Professional Communication
resrfa
Assignment3.pptxSOCIAL MEDIA USE IN THE WORKPLACE
Dean Clouden
Professional Communication
ENG 315
Assignment 3
The content
The presentation will cover the aspects of use of social media in the workplace.
The presentation will discus the following;
The importance of the use of social media in the workplace.
How social media is used for advertisement.
The policies that regulate the use of social media in the workplace.
Effective professional communication using the social media platforms.
Market segmentation enables a company to nail down the needs and preferences of the market which the company serves by sub diving the market for instance according to the purchasing power of the consumers. McDonalds market segmentation have witnessed some setbacks in some of its market segments creating the need for a new strategy.
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Introduction
Social media is a term that is used to describe any website that enable social interactions.
The rapid growth in technology has increased the use of social media by both organizations and individuals.
Individuals make use of social media to interact with their friends and other people using the platform.
Organizations on the other hand make professional use of social media in advertising their products.
Social media is composed of the following sites; Whatsapp, Facebook, twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn among others.
The use of social media by organizations increases the visibility of the company (Aguenza, 2012).
Individuals use social media to interact and share both formal and informal information with friends, family, and strangers making the world a more comfort zone. Organizations have as well adopted social media to help improve essential processes and operations. This is due to high visibility, persistence, editability, and association
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The importance of use of social media to companies
Social media provides an effective way for companies to access the global market.
Social media plays as a medium which connects the company to its customers.
Companies makes use of multiple platforms in order to increase their market reach using the social media.
The company acquires and also share information using different platforms (Keller, 2009).
Social media creates an effective means of responding to customers’ complaints.
Social media makes it easy for companies to study and learn their competitors.
Social media has facilitated engagement with various audience especially when dealing with online complaints. this plays a role to the suffering or benefiting of companies due to the comments posted by the audience. Social media has enabled easy learning of the competitors. this provides an opportunity to understand the customers need and placing adequate efforts towards providing quality products and services.
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Advertising using Social media
Marketing of products is a critical activity to every organization.
Marketing refers to creation of awareness to customers of the various products of the company.
Social media creates a mean for the companies to share this information to their customers.
One way companies use social media for advertisement is through their company website where they post the information.
Companies also use platforms like Facebook to interact with customers about the use of their products.
Companies also pays companies like Google to run their advertisement alongside searches made by the users (Aguenza, 2012).
Companies also use brand influencers to push their products in platforms like twitter.
Many people who are the potential customers possess personal website where they fill out information about themselves, post pictures of themselves, create their own blogs, and upload their own videos. companies’ advertisers should understand the importance of self-esteem, self-actualization and design when satisfying personal needs using the information shared on social media. social networking sites enable consumers personalize their preferences and information, thus segmenting consumers by marketers is essential.
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Policies involved in the use of social media
Social media is an effective way for individuals and companies to share information with their friends and customers.
However, the use of social media also comes along with certain risks.
In order to mitigate the risks, the users of social media should be responsible on the manner their use the different platforms.
The use of social media by companies should be guided by the administrators in the company.
The users of social media are also required to observe ethical issues like being respectful the other users.
Companies should prohibit the personal use of the company’s accounts by the administrator of such accounts.
The will reduce the conflict of interests of the company and those of the administrator using the account.
Ethical policies requires the works to possess high level of honesty, respect and accuracy. this involves avoidance in the use of statements, photographs, video or audio which could reasonably could be viewed as malicious, obscene, threatening, intimidating or even bullying to customers, members, associates and suppliers.
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Ways how companies use social media to advertise.
Paid advertisements- companies pays websites to run company’s advertisements on their websites.
Paid per click- it is a means of advertisement where customers are paid to view the company’s advertisements.
Use of Facebook pages- Companies create Facebook pages where their post information about their products.
Use of brand influencers on platforms like titter to push a company’s agenda.
All these social media platforms makes it easy for the company to reach its customers.
It is also, cheaper for the comp[any to use social to advertise their products compared to using the traditional means.
Social media has enabled easy learning of the competitors. this provides an opportunity to understand the customers need and placing adequate efforts towards providing quality products and services.
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Effective professional communication through social media
Workers can use social media professionally in the organization to achieve the following;
To learn more about the other employees in the organization.
To communicate professionally with individuals who will help them perform their tasks more effectively.
Interacting with co-workers with the aim of strengthening personal relationship ties.
Social media can be used to interact with people who are outside the organization to ask questions which are related to work.
Can also be used to ask questions which are related to work inside the organization.
Companies make effort to impose policies which will reduce the personal use of social media in the organization. However, workers are likely to continue using social media despite these policies. The companies should therefore encourage the professional use of social media in a manner that will benefit the workers in how their perform their tasks.
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The use of social media as a collaborative media in workplace learning
The increased use of social media by companies have improved learning in the workplace.
Different tools are used by companies to enhance learning through social media.
The use of social media by companies have also improved the management of skills and knowledge in the company.
The employees can use the companies to learn and therefore reducing the costs incurred in learning activities.
Social media enable the company to reach a large number of employees using the same platform which enhance learning.
Workers can also use social media to ask their superiors work related questions in the organization.
This enhances the workers’ knowledge in relation to how they perform their tasks in the company.
Social media tools has been used to enhance learning and management of knowledge at work place. this is because social media aid professionals in an organization to research and acquire and implement strategies that is essential for profitability of the company.
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Privacy in use of social media at workplace
Employers use surveillance techniques to monitor information shared by their employees.
They do this in order to protect the reputation of the organization.
Posts by employees on their personal social media accounts may ruin the reputation of the company.
Surveillance on the information posted by employees is invasion of their privacy.
This creates a dilemma for the company because failure to monitor the use by the employees may ruin the company’s reputation.
Some companies also use social media information of a candidate to judge them during employment.
Poor moral character on the use of social media can determine whether a person gets employed or not.
Employers are using surveillance to monitor and govern employee information, they are free to judge candidates on the basis of all available information especially when hiring new candidates, unless prohibited or restricted by law. information include recklessness, bad reputation and poor moral character which denies them privileged of employment.
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Risks associated with the use of social media at workplace
Social media plays a vital role in the enhancement of communication in the company.
However, the use carries with it some risks to both an individual and the company.
Poor use of social media by an individual may make them lose their employment.
For instance posting something that is contrary to what the company holds make cost the person their job (Aguenza, 2012) .
Poor use of social media by the company administrator may ruin the company’s reputation.
Employees also risk their privacy where the company monitors information posted by their employees.
Social media has played a role towards the enrichment of the communication profession and diverse stakeholders. alongside the new possibilities also are challenges . there is likelihood of oversupply of relevant information and invasion of the work matters as well as the private domains based on the changing work contents and structures of the company
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Social media and textual harassment in the workplace
Sending offensive messages to the other people in the is known as textual harassment.
The practice is not different in the organization which make use of social media.
One employee may send another employee in the company an offensive message (Keller, 2009).
The only way for companies to identify this is through monitoring the information posted by employees.
The high level of harassment is caused by the connection between professional and personal incidences in the workplace.
Companies may also be harassed by their customers by posting insulting comments on posts of the company.
the incidence of social media harassment has been rapidly on the rise using the social media technologies. this is due to the effects of connectivity between professionals and high incidences of intimacy. there is need for policies formulation regarding boundaries of workplace romance using social media.
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Conclusion
In modern world, social media plays a vital role in the success of the company.
Companies use social media platforms to advertise their products.
Social media creates a medium for the companies to connect withy their customers.
They share information regarding their products like how they are used.
Social media use in the company also brings some risks to the company.
Some of these risks include ruining of the companies reputation.
The paper has also discussed incidence of social media harassment has been rapidly on the rise using the social media technologies. this is due to the effects of connectivity between professionals and high incidences of intimacy. there is need for policies formulation regarding boundaries of workplace romance using social media.
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References
Aguenza, B. B., Al-Kasem, A. H., & Som, A. M. (2012). Social media and productivity in the workplace: Challenges and constraints. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research in Business, 2(2), 22-26.
Keller, K., & Kotler, P. (2009). Marketing management (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson
Mainiero, L. A., & Jones, K. J. (2013). Sexual harassment versus workplace romance: Social media spillover and textual harassment in the workplace. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 27(3), 187-203.
