal information [13] Boundary regulation (negotiating the professional and personal online) [25,28] …”

“…Studies have shown that some employers have guidelines prohibiting the use of SNSs in the workplace and other employers restrict access to SNSs on their networks altogether [13,15]. The reluctance of workplaces to adopt SNSs is not surprising given the difficulty of envisioning the workplace benefits of SNSs.…”

“…And recent research has indicated that SNSs have the potential to provide important workplace benefits such as supporting relationship development and socializing new members in an organization [13,26].…”