Formation of Social Media Rules - Telstra Company - Assignment Example

Name Instructor Course Date Case study Question 1 a) Though social networks play a big role in sharing information and even advertising, there is need to think critically before posting information on social sites (Choudhury 11). This is mainly because information posted on social sites should be treated as public rather than private. Such information posted on social sites is assumed public mainly because it can easily be accessed by unauthorized individuals without the users consent. Social sites are an attraction point to many individuals in need of confidential information and can use many varied methods to access such information. With the rise in fame of social sites, many hackers and information snoopers spent long time online trying to snoop any channel with important information so that they can use it to their benefit. In addition to this, the fact that social sites were made for chatting and social communication, such sites do not have good mechanisms of protecting information they contain. They are thus highly vulnerable to hackers and information snoopers. This makes it possible that any person can access information posted on such sites (Golden 12). The occurrence of fake account profiles is yet another danger on social sites. This is because such fake profile users can easily trick an individual into sending them information that is not meant for them (Golden 12). This scenario has been common in major companies and corporations and is a threat to any business or company. Another risk factor in sharing information on Facebook is that individuals freely share information they have on their Facebook pages. Individuals take Facebook as a platform to pass them and not to share important data. This makes it easy for information to leak to untargeted audiences thus making it public rather than private information. Such information can then easily be shared with other friends who can still do the same. At the end of the cycle, the information will have reached many individuals. This is a big threat to confidential information and can lead to many problems. With this in mind, Facebook should be used for less important information rather than confidential information (Golden 12). b) According to Telstra, any information posted on social sites should be reflecting the 3R policy. According to this policy, information posted should show a good representation of the company and the individual, it should show respect for others and the company and should show responsibility. Posting information, which you do not want your manager to see shows it does not correspond to the 3R policy. Such information may not be showing respect to the company, the employees at the company, the public or even the government. Such information may also not be showing a good representation of the individual or the company. This can negatively influence the public on their perspective of the company (Golden 12). In addition to this, the information may not be showing responsibility of the company or the individual. Such a representation is not good and affects the company negatively (Golden 12). Customers and supporters of the company can easily pull out of the company or be demoralized by such information. There is therefore the need for employees to ensure they post information that will not interfere with the bell being of their companies, the public or the government. Question 2 The 3R policy as designed by Telstra is an all-round policy and is designed to help both the company and the employees in their daily interactions on the internet. This policy is providing protection to employees of the company by prohibiting them to engage in such things as maintaining a fake account on social sites, which can easily lead them into serious problems. Such an act is taken as personification, which is against the law, and can easily land a person in prison or cause him or her to pay huge fines. In addition to this, the 3R policy is in accordance with all ethical issues relating to a place of work. Just like the 3R policy, ethics requires that an employee does not expose his or her employer’s confidential information. Such disclosure of information also includes any information disclosed by an individual without the employer’s consent. All these are against ethics and the 3R policy is helping a lot to ensure that their employees conform to the ethics (Choudhury 12). Ethics also requires that an employee does not tarnish his employer’s name or company’s name. This includes portraying the company in ways that give a bad impression to the public or depict the company in ways that are not true in reality. Such acts are against ethics and can lead to questioning of an employee, as this will be spreading lies. In addition to this, the fact that the policy applies to all the workers and managers at the company, it promotes peace and respect for every individual. This is protection to employees as their information and profile cannot be used without their authorization, as this will be against the 3R policy (Choudhury 15). Question 3 Ethics refers to the set of rules guiding how people interact at a place of work and also with the public. It is basically a set of the do’s and the don’ts that need to be observed at the place of work (Golden 12). Since ethics is a major concern at any place of work, it is important that any rules formed at a place of work be in line with ethics. Ethics in a work place ensure that every individual associated with the business or company is treated in the manner they are supposed to be treated. Such treatment may include such things as fair rewards, good allocation of shifts, balance in work and off-duty and good working conditions. Ethics cover the rights of every individual at a work place and thus a good set of guidelines along which other rules can be formed. This ensures that all employees and shareholders to a company are satisfied with the working conditions of the company. In addition to this, formation of rules that are in line with all ethical issues will help promote the company’s image. Such rules will not scare shareholders, employees and other stakeholders of the company or business and can even lead to better relations. Formation of such rules that are in line will all ethics will increase the faith of shareholders in the company. This is because they will trust that any rules formed later by the company will also be in line with ethics. This might promote better savings with the company and even joining of new investors to the company (Bredeson and Goree 12). Formation of social media rules without consideration to ethics might deny employees and other shareholders their rights. Such rights can include, right to expression, rights to interact and right to enough rest time after work. Such a scenario can be disastrous to a company and will lead to loss of trust and loyalty from employees. In addition to this, such a rule will scare away shareholders and investors. It will also cause employees to resign from work or give poor outputs when at work (Choudhury 26). A company can also be at risk of being summed by the court of law if they form rules that are not in line with ethics. This is because such rules might be oppressing employees and shareholders at the place of work. Such a scenario will lead to full involvement of the government and all other humanitarian bodies and might lead to closure or fining of the business. Due to this, there is need that all policies formulated at a place of work are in line with ethics (Bredeson and Goree 54). Question 4 Marketing communication is the set of all messages used to communicate with the market or in a market (Wrench 82). Formation of a policy that requires all employees to conform to social media’s terms and conditions is a way of forming a good relationship with the respective social media. This is so because the individual social media will feel supported by Telstra’s policy and thus form good interaction with the company. To add to this, this forms a good platform on which Telstra as a company can get links for collaboration or partnerships. This is mainly because both companies deal in the same field and so have a lot in common. Support of other company’s policies will also help them to get support for their own policies. This is a good practice in business as it can easily form a standard that is used by all companies in the sector (Choudhury 46). Another advantage resulting from the support of other company’s policies is that it helps promote your own policies. This is basically so because companies in the same industry have related policies and need to back each other up for better performance of the industry. Customers adhering to policies of one company will also follow the same policies when relating to another company, which supports the same policies. This promotes easy interaction with customers and employees. In addition to this, compliance of employees of one company with policies set by other company will make them to implement the same policies at their own firm in a better way. This will bring better conformance to rules and policies by the employees (Golden 12). Conformance of a company with other companies’ policies is a good provision, as it will enable the company to gain recognition to other companies in the industry. This will increase its chances of getting such things as tenders, support when they need it, good collaboration and a better position in the market. In general, there are very many benefits associated with supporting other companies’ policies (Wrench 86). Question 5 By maintaining a fake account on twitter, the employee was against all the three principle policies of using social media as set by Telstra Company (Telsra company). This totally reflects from the posts he was updating on the social site. In his representation, he personifies the real Stephen Conroy and even posts information as if he was the real person. In this case he showed lack of respect for other individuals. He uses another person’s name without permission and could even cause problems to the real person in question. In terms of responsibility, the employee lost a sense of responsibility, as he was not responsible for his tweets. His tweets reflected a different person where as he was the one tweeting. He also lost responsibility by failing as an employee to a media company (Telsra company). By virtue of being affiliated to a media company, the society expected him to be more responsible in his actions. Representation is yet another aspect of the policy, which he did not observe. The policy expects him to represent himself clearly and also represent the company in many different occasions in a better manner. From his event of actions, he misrepresented himself and also badly represented the company when he was finally narrowed down. This is a bad show to the public and should be avoided by a company and all the employees affiliated with it (Telsra company). In conclusion, there is need for a company to set policies relating to the use of social media (Telsra company). This is basically because social media is the current trend in the market and is prone to cause confusion and misunderstandings if the information passed across is not regulated. Such policies set should also be in line with ethics so that they do not interfere with employees’ and other stakeholders rights. It is also important that a company checks other companies’ policies and even back them up especially if they are in the same industry. This helps create a standard that can easily be the framework from which all other policies are formed from (Wrench 122). Works cited Bredeson, Dean and Keith Goree. Ethics in the workplace. Mason: South-Western/Cengage Learning, 2012. Choudhury, Koushiki. Managing workplace stress : the cognitive behavioural way. India : Springer, 2013. Chow, Kok Wah. Social media 247 : everything you need to know to leverage social media for business success. Singapore : Candid Creation Publishing, 2012. Flynn, Nancy. The social media handbook : rules, policies, and best practices to successfully manage your organization's social media presence, posts, and potential. Hoboken : John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Golden, Michelle. Social media strategies for professionals and their firms : the guide to establishing credibility and accelerating relationships. Hoboken : Wiley, 2011. Hansson, Sven Ove and Elin Palm. The ethics of workplace privacy. Bruxelles : PIE-Peter Lang, 2005. Johnson, Craig E. Ethics in the workplace : tools and tactics for organizational transformation. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2007. Martin, Glenn. Human values and ethics in the workplace. Cherrybrook: Glenn Martin, 2011. Sherman, Aliza and Danielle Elliott Smith. Social media engagement for dummies. Hoboken : John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2013. Telsra company. "Information about Telstra's Terms of Use." 22 2 2012. Telsra.com. http://www.telstra.com.au/terms-of-use/. 26 3 2014. Wankel, Charles, Matthew Marovich and Jurate Stanaityte. Cutting-edge social media approaches to business education : teaching with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, and blogs. Charlotte: Information Age Pub., 2010. Wrench, Jason S. Workplace communication for the 21st century : tools and strategies that impact the bottom line. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2013. Read More