Many merchants use social media as a communication channel to interact with shoppers, but a new study suggests it can be just as effective for engaging employees. As Retailing Today reports, leveraging social media as a part of internal communications can have a significant impact on sales.

A number of businesses use email for internal communications, but for a retail sales associate who is supposed to be engaging customers on the floor, it often isn't an efficient use of their time to read long, drawn-out messages. Instead, quick bursts of social media messages gets the point across while having a minimal impact on their time.

"In addition, don’t forget about mobile technology for reaching retail employees during the workday," the news source adds. "Much of the engagement you might hope employees will get at home via computer can just as easily be done at work with a smartphone. Applications for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all enable retail employees to check in on company news on their breaks."

More than 850 million people worldwide have Facebook, conveying the reach these channels can provide to merchants.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 at 9:36 am .