Social Media: Message, Reputation, and Privacy

In the world of business, social media applications are taking a larger and larger role in the day-to-day function of the organizations that use them.  Ten years ago, the concept of a “social media” specific employee was unheard of; today unpaid internships in this arena are common place.  While the speed and reach of social media outlets are unmatched in the world of advertisements ability to reach demographics there are detractors to the social media market that can adversely affect a business.  There are several concerns that should be addressed by the company when using social media sites, concerns such as what the social media policy should be when using the sites, how to manage the online reputation of the company, how to protect the privacy of the company, the employees, and the visitors to the sites, and other ethical considerations that may arise.

In the blog post, “The Not So Distant Future,” technologies we will be seeing in the next couple of decades were discussed.  However, it is also important to note that because of this perceived technological boom, the “era of innovation,” as Peter Diamandis dubbed it, will likely result in a job culling un-seen like at any other time in our history.  The recent recession of 2008 will seem like pebbles to the boulder that has started its long decent.

“Oxford University researchers predicted that 47% of U.S. jobs are 'at risk' for being automated in the next 20 years – especially in the areas of transportation, logistics, and office and administrative support work.”  

Why Organizations Need a Social Media Policy and Employees Need Training

“A Manpower survey of 34,400 organizations worldwide found that only 20 percent (of those organizations) have a social media policy.  ScanSafe, an online security company that provides a website blocking service to thousands of global corporations, found that 76 percent of its clients block social media sites.  9% of organizations have fired employees for using social media at work.  21% of organizations with more than 1000 employees have disciplined employees for using social media at work.  This shows that there clearly is a need for a social media policy at all organizations.  These statistics show that corporations are more interested in keeping their employees away from social media than allowing them to use social media.  When employees use social media it can be a benefit to the organization if it is used right.” (Lim & Heinrichs, 2011-05-30)

The Not So Distant Future

Over the past 4 weeks I have become interested in the new television series called ‘Cosmos: A space-time Odyssey’ hosted by one of the great ‘intellectuals’ of the modern era Neil deGrasse Tyson.  A show that a takes a shot on scientific storytelling to reveal the grandeur of the universe and re-invent the original series which was hosted by Carl Sagan.  The show itself essentially tries to explain how the universe works to a wider audience not just science buffs.  An interesting tool they use in the show “Ship of the Imagination” goes to far out galaxies and even shrinks down to the size of an atom to show how the universe works with special effects and CGI.  The reason I mention this ship of the universe is because I wondered what the future will be like in our lifetime.  Seeing as how we went from flying in 1903 to landing on the moon in 1969.  It took the human race just 66 years for that to happen.  We are growing at an exponential rate.  Computers are become faster, smaller and cheaper.  Advances in medicine and technology are allowing us to discover and advanced even further.  So with all these advances I wonder how will the future be like for me and my generation who grew up with technology around us.

(Image by Stefan Krause, Germany (Own work) [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ritchyblack )

All Play, No Work

While social media has become a useful tool for current organizations to use as a means of advertisement and consumer research it has its negative side effects as well.  Social media has caused employees’ productivity to decrease as many spend valuable hours on social media sites while they are on the job.  Finding a way to manage and control the amount of time employees spend has become one of the biggest challenges facing the organization today.  Without proper policies or tactics in place, organizations can be wasting their money on employee salaries without getting the full benefit out of their dollars.  While many companies have decided to ban social media websites on company computers, this has actually proven to not be a valid solution.  The purpose of this blog is going to be to explain how organizations can make sure that their employees are spending more time working, than they are surfing social media websites.