Social Networking in the Workplace

Social networking has, over the last decade, made an enormous impact on society. It has created a whole new dimension for people to communicate. In order to find out what our friends are up to, we can simply go on social networks like Facebook or Twitter and see the latest posts, pictures, and events. There are also many different points of access to which we can check our social networks. A large majority of people now have smart phones which allow them to access their social networks on their phones in addition to their laptops or desktops. This makes it very convenient to check our networks whenever and wherever we please. However, there is a time and a place for everything and the workplace is one area where the benefit from this ever-growing fad in our society is questionable. With everything, though, there is the good and the bad. I believe it is important to shed light on both the pros and the cons of social networking in the workplace.

There are multiple reasons why social networking in the workplace may be a bad thing. One obvious reason is that it takes time away from the reason you are getting paid, which is to actually work. If you are using social networking simply to find out what your friends are doing in the coming weekend, or to upload pictures of your pets, you are probably wasting valuable time that could be spent on more important things that will benefit the company you work for. Another aspect of social networking that many people do not take into consideration is that, as an employee, you represent the company you work for. If people are being irresponsible with their social networking, it could reflect badly on the company. People need to be aware that the things they post on their social networks can have big consequences not only for themselves, but also with who and what they are affiliated with.

Social networking can also have some positive benefits in the workplace. When used efficiently, it can be used as a great marketing tactic. Spreading the word about your business on social networks can create a great awareness for your company and the products/services you offer. It can also reach new markets of people that may otherwise not hear about your business. Another way it could be useful in the workplace is by being a great method of communication. For example, if you were “friends” with your employees on Facebook, you could message back and forth about work-related issues.

Because there are pro’s and con’s to social networking in the workplace, I believe that the type of impact it makes depends on how it is used. What is your view of social networking in the workplace?

 

Image provided by Google Images

The Future of Social Media

In the past decade we have seen many changes in social media. The way social media has advanced and spread into fields we never imagined. Who would have imagined the role of Facebook and Twitter in business world? Today social media has become a very important tool for the society and the importance of social media will only increase as time passes.

            We humans are social animals. We need to socialize as a part of our life. Today when the world is moving at rapid pace it becomes very difficult for everyone to meet in person or else communicate due to barriers like difference in timing and far away geographic locations. To overcome such difficulties we rely on Social media. Social media is a tool that brings the society under a single umbrella. 

            The content we share on social media is a very important aspect that will decide the direction in which social media will grow. The content we share on social media changes according to the need. At some point of time all we did on social media was shared “ What’s on your mind”, but now we share a lot more than just what you think and do. Social media will go through changes, as the needs of the users will be recognized.

            In the future the success of social media will depend on the advancement in the mobile technology. Today social media is used widely and a majority of people has switched to hand held devices to get on social media. It is more convenient way to use social media. Social media will grow mainly in three different fields, personal, business and information.

Vine Fame

I'm not too sure if many people know about Vine, but it's a social network where people can stream a short video that is up to 6 seconds. Although it was created last year, it really got popular this year (2013). When it came out it was the most popular app, it was fresh, new, and an excellent idea to have a range of videos in an app streamed from random people around the world. At one point vine got so popular Instagram tried to imitate the idea of putting videos on your app. 

Honestly at first Instagram was successful in it's plans to take the spot of the number one video app. People where putting "R.I.P Vine" post up due to the new features Instagram had. Not only did they extend the video time to 15 (which is twice the vine length, plus 3), but they also added filters to the videos. 







The fight between Instagram and Vine was a good one, but for the most part people where still on the Instagram side until that one magical day. Somehow when Vine got the re-vine feature it's popularity went sky-high. Now there are tons of comedians all over Vine making people laugh daily. Also since the feature is available to everyone its actually possible for anyone to get famous. For example this little boy named Terio is one of the most famous people on Vine due to one video. All he did was a 6 second dance and now he's taking pictures with celebrities.

Pinterest- Pin your interest!!

Social Media is considered to be an important part of people’s life now. The role that Social media plays in the lives of people has changed as time progressed and evolved as a completely new aspect of communication.

            If we go back in the history and try to evaluate the role of social media in people’s life, we will be amazed to see how social media grew from making friends, to sharing pictures, to networking and now sharing information with people of same interest. Pinterest is a pin board style website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies. Users of the website can browse other pin boards for pictures, information and many different like interest things. They can repin the items, quotes, fashion, photos etc. on their own board and share it with their friends.

            If we have a close look at the way the website has been designed, the basics are the same as any other social media website. Users make friends and share information, apart from all this one aspect of the website that is unique from other social media is that you can be friends with people of same interest. This is when the users actually go out of their comfort zone and interact with someone whom they have not known personally but feel comfortable in interacting because of the same interests.

Pinterest is considered to be haven for the marketers. They can direct their adds to a group of same interest people and communities with people of same interest. Unlike other Social media where website tries to get the people with like interest together, in pinterest the users themselves find their way to a community or else a pin boards with same interest. Until now Pinterest has been successful in creating an environment where people are comfortable in interacting in the pin boards style but as time progress and the users taste changes, the users will look for some more features to keep them interested in the pin board style interaction. It will be a tough barrier for the Pinterest team to go past and develop.

http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-is-fastest-growing-content-sharing-platform-2013-11 

Customer Service Using Twitter

Many company's have been using Facebook for years, but now many are leaning toward Twitter because of the vast number of users.  The question is whether using Twitter is an effective method of customer service. Reports have shown that the customer service and response times on Twitter have worsened over the past three years.

There are pros and cons to using Twitter for customer service. I think some of the pros are that customers can connect with the business more by getting daily updates and being able to know promotional activities in a timely manner. Twitter helps customers reach out to users/buyers all over the world and tell them about products/services available.

I think there are also a few cons to using Twitter. One of the main problems is that customers may go unheard due to the vast number of "tweets" to a company. A customer's voice can easily be lost in the busyness of Twitter. Another negative impact Twitter has on customer service is that company's now have to hire employees just to deal with the social media aspects of their company. 

Social Media in general has saved some company's and lost others thousands of dollars.  One example found in my reading was when a Domino's video was released on YouTube in 2009 displaying Domino's employees treating product in a wrongful manner. This put a bad taste in the mouths of customers across the nation. This social media incident hurt their company. Domino's set out to make a change. Through social medias and other advertising outlets, "prompted Domino’s to make company-wide changes including altering their pizza recipe, aggressively reaching out to customers on social media, and launching a marketing campaign acknowledging mistakes and promising a better product."  So through social media, Domino's crashed and also used it so change the thoughts of customers to rise to the top of their market.

 

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-for-brand-customer-service-2013-10#ixzz2kRyAPB7R

Google+ the new social media

One site that is new to the social networking era is Google+. The number of users who use Google+ for posting pales in comparison to Facebook or Twitter but one thing Google+ is attempting to do is to improve different features of social networking, such instant messaging and uploading photos.

 As Google senior vice president says "People have beautiful treasures that have become stranded in these devices." Google+ offers users the ability to upload photos at their full photo resolution rather than compressing them like Twitter and Facebook. Along with adding other tools such as editing features and new ways to tag photos.
Another feature Google+ is trying to gain an advantage is the ability to chat with other people face-to-face individually or in groups. Google+ instant messaging feature is Google Hangout and offers users the ability to chat one on one and with up to ten people at a time. Google Hangout is very similar to Skype but focuses more on face-to-face interaction.
Many people are critical of Google+ and don't understand how to use it and all its features though including myself.



http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/29/tech/social-media/google-plus-photos-hangouts/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/G/google_hangouts.html

 

The Revolution of Myspace

Although Myspace was not technically the entity that started social media, one could say that it was the website that changed the world of social media completely from what it had been thought of before. MySpace was founded in 2003 and launched in 2004. Within the first year of launch, there were already 5 million users. Just two years after launching, MySpace had taken the throne for the most visited website in the United States, beating out Google search and Yahoo! Mail. The social media giant peaked finally in July of 2008 with a grand total of 75.9 million visitors. MySpace later began to struggle after being passed by Facebook and started laying off many of its employees and was eventually bought out by another company.

Today, MySpace has been revamped to mainly to be used for music. Although it is not quite as popular as it once was, MySpace can always would thought of as the one who put social media on the map for good.
I'm sure that Tom would be proud!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/myspace-history-timeline_n_887059.html#s299852&title=June_2011_Impending

Image provided by Google Images