Managing Social Media in the Workplace Essay

In today’s society, it is crucial for employees to understand the significance in the use of social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook. This subject will discuss the primary reasons companies allow the usage of social networking sites in the workplace. It will also explain the positive impact social media usage has in the workplace, such as allowing communication to a broader audience. In addition to the positive usage, this topic will also explore the negative implications usage can cause. Because social media is still relatively new, there are not many laws establishing the proper guidelines for these sites in the workplace. Scholarly articles such as the ‘Workplace impact of social networking” examine the effects of not establishing said policies, an error which results in an unhealthy work environment. Ultimately, employees can positively influence the workplace by using social media if they have the proper guidelines to follow.

The effects of media changes have had dramatic effects on how we as a nation absorb and understand information and consume media. In the past with traditional media much of the information we received was controlled and filtered through agenda setting and gate-keeping by a handful of main stream media network giants such as ABC, NBC, and CBS and their affiliates. However, after the development of the internet media began to change and develop in a way that allowed for the unlimited sharing of media and information which began to cause conflict with traditional media outlets. Lule (2017) “A 2010 Pew Research Center report found that more Americans receive their news via the Internet than from newspapers or radio

Appears that anywhere you look today you will find someone using social media. With advertisements and commercials even billboards Social Media appears to be anywhere you look. Social Media is such a big thing today, according to study provided by the website Socialnomics, individuals devote 700 billion minutes every month on Facebook (statisticbrain.com). Social Media has now become so much better for advertising that it is changing how business is done.

A growing hot topic, and cause for concern is the increasing use of social media in the workplace. The landscape for communication has changed, and the line between personal and professional communications has been blurred. How will your employer manage the risks associated with the use of social media and at the same time, gain the benefits that this media form provides? While many employers were initially concerned that employees would use company time and equipment for socializing with friends, they are quickly learning that many social networks can also be used directly for work purposes.

When analyzing the role of social media in American society, several questions come to mind. What is social media and are these social media and networking sites helpful to the people of America; can these sites be used to enhance or do they intrude in the relationships people have with others, and can they be integrated into their daily lives successfully. As the world becomes more and more technology friendly, the internet has transformed into a place that nearly everyone can go to get away. With the constant click of a mouse for some is all it takes to relieve the stress of their day.

According to a survey report done by the Kelly services with 170,000 people from 30 different countries, 55% of all the participants believe that the use of social media for both the personal and professional posts can cause problems in the workplace (Bennett, 2012). According to a study done by the proof point, many US companies that have hired the employees more than 1000 in number face a real problem with their employees to use social media (Ostrow 2009). Almost 17% of these companies had faced serious disrepute due to the offensive comments on the social media websites (Ostrow 2009). Almost 13% of the US companies have investigated the use of personal text messages that have been found to infringe the company’s law (Ostrow 2009).

According to industry research reports, the role of social media within business organisations can encourage collaboration, strategic agility and potentially improve worker productivity, thus requiring business to consider and define approaches to social media use within their organisations.

Building a sense of direction in life and a personal identity is difficult when society and media creates unrealistic models on how to live life, how to learn, and how to think. Media manipulation a constantly around us and needs to be treated as a problem. Media Literacy means attaining an understanding of mass media and how they construct meaning- requires a critical process that takes one through the steps of description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and engagement (Campbell, Martin, Fabos, 2014). Media is often thought of in broad terms, but it’s known that six corporations owns 90% of media. The six media companies are The Walt Disney Corporation, Comcast, Viacom, Time Warner, CBS Corporation, and News-Corp (Lutz,2012). The Telecommunication Act of 1996 substantially changed the rules concerning ownership of the public airwaves because the FCC eliminated most ownership restrictions on radio (Campbell, Martin, Fabos, 2014). The Act in which overhauled the nation’s communications regulations, most regional and long-distance phone companies and cable operators, competed against one another to provide connections to the Internet. It is amazing and frightening at the same time to know that these six corporations will continue to dominant 90% of everything an American citizen hears, sees, and considers meaningful. When corporations’ turn into an oligopoly, corporations lose the original purpose for news, which is to inform the public with facts and the act of informing and telling the truth is determined by money. These corporations are more focused on what media gets them more viewers and money Media corporations distract the public by reporting news cycles that constantly switch every day and bombard the public with excessive coverage of absurdity news. These corporations cut out contrasting educated opinions, newsrooms, and

In the business environment or the workplace, social media continues to impact on business performance as well as organizational capabilities. On the other hand, it is

Utilising social media for business has been a strategy of human resource management in hiring process. Internet and technology has revolutionised the way people live and also led employers to attract and screen potential candidates on social media, such as Linkedin and Facebook (Zamaria C, 2007). The features of online platform make social media become a common method of attracting applicants for human resource function. For instance, the speed and no geographical limits are distinctive features of online recruitment (CIPD, 2010). A survey conducted by the US Society for Human Resource Management found that the number of organisations that reported using social media as an HR recruiting tool had grown from 56 percent in 2011 to 84 percent in 2015 (SHRM, 2016). Some researches reported that the use of social media is an inevitable trend of hiring strategy in the age of Internet; therefore, employers could not ignore the

Social media is becoming an increasingly common feature of
the world of work and this trend looks set to continue. This application of communication technology or computer mediated tools have developed rapidly in our lives. Survey such as that conducted by CIPD (2013) have shown that while only a quarter of UK employees use it in their professional lives, this increases to 42% among employees aged 18–24. The innovative operation mode of social media has not only successfully drawn the attention of industry and academia, but has also boosted user growth, especially in the younger generation.

Merriam-Webster describes social networks as “a network of individuals (such as friends, acquaintances, and coworkers) connected by interpersonal relationships” (Social Network 1) There are many people these days who, when they hear social networks they think of the Internet but there are many different types of social networks that were around before the Internet was even invented. Social network existed long before the internet and there are several similarities as well as differences between social networks before and after the Internet. Two examples of social networks before the internet are the telegraph and the newspaper.

During the past 20 years, the media has experienced massive changes in terms of the platforms it appears in as well as the audience it reaches. While traditional forms of media such as newspapers, television, are considered to be more controlled, with the newly occurring and vastly growing online media, information reaches more people and in a rapid pace never seen before. This essay will describe how new occurrences have gained media the power to actively re-enforce (however not to the extent of shaping) political public opinion.

Looking for a complete definition of social networking, I have found it defined it as a service provider of web applications that permit people connect between them and share contents, interact and create communities with similar interest in order to facilitate the relationships between users. In the other hand, we can find a place for social networks in business world in order to improve the information flow between companies related.

The world of Mass Media is a complicated place as told by former TV and Radio reporter, Al Meyers. “You never know what you’re going to be doing, but then there’s the ability to be able to do it and to share that with the people who are listening.” Meyers, who is retired, gave me the pleasure of sitting down and talking to me about the world of Mass Media Communication, then and now.