Success in the Utilization of Social Media - Case Study Example

Computer science and information technology Essay By How social media has changed the information management system of the organization Most companies are utilizing social media as a communication channel within the organization. Dell and Best Buy companies have registered success in the utilization of social media to meet internal company goals such as innovation stimulation, revenue increase and cost reduction. Some companies however have not registered any benefits from use of social media or have avoided the use of it according to the resent research. Most companies that have subscribed to the use of social media as an internal communication channel have registered positive results. For social media to be an effective communication channel with the aim of improving the flow of information, improve employee motivation and lowering employee turnover, the executive are to build an emotional capital among the employees (Ramsay, 2012). Companies that have registered negative result in the use of social media as an internal form of communication are believed to begin benefits extraction before the emotional capital is created in the utilization of social media. Proper utilization of social media as an internal channel of communication will enable the executive to come up with incentives and plans such as nurturing the employees. Use of social media in the company promotes good relationship between the employees and the executive. It maintains and promotes the human bond between the executive and the large employee number working in the organization. The employees are also able to share the challenges they face during day to day company activities. The use of social media within the company is a form of non financial reward to the employees. It helps employees identify themselves with the organization (Brown, 2010). The social media platform enables the workers to join the society in experiencing pride, authenticity, fun and attachments. The tool can be utilized by the top company managers in building emotional capital in the right manner. Internal use of social media has short comings too. it is believed that the tool can be used to expose and magnify the disadvantages of the organization’s culture. The employees can use the platform to fight the management especially in cases where poor relationship exists among the groups. The mangers should strive to ensure the messages are authentic to boost the trust of the employees. The company should change the heavy control and command if social media use is to be effective (Boccia, 2008). The message delivered by the top managers should be in line with other company action. Tupperware Company is one of such companies that have been successful in the utilization of the social media as an internal communication channels. The chief executive manager communicated and maintained a connection with the consultants through use of blogs, emails and podcast. Use of social media tools for example the utilization of face book is believed to affect horizontal and vertical communication in the company. The strategy cannot be effective in a company that subscribes to top down or vertical communication but can be vital in a company with horizontal communication. The decline of internal communication reduced in a situation where social networking did influence emotional capital. The introduction of the social media in some companies impaired communication among the employees and the executive since the employees only communicated with the assistants. The use of social media improved horizontal communication especially among the employees of the same level. The employees were able to discuss work related issues even outside working hours and the performance of the company was improved. Companies that avoid developing social media with features that allow employees to share personal interests and values reported failure in communication (Adamovic et al, 2009). The vital role played by social media in internal company communication cannot be underrated. Executive managers and other leaders in the company should be able to emphasize pride, authenticity, fun and attachment among the employees through use of social media. The positive impact of social media on business world is unquestionable. Most successful business organization including Multinational Corporation is utilizing social media as part of their marketing strategy to reach more and more customers. JetBlue airliner is an example of an airline company that has registered increased growth due utilization of the social media with an intention of attracting customers. The company addresses certain challenges through marketing strategies that are human centered. The company communicates to the customer through utilization of ads that are creative and presented in various Medias including you tube videos. Marketing research carried out by the company ensures consumer demands are understood. Digital marketing strategy is vital and is being utilized by many companies in the world as a communication channel to the many customers. The company use of video in launching multiple ads attracted consumers towards utilization of its services. The company advertised its services through the use of ads that were creative and humorous (Lustenberger, 2010). The empowerments of the company employees make them work even more with an intention of satisfying the customers. Most of the advertisement in the company targets the use of social media ads that are propagated through use of you tube videos. The company has registered increased number of the customer in the recent past all associated with these new strategy. The company has introduced the same ads on social TVs and tweeter sparking a large number of followers. The strategy has paid off since the company has continued to encounter an increased number of the public intending to utilize their services. New company idea both from the executive and the crew members are evaluated and shared with the public through face book and the other various social media sites. The social media site has continued to be a channel for the company communication. The company began using the strategy when they wanted to apologize to the customers due to delays experienced seven years ago due to ice storms. The company utilized customer emails, newspaper ads and network television. social media especially the use of twitter and face book gives customer a chance to customers to give their feedback on new innovation and how they feel about the services offered by the airline company. Most companies and organization are looking for ways of reaching the large number of consumers on social media. Information in a company does not target employees alone but also the consumers and shareholders. The company has to come up with strategies of keeping the consumers and the shareholders informed about the progress of the company. Digital media has catapulted consumer and company contact. Social media such as twitter, face book, dig, you tube has changed the marketing strategy especially in promotion and advertisement. Consumers are part of the decision making process in the company. Impact of cloud computing technology on the company Cloud computing is software that helps the organization deal with the changes in the environment. The chief executive officer of successful organization in the world is aware of the complex changes in the environment that can impact negatively on the development of the organization. Few companies however, feel that they are in a position to deal with the changes in the environment. Lack of innovation in the department dealing with information technology has made it difficult for the companies to deal with changes in the environment. Inadequate technological advancement has made it a challenge to respond to changes after sensing it. The emergence of technological advancement in form of cloud computing will help most of the companies to deal with the issues arising from the ever emerging changes in the environment. Most companies own hardware and software in specialized facilities and data centers in their premises but with cloud computing, the digital assets are leased by the companies. The employees of the company are unaware of the companies’ computer location, application and data centers though the information is considered to be somewhere in the cloud. The consumers of such an organization purchase and rent what they need from the cloud. Cloud computing is a permanent and deep shift in the powers of computer consumption and generation. The innovation is considered irreversible and inevitable (Hayes, 2010). Companies should invest in training its employees in information technology with an intention of empowering them and making them technologically competent. Business executive and CEO have a mandate of bringing change to the company by applying cloud computing in their organization. Cloud computing has more advantages than the data center in the organizational premises. Large companies with well trained IT experts still find it challenge to deal with the information technology because they are overstretched. Such companies can be able to install software in their desktops, smart phones, tablets and laptop for the purpose of collaboration and analysis and for easier access by the employees on road and at home through web browsing (Bansal, 2010). The company can also open premises to joint venture partners, suppliers and contractors. Studies have indicated less money is spent in developing new strategies and technology. Criticism directed at cloud computing is baseless and lacks foundation. Many of the issues raised are overhyped and associated with misinformation (Hayes, 2010). The issues are only aimed at supporting and providing cover to business executive for not investing in technology due to lack of investigation. Most organization are failing on the utilization of information technology due to delegating technology decisions to the executives who are not well versed with issues related to technology. Such people cannot be trusted in making positive information technology decisions that can spur the organization to the next level. Lack of initiative and overstretching of information technology department in most organization has negatively impacted on the development of the company. The use of the cloud computing technology is cost effective. The technology allows eases of access to information for the employees despite their location. The technology ensures employees remain productive throughout. Companies such as Balfour Beatty have most of their professional working oversee and can only remain in touch with the company by applying the cloud technology. The professionals require reliable and instant access to blue prints, cost estimates and photos and access to large company files. Such can only be done through use of cloud technology. The employee is able to access company information on devices that are internet enabled throughout the world with ease. The technology is believed to boost the performance of the company. A company with performing employees usually posts good results. The technology enables the company to share information with customers and as a result attract more people and bring benefits to the company. Cloud computing has facilitated collaboration within the organization activities. The technology has made it easier for the organization to communicate to its employees and the consumers in various part of the world. The approach has made it easier for the organization to provide information to a larger population and has more advantages that the data centres that were constructed in the organizational premises. Cloud technology has also enabled the various companies to utilize the large data gatherered by the organization. The strategy has focused on influencing, understanding and predicting the behavior of the customers both online and offline. Cloud computing technology has been applied by restaurants owners to help monitor their businesses by analyzing patterns among the employees that is considered suspicious. The information acquired is utilized by the managers and the owners to take corrective measures to prevent the business from getting lose in the process. Cloud computing technology is essential in hosting and developing applications. Software developers had to maintain, configure and buy their own servers. The activities were considered as a distraction and a hassle. The new technology has made it easier to add and remove an application. The powerful software and applications can now be easily accessed by the customers. Development of new application has made it easier to know the associated risk of the technology to the environment. Data gathered has impacted on the decision Making process of the organization and improve business performance and response to areas such as, network augmentation, disaster response and customer connection. The technology offers groups and individual benefits at various levels and the application and data (Hunter, 2012). It allows organization to scale and increase their information technology powers. It works across devices, locations and organizational boundaries with intention of eliminating administrative conflicts. Most companies are shifting from setting up data centers in their premises and are applying the cloud computing technology to control and dispatch information to most of its employees. Policies that prohibit moving to cloud technology should be changed. As the technology matures and grow, it will be in a position to deal with various risks that are associated with it. Countries such as the United States of America have come up with legislation aimed at regulating access and data transportation. Strict audit and access measures associated with the handling of the health data of the employees working in a company have been put in place. The executive should involve the departments concerned with the information technology to provide direction on the application. The company has to invest in information technology that is easier to access and apply. Various application provided by the cloud technology such as social media monitoring, customer relationship management, human resource management and applications that targets collaboration and production should be utilized by most of the companies with the aim of increasing performance (Jing, 2009). The cloud has software resources that are so powerful and information technology experts can integrate chart tools and Google map with the data of the organization with an intention of providing visualization of a wide range. The management of the organization should delegate the information technology decisions to executives with knowledge on IT. Positive attitude of the executive toward the use of cloud technology is important to the development of the company. Companies should either subscribe to this new technology or be left behind. The technology has got more advantages than short coming (Zou, 2010). Discuss the importance of security information management Cybercrime is one of the challenges that affect organizations in the current world. Organization is becoming more and more vulnerable to breaches and hacks due to increased storage and creation of electronic information. Hackers may break into the organization servers from a remote site with an intention of damaging data or stealing. A data breach occurs when organizational confidential data is stolen and viewed without permission or authority. Data breaches involve personal identifiable information, intellectual property, trade secrets and personal health information (Chenoweth, 2009). Breaches of data are considered a malicious act and may occur due to negligence. Loss of organization data can impact negatively to the growth and development of the company. Protection of such data is therefore vital for the success of the company or organization. Studies have indicated that organization that chooses to store their data in other countries with weak privacy laws. Such a move has more shortcomings because it exposes the data to even more breaches targeting information that is considered confidential. Use of weak passwords has made it easier for hackers to steal organizational data (Dhillon, 2001). Current cyber attacks focuses on the organizational vulnerability. The attacks are becoming more sophisticated by targeting vulnerability points including mobile devices and smart meters. Embedded devices may contain hacked codes that are activated once the organization buys the device and install it in their system making it easier to destroy or steal the company data. Cyber crime has grown to become cyber terrorism with criminals hacking into national security data and plan attacks. Company information should be protected at all cost. Exposing confidential organizational data may be an advantage to the competitors. One way in which organization loses data is through employees’ negligence. Employees may pass company information to other individuals or the public though without malicious intent. Such vital data can reach competitors hence giving them an advantage in the competitive market. The company information may also be hacked by groups outside the organization. Company employees with access to information may be malicious and with intent retrieve and sell data to competitors (Orlowski, 2011). Termination of the employee by the company can result to distrust and hard feeling; such employees can sell the company information as a way of getting back to them. Other companies may ask for employee’s documents from the previous organizations. Such documents may contain vital organization data that may be beneficial to the competitors. Internal company employees may also be paid by the competitors to provide data that are considered confidential to the company. For the organization to be able to compete favorably in the competitive market, then all the vital data should be protected. Most organizations have invested huge capital in protection of their data. Data protection can be done by stopping data breaches and hacking. Data breaches can be stopped by ensure internal and cloud protection of data. The number of people who are able to access vital organizational data should be regulated. The individuals should be given passwords to protect the data. The employees should be informed of emerging scams or threats regarding to new malware as revealed by the security intelligence that is global. Companies should invest in putting a robust security system in place (Tipton, 2005). Current firewall, anti-spyware and antivirus program should be installed in the data systems as a mean of data protection. The company should ensure regular checking of logs. Security breaches can deny the organization access to its vital documents for hours and even days. Organization depends on vital information for its day to day activities. Information as a business asset requires total protection. Data protection is essential especially at this time where exposure to threats and vulnerabilities is real (Solms, 2010). The company has to come up with more effective way of ensuring protection is done since more and more challenges. Causes of damage such as computer hacking and malicious code have become more sophisticated and rampant. Businesses have to grasp the essence of information security and put in place appropriate measures to protect its data. Information is crown jewels in a business organization. It is considered one of the vital ingredients that run the business. Security targeting information is a problem that concerns the organization and not the information department. However, the organization should ensure that the information department is well equipped with experts that are well informed on issues concerning information technology. Security breaches have been known to lead to financial losses, intellectual loss of property and reputation loss (Chenoweth, 2009). References Adamovic, D., Potgieter, A., & Mearns, M. 2009. Knowledge sharing through social media: Investigating trends and technologies in a global marketing and advertising research company. SA Journal of Information Management. Bansal, N. 2010. Cloud computing technology (with BPOS and Windows Azure). International Journal of Cloud Computing, 48-48. Boccia, M. 2008. Social Business by Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies for the Connected Company. Performance Improvement, 53-55. Brown, S. 2010. Social media for company research: A few of the best tools. Business Information Review, 163-174. Chenoweth, J. 2009. 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