Ok. Granted, I keep pushing all these “killer apps”. Last time it was honesty, this time internal relations (IR). But I really think this is worth looking into. And honesty has a great deal to do with it.
A while back I wrote about how the breakdown of privacy leads to a better society and, ultimately, a better world. The same is true for companies. After the first desperate attempts to strangle Facebook communication and other communicative tools in workplaces, most of these tools are now considered part of the standard toolkit. People communicate through Facebook and Twitter, and that’s that. But just like with the rest of the world, this opens the company up for outsiders to peek inside. Privacy is dying, not only for individuals, but for companies as well. People blogging, twittering and Facebooking about their everyday life will inevitebly blog, twitter and Facebook about their workplace. Since it’s part of their everyday experience.
So when IR was previously somewhat obscure (though respected) it should now be taken way more seriously. Your company is becoming increasingly transparent. Face it. What you build with your IR will become more and more visible every day, so stop looking at it as a human resources issue, and start viewing it as a highly visible marketing channel. That is what it will become.