Organizational Uses

               Growing up I have always thought that using social media during work was unacceptable. I still remember my first job out of high school when social media started to become a big thing. It had already been around for a while. However, it was not as popular as it is today. During the interview, and job description it mentioned that I could not be on any social media platforms while clocked in. I never knew how effective social media could be for companies and their employee’s. Of course, being a teenager I was a little reluctant and on slow days I would check out social media. I knew that a lot of people wasted time on it, myself included. However, it could be beneficial for companies to communicate with their employees via social media.

                I came across an article emphasizing why social media is important in communicating with your employees. According to this article nearly half of all the companies in the U.S. still ban the use of social media while on the job. The interesting thing is that the majority of top 100 companies to work for allow it. Now, that’s saying something about how effective social media can be to the business and the employees. It may or may not have anything to do with being able to use social media platforms during work, but the majority of their employees would recommend working there. I won’t go over all of the points just the few that stood out. They mention that it “unleash creativity, diverse thinking and innovation”. They can have a discussion with every person in the company group at the same time. They can throw out ideas that will help improve the business. I thought that was a great idea. I have yet worked for a company that does that. This will get everyone involved in the “vision”. I believe it would unite everyone in the company and everyone would feel like they are benefitting the company in some way.

                I also liked the point that they mentioned about making the information mobile. That makes it accessible at any time. You could be sleeping, and then wake up in the middle of the night and make a post via social media of this great idea. Many people would forget it by the time they get to work the next day. However, the majority of people sleep close to their phone or tablet. This makes it easier to keep people up to date no matter where they are. They could be on the other side of the world and chime in on important work conversations. It makes work accessible at any time, or place.

                Another article I read talked about how social media has impacted an organizations structure and behavior. A point that stood out was when they gave an example of Southwest Airlines. They have a one seat policy, and the pilot asked this passenger if he would “de-embark” the plane. Little did they know the passenger was a famous writer with millions of followers. The passenger went to social media and explained the situation and how he felt. The airline responded quickly. I believe it was about 8 hours? They explained the policy and why they have it. They also explained that they were sorry and it showed they cared about this persons business. Would it have been that quick if it was not a famous writer? Who knows, but they showed that they cared about their business and it showed all of the followers of this famous writer that Southwest Airlines care about what goes on in the plane, and about their customer’s satisfaction.

                That is a company’s worst fear is to see a bad review on social media. They will do whatever they can to fix the problem, and gain a customer loyalty again. With social media everything is public and anybody can view these reviews unless it is a private message. So this is beneficial for customers and businesses to keep up with how they feel and how the business can improve. Businesses will do anything to keep their customers happy and social media keeps them on their toes, and helps them know what they can improve.