Sharing Knowledge in the Social Media Era: Strengths and Weaknesses for Knowledge Workers

Sharing knowledge is a very critical process for professional knowledge workers as it enables the creation and accumulation of individual and organizational knowledge. The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and social media platforms to boost formal and informal knowledge sharing among knowledge workers is inevitable, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic has forced digital transformation. This study aims to examine the strengths and weaknesses of social media platforms for sharing knowledge by assessing its characteristics from knowledge management (KM) and information security perspectives. Hence, the study assesses the capability of social media platforms as a KM platform in terms of reach, depth, richness, aggregation, confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Based on the literature review, the main strengths of social media platforms are reach, richness, and availability, whereas some weaknesses are related to confidentiality and depth. The findings of this research can help researchers in this area, and help organizations and decision-makers set policies for sharing knowledge through social media platforms.