There are good reasons why companies should use Facebook as a means of promoting social learning. Too many business owners don’t take advantage of this free social media network out of fear that employees will abuse their social media privileges. As a result, entire companies miss out on all of Facebook’s social learning benefits.
Use Facebook to Your Company’s Advantage
Like social media, social media learning is a relatively new idea. It is defined as “the acquisition of information and skills through social technologies that allow people to collaborate, converse, provide input, create content and share it.” Companies that use social media networks, specifically Facebook, typically see employees grow in skills and work-related knowledge outside of a formal training environment. This is a great thing since, according to eLearning Industry, “The more knowledge a worker assimilates, and the quicker he/she absorbs it, the more competitive and profitable will he/she become for the company.”
Evolving technologies like Facebook have been seen to be a phenomenal success across the world. With a user base that is rapidly approaching 900 million, individuals spend an average of 7.5 hours on the site each month. Companies often limit access to Facebook in the workplace, but the reality is that they are missing out on an opportunity to harness an incredibly versatile tool for social learning.
7 Reasons Why Facebook Is an Ideal Social Learning Tool
There are many reasons why trainers should use Facebook to increase informal/social learning in the workplace; here are a few:
- It is highly accessible and free. Companies that use Facebook to promote informal learning can bypass more expensive learning options.
- The majority of users will already be familiar with Facebook, hence learning can be immediately focused on the actual course material as opposed to getting to grips with how to use the learning platform.
- It offers various learning tools such as images, private messaging, videos, discussion boards, and chat features.
- It is incredibly user-friendly. This is a big reason why learners and trainers alike enjoy interacting with this site.
- It can be accessed from any location. This eradicates the need to get learners to one physical place. Especially helpful to remote workers, Facebook is an ideal learning tool for employees spread over a wide geographical area. Much like a learning management system (LMS), Facebook allows users to access course content at any time.
- Its social features allow and even encourage learners to collaborate with one another.
- Last but not least, Facebook is fun to use. Most people voluntarily use this social networking site to connect with family and friends in meaningful ways. More and more trainers are beginning to engage with learners through Facebook, and that makes everyone happy.
Because it has a bad rap for causing distractions in the workplace, Facebook often gets overlooked by business owners who are seeking informal learning options for their employees. This is a shame since this free-of-cost social media site undoubtedly offers a rich multimedia platform to promote social learning and collaboration.
Those who choose to utilize Facebook to foster social learning may want to consider implementing a social learning management system (LMS) like TOPYX. Business owners may worry that if their employees are given the privilege of using Facebook for professional purposes, it will be abused. They can prevent this by implementing social media learning policies. Or, business owners can launch a cloud-based LMS that allows learners to access sites like Facebook and gives administrators control of employees’ social media usage.
Humans innately crave informal learning experiences. Give your employees the gift of social learning by implementing an LMS and encouraging the controlled use of social media sites in the workplace. Social learning is just one of the features of a learning management system that can help enhance your learning and development programs.
