Social Media Use for Information Management in Organization and How It Can Engage and Empower Employees in The Era of COVID-19

Abstract

Marion Koopmans, a well-known Dutch virologist, remarked in April 2020 that Twitter had been a two-edged sword in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. She discovered tweets of a new virus appearing in Wuhan in her casual Twitter feeds in December 2019, forcing her to diligently monitor the pathogen's spread. Koopmans was an expert on the government's quick reaction team four months later, and her Twitter page was full with disparaging and abusive tweets about her work from unknown sources. At a time when health communication is in crisis, social media can be used to spread misinformation and undermine institutional and professional trust (Llewellyn, 2020). Simultaneously, they can be useful tools for public involvement and information dissemination. We noticed how the epidemiology of the disease is tightly linked with the methods and practices of sharing accurate information as the corona pandemic unfolded (Bjrkdahl & Carlsen, 2019). The public's trust in experts is at risk in this contentious process of health communication: How can social media use for information management in organization engage and empower employees in the era of Covid-19?