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DOI: 10.1177/0165551515598883

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Information encountering on social media and tacit knowledge sharing

Sirous Panahi Iran University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Jason Watson Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Helen Partridge Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to investigate how social media may support information encountering (i.e. where individuals encounter useful and interesting information while seeking or browsing for some other information) and how this may lead to the facilitation of tacit knowledge creation and sharing. The study employed a qualitative survey design that interviewed 24 physicians who were active users of social media to better understand the phenomenon of information encountering on social media. The data was analysed using the thematic analysis approach. The study found six main ways through which social media supports information encountering. Furthermore, drawing upon knowledge creation theories, the study concluded that information encountering on social media facili- tates tacit knowledge creation and sharing among individuals. The study provides new directions for further empirical investigations to examine whether information encountering on social media actually leads to tacit knowledge creation and sharing. The findings of the study may also provide opportunities for users to adopt social media effectively or gain greater value from social media use.

Keywords Blogging; information encountering; physicians; social media; tacit knowledge; Twitter messaging

1. Introduction

Social media tools such as blogs, micro-blogs, wikis and social networking sites have greatly changed the information-

seeking behaviour of individuals. Several studies [1–4] now argue that these tools provide more opportunities for infor-

mation encountering, a type of information-seeking behaviour that refers to finding useful and interesting information

unexpectedly while seeking or browsing for some other information [5]. Distinctive features of social media such as

openness, availability, network effect, user-generated content and the harnessing of collective intelligence appear offer-

ing more opportunities for individuals to encounter new information and knowledge [6].

The information exchanged among individuals on social media is usually articulated, therefore, it might be argued that

information encountering on social media mostly facilitates the sharing of explicit knowledge (documented and articu-

lated knowledge). However, based on Nonaka and Takeuchi’s [7] knowledge-creation theory it can be argued that infor-

mation encountering on social media may also facilitate tacit knowledge sharing (the knowledge that resides in human

minds that cannot be easily verbalized, e.g., ideas, rule of thumbs, technical skills, and intuition). According to Nonaka

and Takeuchi, tacit knowledge creation relies not only on personal experiences and knowledge acquired at the workplace,

but also depends on the availability and adequate consumption of existing knowledge and information. The increased

Corresponding author:

Sirous Panahi, Iran University of Medical Science, Hemmat Highway, Tehran, Iran.

Email: [email protected]

at Bobst Library, New York University on April 19, 2016jis.sagepub.comDownloaded from

interaction with existing knowledge provides more possibilities for internalizing the assimilated knowledge which then

establishes more opportunities for creating new tacit knowledge.

Since Nonaka and Takeuchi [7] proposed knowledge-creation theory and explained how explicit knowledge might be

converted to tacit knowledge by reading explicit materials, reflecting upon, applying and practising that accumulated

knowledge in context, very few studies have discussed the role that encountering existing explicit knowledge plays in

new tacit knowledge creation. In particular, information encountering on social media and its potential for tacit knowl-

edge creation and sharing have rarely been addressed in the literature. It has been argued that, compared with traditional

information and communication technologies (ICT), social media has more potential for increasing the visibility of pub-

lished information and also triggering sociality and informal communication among individuals, which may lead to the

unexpected discovery of useful or interesting information and hence the facilitation of tacit knowledge creation and shar-

ing [8].

Therefore, this study aimed at identifying the ways in which social media may help tacit knowledge creation and shar-

ing among physicians by providing opportunities for information encountering and maximizing interaction with existing

explicit knowledge. In other words, this study addresses two research questions: first, how social media may provide

opportunities for information encountering; and second, how these opportunities may facilitate tacit knowledge sharing

among physicians.

Tacit knowledge sharing among physicians, such as the sharing of clinical experiences, skills, know-how or know-

whom, is known to have a significant impact on the quality of medical diagnosis and decisions [9–11]. The study argues

that information encountering on social media may facilitate tacit knowledge sharing among physicians who may not

always be physically co-located but need to exchange their experiential knowledge.

Information encountering in this study is defined as the ways in which the participants may find new information or

obtain new knowledge unexpectedly as a result of interacting with peers, reviewing Twitter or blog updates, or while

searching for specific information on social media sites. This also covers mechanisms that enhance the visibility and

availability of existing knowledge, which then increases the participants’ encountering of more information. Several

authors [12–14] also argued that information encountering is not only about finding unexpected information but also

about making unexpected connections between different pieces of information, people, ideas, and resources. This was

beyond the focus of this study, but could be a theme for future studies.

The remainder of the article is organized as follows. First, an overview of the literature review and related works is

provided. Next, the methodology used in the article is explained. Then, the main findings of the study are presented.

Finally, the article concludes with a brief discussion of the study findings and directions for future research.

2. Literature review

2.1. Information encountering

The concept of information encountering was first introduced by Erdelez [5]. She defined information encountering as

serendipitous information discovery or ‘bumping’ into useful or interesting information while seeking or browsing for

some other information. Based on this definition, information-rich environments such as libraries and the internet appear

ideal for information encountering [5]. With the advent of social media tools such as blogs, micro-blogs, wikis and social

networking sites, several studies have demonstrated that compared with traditional ICT, these sites provide more oppor-

tunities for experiencing information encountering.

For example, by analysing transaction logs of a well-known Chinese social tagging system, Douban, based on an

original clickstream data analysis framework, Jiang [1] found encountering to be one of the top three most popular as

well as effective information-seeking strategies adopted by users who use social tagging systems. Conducting semi-

structured interviews with 15 postgraduate students, Dantonio et al. [2] explored whether social media tools facilitate

serendipitous encountering in the academic domain. Their study revealed that information encountering was experienced

widely among users of social media and the likelihood of experiencing information encountering is increased by invest-

ing time for browsing and searching information on social media and the strong sense of reciprocity in other people’s

actions. Employing a mixed-method research design, Lu [3] explored characteristics of accidental discovery of informa-

tion on web-based social tools. She argued that social media tools serve as information grounds that foster information

encountering by providing more opportunities for users to gather together in a virtual space, establish relations and share

useful information. She characterized information encountering on social media by identifying six elements of user,

motivation, context, information behaviour, information and information need. More recently, McCay-Peet et al. [4] also

surveyed 289 professionals, academics and graduate students to understand whether digital environments have the poten-

tial to facilitate information encountering. They found that social media sites support information encountering more

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than traditional tools such as databases, search engines or intranets by connecting people to other people with interesting

ideas and information.

The concept of information encountering has rarely been investigated in a healthcare context. Most previous studies

focused on investigating the information-seeking behaviour of healthcare professionals in online environments. A few

observed that the internet may also help healthcare professionals and patients to encounter more information. For exam-

ple, Rubenstein [15], using an ethnographic approach, found that patients using an online breast cancer community

encountered more knowledge and this influenced their medical treatment decisions. Pálsdóttir [16], also in a survey,

found that using the internet (discussion/news groups, online journals/newspapers, health related websites and internet

advertisements) helped islanders to encounter more information about health and lifestyle in everyday life.

Most previous studies investigated information encountering on social media by adopting information-seeking beha-

viour or social-learning theories. Very few of them explored qualitatively how and through what mechanisms social

media may facilitate information encountering. In particular, the link between information encountering on social media

and tacit knowledge-sharing theories has rarely been addressed in the literature.

2.2. Tacit knowledge

Tacit knowledge was defined in the knowledge-management literature as knowledge that is highly personal and difficult

to articulate completely, compared with explicit knowledge which is well articulated and written down [7]. Examples of

tacit knowledge include technical skills, know-how, know-whom, ideas, rule of thumbs, intuition and lessons learned.

Traditionally scholars viewed knowledge as a dichotomy of tacit vs explicit knowledge, and hence, they did not see much

role for information technologies in facilitating tacit knowledge sharing [17–20]. However, many researchers currently

tend to view knowledge as a continuum of tacit-to-explicit knowledge [20–22]. Therefore, they believe that information

technologies can easily contribute to the facilitation of sharing knowledge with a low to medium degree of tacitness, also

called implicit knowledge or articulable tacit knowledge [23–28]. Despite this, there is a major debate ongoing among

researchers about whether information technology can have a role in tacit knowledge sharing among individuals [8].

The theory that explained interaction with existing explicit knowledge and its potential in creating new tacit knowl-

edge was first introduced in Nonaka and Takeuchi’s [7] knowledge-creation model, also known as SECI (standing for

Socialization, Externalization, Combination and Internalization). This model presents four continuous processes for

knowledge sharing and tacit–explicit conversions.

Socialization describes the conversion of tacit knowledge into a tacit form, involving the creation and exchange of

new knowledge through shared experiences, hands-on experience, empathy and participation in an informal social meet-

ing. Externalization indicates the conversion of knowledge from tacit knowledge to an explicit form, involving crystal-

lizing and articulating tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. Combination is the process of converting explicit

knowledge into other systematized explicit knowledge. Finally, internalization deals with the process of converting

explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge through reading explicit materials, then reflecting upon, applying and practising

that accumulated knowledge in context.

Information encountering could be regarded as part of internalization process. Internalization was defined by Nonaka

and Takeuchi [7: 69] as ‘the process of embodying explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge’ through learning by doing

and also through reading explicit knowledge. In other words, Nonaka and Takeuchi implied that consumption, assimila-

tion and reflection upon the existing explicit knowledge may lead to further internalization and conversion of explicit-to-

tacit knowledge.

Since Nonaka and Takeuchi [7] first proposed their theory, very few studies have discussed the role that encountering

with existing explicit knowledge plays in new tacit knowledge creation. The only study that was found to briefly discuss

the role of existing explicit knowledge in creating new tacit knowledge was Raisanen and Oinas-Kukkonen’s [29] study.

They argued that browsing, organizing and playing with existing knowledge helps to identify problems, needs and oppor-

tunities, which establish foundations for the comprehension and deeper understanding of the knowledge shared and,

therefore, provide opportunities for embodying tacit knowledge.

Both Nonaka and Takeuchi’s [7] and Raisanen and Oinas-Kukkonen’s [29] studies concentrated mainly on represent-

ing knowledge conversions and creation processes in their conceptual models. Technological contribution to tacit knowl-

edge creation through increasing the interaction and encountering with existing knowledge was not the focus of their

studies. In addition, none of these studies discussed the mechanisms that may help to increase interaction with existing

explicit knowledge. Therefore, this study attempts to identify how social media may facilitate information encountering

and then discusses how these processes may facilitate tacit knowledge sharing by adopting tacit knowledge-sharing

theories.

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2.3. Healthcare use of social media

The use of social media platforms by healthcare professionals has grown considerably in recent years [30–32]. There are

numerous examples of social networks developed specifically for use by the medical community (e.g. Sermo, Ozmosis

and Medscape) with each having more than 100,000 members. A survey by Griffis et al. [33] in 2014 showed that the

majority of US hospitals (95%, N:3371) have a presence on at least one social media site, with more than 50% having

either a Facebook page or Twitter account, and more than 99% having either a Yelp page or being active on Foursquare.

Kung and Oh [34] in 2014 also reported that 94% of US nurses (N:410) use social media. They were more interested in

using social networking sites (90.33%), podcasts (76.24%), social question and asking sites (37.86%), blogs (31.85%),

and Twitter (19.06%). Similarly, a study by McGowan et al. [31] in 2012 revealed that nearly 60% of US physicians per-

ceived social media as a useful, engaging and a good means of receiving the latest high-quality medical information, and

they believed that social media enabled them to practise more effectively.

Adoption of social media in other countries is also growing. Investigating social media use by UK plastic surgeons

(N:323), Mabvuure et al. [35] in 2014 reported that more than 82% of them were on at least one platform, including

LinkedIn (52%), Twitter (22%) and YouTube (15%). A survey in a medical university in Turkey in 2015 also showed

that near to 90% of medical students used social media for professional purposes [36]. Antheunis et al. [32] in 2013 also

found that Dutch physicians use primarily LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube for professional purposes. Conducting a con-

tent analysis on twitter messages by five prominent organizations in surgery, Ralston et al. [37] in 2014 also indicated

that surgical colleges have considerably improved their international reach through social media, either for communicat-

ing about education/training opportunities or for discussing on patient-related matters.

The use of smartphones and tablets, which are known for providing easy and instant access to social media tools, has

also increased considerably among medical community around the world. According to Manhattan Research [38] in

2012, above 70% of physicians in developed countries used a smartphone, and near to 60% used a tablet for professional

purposes.

While several studies have highlighted the increasing use of social media by healthcare community, very few studies

have been conducted to explore the potentials and shortcomings of these technologies in regard to the specific informa-

tion needs of medical communities, particularly in relation to tacit knowledge sharing through social media. The current

research is aimed at filling parts of this knowledge gap by seeking physicians’ viewpoints and experiences regarding the

potential contributions of social media in facilitating tacit knowledge sharing through providing a space for information

encountering.

3. Methodology

Adopting a qualitative survey design, 24 physicians were interviewed using a semi-structured interview method. A sur-

vey is qualitative when it uses qualitative data collection and analysis methods, instead of statistical quantitative methods,

to explore knowledge, opinions and meanings that people assign to their experiences [39].Qualitative survey is a simple

research design that looks to study the diversity of some topic of interest in a population and conceptualizing the common

essence [40]. The purpose of qualitative survey is to provide ‘depth and uniqueness rather than breadth and representa-

tion’ [39: 68], which is also the case in the current study. Therefore, it was deemed that this method can provide opportu-

nities for an in-depth understanding of physicians’ perspectives and experiences regarding information encountering on

social media.

Physicians were chosen as the study population because of the fact that they are working in knowledge-intensive

environments and their need for new knowledge is vital for improving the quality of patient care. Although the adoption

of social media by physicians has increased considerably in recent years, little has been done to investigate their perspec-

tives and experiences of using these tools [41].

Employing a snowball sampling method resulted in recruiting participants from different geographical locations

including Australia (13 participants), the USA (nine participants) and a few from Europe (two participants). Only physi-

cians who used social media regularly – at least twice a week – and also those who have had at least 5 years’ clinical

experience were recruited for the study. This ensured that that the participants have sufficient experience (both on social

media and also in the workplace) to comment about using social media for knowledge sharing.

An online video calling program (Skype) was used for conducting the interviews. A number of open-ended questions

as well as some probing questions were asked from the study participants to describe what social media tools, why and

how they used them to share their knowledge and information. Participants were also asked to provide several examples

of when they used different social media tools to share professional and work-related knowledge. The average interview

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time was about 40 min. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and entered into a qualitative data analysis pro-

gram, NVivo (version 10), to manage, code and analyse the data.

A thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the interview data, following the guidelines provided by Burnard

[42] and Braun and Clarke [43]. The analysis involved a careful reading of the transcripts, performing an initial open

coding, reviewing the codes multiple times, comparing the codes with each other and also against the data, grouping the

codes according to content similarity as well as their theoretical links to tacit knowledge-sharing concepts (in particular,

their relation to internalization processes in the SECI model), and finally choosing and reporting the main overarching

themes responding the research question.

The trustworthiness of the data collection and analysis was achieved by sending a copy of interview transcripts to the

participants to check and edit, keeping and systematically reviewing the detailed records of the data analysis process

including decisions made throughout the project, reviewing the process and findings by supervisory team, and also pre-

senting and discussing it with colleagues.

4. Findings

The study found that, as perceived by the majority of the study participants, social media has a much greater ability to

increase information encountering in comparison with traditional media. The data showed that social media facilitated

participants’ encountering of existing knowledge in a number of ways, which constructed the centre of this study.

Six major themes associated with information encountering in social media were identified as the following: the

broadcasting and publicizing of information to a wider audience; faster dissemination of information; personalized and

filtered information feed; ability to keep up to date; documentation of knowledge and experiences; and retrievability.

They all help existing knowledge and information to become more available to the clinical communities, hence increas-

ing the chance of creating and sharing new tacit knowledge.

A detailed discussion of each theme is provided in the following sub-sections.

4.1. Broadcasting/publicizing information

The study participants stated that social media has great potential for increasing information visibility and encountering

by providing an opportunity to broadcast and publicize information and knowledge. Social media has the potential to

allow users to get in touch with larger audiences, and also offers services such as auto posts, tagging, links, subscribing

and news feeds. These all provide better opportunities for publicizing information and knowledge compared with tradi-

tional ways of disseminating information. As one of the study participants observed:

It’s a good place for advertising what you do elsewhere. Like if you just write a blog and don’t tell anyone, no one is going to read

it, whereas if you publicise it on Twitter people will look at it. (Participant no. 2)

Social media allows information to circulate virally among much larger communities from all over the world.

According to the study participants, the maximum number of people who read your paper or hear your presentation in a

traditional method is fewer than 100–200, while on social media, your potential audience runs to millions. A wider audi-

ence significantly affects the speed and the reach of information dissemination. This increased chance of information

encountering then also provides more opportunities for the medical community to create and share tacit knowledge.

Broadcasting blog posts, presentations and journal papers, and live tweeting conference highlights via Twitter were

common among the participating physicians. Social media provides easy access to the print world. It is a good place to

advertise and highlight studies or works that have been published somewhere else. It drives traffic towards already pub-

lished material. It also provides an opportunity for pre-publication review by peers before they appear in hardcopy. A par-

ticipant shared his experience of publicizing his own publication on social media as follows.

I write for EP-Monthly and I write occasionally for Medscape and I do some peer reviewed articles as well and I try to use social

media sometimes to highlight these articles and drive traffic toward them so that we can foster a discussion. (Participant no. 13)

Social media creates a cycle of information flow by providing links to information published via other means, be it

online or in print. The majority of participants viewed this as one of the great advantages of social media in that it brings

information to you that you perhaps would not have known about or found otherwise.

Broadcasting on social media among physicians is not just limited to already published materials. Participants also

talked about sharing other types of knowledge such as particular clinical skills, tips, ideas and thoughts that had become

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popular as a result of sharing on social media. These conversations are usually great sources of tacit knowledge and social

media facilitates the sharing of this valuable information and knowledge by providing opportunities for broadcasting and

publicizing them among the participants.

4.2. Faster dissemination of information

Faster dissemination of information is another advantage of social media mentioned by the study participants that has

the potential to increase the chance of encountering new knowledge and information. The majority of the participants

believed that social media makes information and knowledge easily and readily available to the community, compared

with traditional mechanisms of publication, which always have a long delay from a few months to several years. They

talked about how they liked the speed of information sharing on social media through having a worldwide reach. For

example, a participant stated that,

I like the being able to get information out very rapidly . I really like the worldwide reach. (Participant no. 16)

Participants appreciated the immediacy of social media, the immediate availability of comments and tweets, and also

the ability to view articles even before they get published as a result of discussion with the authors of the articles. For

example, a participant said,

The main thing . is the immediacy of the social media world. So the fact that I can see an article that’s not yet in print and imme- diately read it. (Participant no. 12)

Participants provided several examples of how social media exponentially accelerates knowledge and information

sharing among physicians. For example, a participant talked about a specific clinical technique that had taken several

years from its initial publication in a journal to become best practice, whereas Scott Weingart’s technique, for example,

which was published on his blog with supporting multimedia elements, became widespread within weeks and was incor-

porated into the practice of many clinicians in a short time.

Although Weingart had already published his paper in a journal, it had not received much attention. The reason for

this, according to the participants, was that the majority of practitioners do not read many scientific journal papers. They

are not interested in spending time and paying money for a basic science journal that may or may not matter to them.

Instead, they use Twitter and RSS feeds as main sources of information. They subscribe to the social media feeds of

important journals in their field, such as the New England Journal of Medicine, BMJ and JAMA and, if they find an inter-

esting article, they then follow the links. In addition, the new format of information sharing on social media allows for

interactive communication among sharers about the content shared, and this was not possible in the traditional format.

An example of a participant’s comment on how social media is more effective than traditional journals is provided below.

It’s on your phone . it’s an easy way to stay up-to-date with information rather than the stack of journals that I have sitting at home collecting dust because I never really have time at home to read through all the journals. (Participant no. 17)

According to the participants, faster dissemination of information is vital in the medical field. If you hear about a solu-

tion in a week vs 2 years from now, several patients’ lives potentially might be saved in the interim. Information is time

dependent and becomes irrelevant fairly quickly if it is not disseminated in an appropriate amount of time. Unlike a jour-

nal that comes out once a month, social media is updated 24/7, 365 days a year, which means that it almost provides real-

time information. It can be argued that, in a traditional academic publication, information becomes visible to the user in 2

or 3 years from its early draft, while the information on social media moves on a minute-by-minute, hourly or daily basis.

In addition, social media not only helps faster dissemination of already published information, but also helps faster

publication of new information. Sharing information on social media simply starts by creating a new account and is

accessible and achievable for anyone compared with the traditional methods, which were regarded by participants as

expensive, cumbersome, time consuming and suffering from long delays.

4.3. Personalized and filtered information feed

Another advantage of social media that participants were very interested in was the personalized and filtered information

feed. Information anarchy is one of the main challenges of online information, particularly if it is published on social

media [41]. Participants viewed seeking information individually and sieving relevant from irrelevant information as a

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quite time consuming effort. No one can read and evaluate all journal papers. However, social media serves as a journal

club for physicians who participate in social media in which everyone who has read something new and important shares

it with other colleagues immediately. Indeed, it works as a platform for a collective reading and evaluation of the litera-

ture. The following two interview excerpts illustrate how social media helps physicians by providing personalized and

filtered information feeds.

The fact that it’s filtered by experts or other enthusiasts who have similar objectives to you means that it tends to be things that actually

appeal to you more or are more useful than just trawling blindly through other resources, traditional resources. (Participant no. 15)

What I like looking both at Twitter and other people’s blogs are mainly just because there’s so many articles being published every

week I kind of use Twitter as a filtering device to see what people are talking about and which articles I should pay closer attention

to. (Participant no. 17)

As the above examples demonstrate, social media helps physicians to determine what is the most important and valu-

able information to read, according to their colleagues’ viewpoints. Social media tools such as Twitter and blogs have

features that enable users to define exactly who and what resources to follow and these serve as a way of screening vast

amounts of information available on the internet for physicians.

Access to information that is already evaluated and filtered by experts or other enthusiastic colleagues ensures that

the information shared is relevant, high quality and peer reviewed. Peer review in social media, according to the partici-

pants, is ‘rapid and potentially brutal’. This means that, if something incorrect is shared on social media, it will receive

strong responses in a short time. This prevents the sharing of wrong information among the community. Accordingly,

trust is an important factor in choosing who to follow. Therefore, creating a list of trusted people on a given topic is nec-

essary in social media interactions.

4.4. Keeping up to date

Keeping up to date is one of the most important challenges that physicians face in their profession [44, 45]. Today, informa-

tion travels faster than ever before and clinical practice is constantly evolving. The ability to keep track of the latest infor-

mation and developments is important in clinical practice. Social media is regarded by the study participants as one of the

most effective ways to keep abreast of what is happening internationally in the field. The majority of participants believed

that social media exposed them to more up to date information, which resulted in them obtaining more knowledge.

Participants stated that they were checking their Twitter accounts or RSS feeds regularly to view headings and sum-

maries of information shared by their trusted colleagues and sources. Twitter and RSS feeds indeed serve as a kind of

alert system for newly published material. As soon as a new journal paper, a blog post, a presentation or an interesting

tweet is shared by pre-selected sources, they will appear in the user’s account. The user can then review them and decide

to read the details of the materials of interest.

Participants acknowledged that, prior to the use of social media, their ability to obtain new knowledge was limited to

local colleagues and a few journals if they could find the time to read them. However, their ability to incorporate new

knowledge had exploded since entering the social media world. Examples include being able to quickly review newly

published literature and controversial topics, being informed of new evidence, techniques and advances, being able to

engage in professional conversations, or just reading people’s opinion and comments. From the participants’ perspec-

tives, physicians who use social media regularly are much more up to date than physicians who do not use social media.

The following interview extract shows an example where a participant compared herself with her colleagues who do not

use social media.

I can now very much notice there’s a big difference between myself and my peers who are of a similar vintage who don’t use social

media by far. I am always up to date with the latest stuff and they’re not now . It’s not because I spend lots of time studying and reading it, because I’m just now awash with this conversation going on. (Participant no. 11)

There were also examples where participants believed that social media assisted them to be a better physician, that

their understanding of clinical practice in an emergency department was much more developed owing to their participa-

tion in the discussions on social media and becoming more up to date.

I think it makes me a better physician for a number of reasons. I think I’m much more up to date than I otherwise would be . I believe I have access to a greater pool of expertise than I would . I think that my understanding of things like risk management in the emergency department . are much more developed. (Participant no. 12)

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In addition, the social aspects of social media motivate physicians to read much of the literature to keep up with oth-

ers. It also creates commitment and encourages the participants to contribute more to the community in order to be in the

circle. This is well illustrated by Participant no. 23, as the following extract shows.

The social aspect of it makes me want to read up more on the standard journals as well because you meet people with a lot of

knowledge and you want to give that back and you want to read more about what they are talking about or asking you about.

(Participant no. 23)

4.5. Documentation of knowledge and experiences

Tacit knowledge needs to be documented when it is articulated and converted to explicit knowledge [46–48]. Tacit

knowledge is articulated when it is crystallized and converted to explicit and readily understandable knowledge. Tacit

knowledge can be articulated using several methods such as dialogue, storytelling, metaphors, analogies, annotations

and demonstrations. Once tacit knowledge is articulated either in an oral, written or visual format it needs to be stored

for future use or for further discussion [46, 48–50]. Otherwise, that valuable tacit knowledge will be lost or will remain

shared between limited numbers of people with no benefit for others.

This study found that, as observed by a number of participants, social media is also helpful in documenting articulated

tacit knowledge. Indeed, one of the main reasons of using social media tools by physicians was to document and store

their professional experiences, lessons learned or some important information they found in the literature. They men-

tioned that they were using social media tools, mainly blogs, like a personal notebook to write down and store their par-

ticular findings or thoughts in order to use them in the future by themselves or to share with other physicians to develop

discussions about them.

Two examples of participants’ views regarding documenting tacit knowledge on social media are provided below.

Me and my colleague who writes our blog, we mainly use it to sort of document our own stories and to keep it as a base for what

we’ve learnt and experienced and found. (Participant no. 23)

It also helps me in archive times . if I have taken the time to research something and review something then I’ll be able to store that information on the blog post . I can then go back to that. I can hit that links to somebody else. (Participant no. 1)

Although blogs were used as the main tool to document knowledge and experiences, participants mentioned using

other tools such as wikis, podcasts and YouTube to store and share their knowledge. It can be argued that these social

media tools serve as repositories of tacit knowledge that has been articulated, communicated among participants, and

archived there almost permanently.

A variety of formats such as text, photo, audio and video are used to document knowledge and experience on social

media. Examples of documenting tacit knowledge in a text format included particular tips, personal ideas and profes-

sional opinions written down during chats and discussions in the Twitter sphere, or the comments written about a blog

posts, or a vodcast/podcast shared on a multimedia media site. Sharing clinical images such as X-rays, ECGs and ultra-

sound images, sharing audio files of discussions between experts on podcasts, and sharing recorded videos of performing

practical procedures and skills in multimedia channels were other formats of storing tacit knowledge in social media

space.

The key advantage of storing information and knowledge on social media sites is that they are archived there almost

permanently. As one of the participants stated, ‘it’s all there and accessible and archived’ (Participant no. 12). The per-

manent storage of contents on social media is followed by permanent availability to a wider audience, which is another

advantage of storing information on social media. The permanent storage and availability of social media contents allows

users to revisit the content shared as many times as they want. This helps users to refresh their memory or learn some-

thing new each time they visit, according to the participants. Although the participants believed in the permanent storage

of information on social media, it is worth mentioning that social media sites are not obliged to permanently archive the

contents shared on their sites and this might create a problem in the future given the importance of the information being

exchanged by the participants.

As far as articulating tacit knowledge is concerned, it has to be noted that definitely not all parts of tacit knowledge

are codifiable and hence storable on social media. Every attempt to externalize tacit knowledge and convert it to explicit

knowledge is accompanied by the loss of some of its distinctive properties. However, the interactivity and social aspects

of social media allow for ongoing discussion and questioning about any ambiguous parts of the knowledge shared.

Documenting knowledge might be regarded as the final stage of the tacit knowledge sharing process as at this stage it

is articulated and converted to explicit knowledge. However, viewing knowledge as a continuum of tacit–explicit rather

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than a dichotomy of tacit vs explicit knowledge [51–54], it can be argued that the tacit dimension of some of the docu-

mented tacit knowledge, particularly that which is archived in chats, conversations and videos and also that which is

maintained in relations, is still stronger than its explicit dimension.

4.6. Retrievability

Retrievability of articulated knowledge (tacit knowledge that is just converted to explicit) was also mentioned as another

advantage of social media. Once tacit knowledge is codified and converted to a written format, it is easy to retrieve it on

social media. Social media contents are public and can also be searched using popular search engines such as Google,

Yahoo and Bing. In addition, tagging is a great way to organize and enhance the retrievability of contents shared in social

media space. For example, participants liked the use of hashtags (e.g. #hcsm, standing for topics related to healthcare and

social media or #FOAMed, standing for Free Open Access Medical Education) to tag their tweets with searchable and

personalized keywords on Twitter. The hashtags enable both followers and non-followers of a given topic or account to

easily search and follow topics of interest on Twitter.

The following interview excerpts show examples of participants’ views in regard to the searchability of social media

tools.

Twitter has improved their searching and because you can search locally and because you can have these hash tags, I find it’s really

great at conferences and really great for conversations on a specific theme. (Participant no. 13)

[Blogs] are searchable forums so that if you want to go back and read something later on or if you need to refresh your memory

blogs are the best way to do it. (Participant no. 18)

As the above examples show, social media tools provide opportunities to search articulated tacit knowledge on a spe-

cific topic either by employing personalized tags or through popular search engines. As a result, the chance of encounter-

ing new information and knowledge increases among users.

5. Discussion and conclusion

Information encountering is mostly about explicit rather than tacit knowledge sharing. However, as Nonaka and

Takeuchi’s knowledge creation model [7] and Polanyi’s [55] argument of interaction between focal (explicit) and sub-

sidiary (tacit) awareness imply, tacit and explicit knowledge have an interactive relationship such that the creation of

one depends on the other. That is, interaction with existing explicit knowledge and exposure to information from various

perspectives and sources are essential for creating and capturing new tacit knowledge [27, 29, 56]. Increased interaction

with existing explicit knowledge may then facilitate the internalization and creation of new tacit knowledge. In other

words, the more existing knowledge is available and visible for knowledge seekers, the more cutting-edge ideas and tacit

knowledge might be created and shared.

The current study confirmed Nonaka and Takeuchi’s [7] and also Raisanen and Oinas-Kukkonen’s [29] arguments

that information encountering is essential for tacit knowledge creation. However, the study investigated it from a techno-

logical perspective and, further, it explored the mechanisms that facilitate encountering and interacting with existing

knowledge through the use of social media tools.

The study argues that social media increases the availability and visibility of existing explicit knowledge and, there-

fore, it increases participants’ encountering with existing explicit knowledge. In this case, social media does not support

tacit knowledge sharing directly. Instead, it first facilitates explicit knowledge sharing by increasing the chance of

encountering new information and knowledge, and then individuals who consume that knowledge may assimilate and

incorporate it with their prior knowledge and experience in order to make new tacit knowledge. In other words, the more

people encounter new explicit information on social media, the more new tacit knowledge they may create.

The study demonstrated that social media has increased participants’ encountering existing knowledge in several ways

that have not been addressed in the literature. For example, it found that social media provides better opportunities for

broadcasting and publicizing already published information and has great potential for faster dissemination of informa-

tion owing to large audience and social network effects. It provides a more personalized and filtered information feed for

participants. It constantly keeps participants up to date. Finally, it provides simple and quick ways to document personal

experiences and knowledge that are also easy to share and also to retrieve.

The potential link between tacit knowledge sharing and those features of social media that increase the chance of

information encountering has not been clearly identified and discussed in the literature. These were all new findings that

the present study revealed and then connected with tacit knowledge-sharing concepts. From all of the dimensions

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identified in the study for information encountering on social media, knowledge documentation and storage have been

adequately addressed in the knowledge management literature. However, very few studies have exclusively discussed

the documentation of tacit knowledge.

For example, Palanisamy [46] stressed that organizations require proper documentation of tacit knowledge for later

use or retrieval. He calls for further research to develop innovative techniques for documenting tacit knowledge. Selamat

and Choudrie [47] also argued that externalized knowledge, ideas and thoughts need to be documented. Wang and Qiu

[48] found that the documentation of tacit knowledge (capturing and converting tacit knowledge to explicit) was one of

the most effective strategies to leverage tacit knowledge sharing in the organization.

In regard to technological contributions to the documentation of tacit knowledge, knowledge management systems

have been regarded as facilitators to document best practices and lessons learned [57, 58]. A few studies have also shown

that blogs [59] and multimedia formats (in particular, video storytelling) [60] are effective media for documenting per-

sonal experiences.

By seeking physicians’ perspectives and experiences on social media, this study found that social media also helps

tacit knowledge sharing through enabling documentation of tacit knowledge that is articulated in chat rooms, discussion

forums and comments, or presented in vodcasts and podcasts. Documented knowledge on social media might be regarded

as explicit information. However, by adopting a tacit–explicit continuum [51–54], it can be argued that verbalized and

externalized knowledge does not necessarily mean that it is completely explicit and that the process of tacit knowledge

sharing has been completed.

The tacit dimension of externalized knowledge might sometimes be even stronger than its explicit dimension.

Knowledge that is communicated in informal chats or discussions, or demonstrated in practical skills on videos, although

recorded, still has more tacit elements. In addition, most of the knowledge shared on social media is not as organized as

explicit information in databases or published explicit material. It is mostly unstructured and to some extent resembles

the discussions and conversations that occur in a face-to-face interaction.

After externalization, the documentation of tacit knowledge is probably the final phase of tacit knowledge sharing

where tacit knowledge becomes relatively explicit and recorded in more standard formats. However, the tacit knowledge

may never become completely explicit [61]. There is always a tacit component in knowledge even though it is externa-

lized and converted into an explicit form [55]. Furthermore, the process of knowledge creation as depicted by Nonaka

and Takeuchi [7] proceeds in a spiral rather than a linear fashion. Therefore, articulated and documented knowledge can

also set off a new spiral of knowledge creation when it is accumulated and then communicated with other people. In

summary, the study viewed the documentation of experiences on social media (explicit or tacit) as an effective way to

increase information encountering, and hence, tacit knowledge sharing.

While this study opened up a new discussion on how information encountering on social media may occur and how

this may help tacit knowledge creation and sharing, there is still a need for further studies to investigate other aspects of

this phenomenon. Examples include how to design social media tools to effectively support information encountering,

how to improve the chance of information encountering on social media and the need for further empirical studies to vali-

date whether information encountering on social media really leads to tacit knowledge creation and sharing. Understating

how information encountering on social media might be helpful in tacit knowledge creation and sharing could enhance

the quality of delivering information on social media as well as promoting expert use of such useful tools to keep updated

with the latest information.

The study findings may also provide an opportunity for physicians and healthcare organizations to better understand

the scope and the impact of employing social media platforms for knowledge sharing. Obtaining insights into how social

media contributes to tacit knowledge sharing through information encountering can help healthcare professionals and

organizations to discover new opportunities to facilitate knowledge and experience sharing, to adopt and harness social

media effectively and to maximize the benefits for the specific needs of the clinical community.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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