Discuss the advantage and disadvantage of social media - Essay Example

< Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media> by AbstractThew paper evaluates the pros and cons of social media and its impact on people in the present generation. IntroductionWhen it comes to the usage of social media in the workplace, the one-size-fits-all approach does noes not work (Haythornthwaite, 2005). The benefits that can be reaped from the usage of social media platforms is completely based on the features of social media, the platform type that the social media is using and the company itself.

AdvantagesSocial media has the ability to improve the communication and productivity of an organization. This is done by efficiently disseminating information among different groups of employees in the organization. It facilitates open communication that can lead to enhancement of information discovery and delivery. This is achieved through the employees themselves when they discuss ideas, post various news and information, ask questions and also share useful links. Technologically savvy organization like Nokia, presently acquired by Microsoft, has successfully implemented social media as their internal communication platform.

The motto of the organization was to connect people and explore various possible ways that can enhance the internal communication. Nokia’s Social Media Communications team was established in early 2008 with the aim of improving inter-company communications and engaging employees (Carr, 2010) . The modern organizations use this as an effective and useful recruitment tool. For example, LinkedIn is the number one professional networking website that many organizations use to hunt the best talents for a job portfolio.

The modern recruiters look for the profiles of the potential candidates in LinkedIn. L’Oreal, one of the largest cosmetic companies in the world, has successfully used social media for their recruitment drive (Connell, 2009). The organization has uniform branding in each country they operate. Interestingly, the job section of each website lists available positions in the country and a few links to the social networks. For example, The UK LOreal.Jobs website links to the L’Oreal Talent Recruitment Facebook page, the L’Oreal LinkedIn page, the L’Oreal Luxe TalenTube Facebook page and the @LOrealCareers Twitter feed.

This helps in widening the target audience of the company, whether they want to recruit the best talent or increase their business. Because of the reach of social media, the businesses use the technology to improve their business reputation. For example, the more number of ‘Likes’ and ‘Followers’ in Facebook and Twitter give an impression of the popularity of the product, company or the brand. Social media enables enhancing the client base without much of advertising. Furthermore, social media expands market research along with implementing various types of marketing campaigns.

A classic example of this is the Air Asia Marketing campaign in 2013 where they launched a Facebook campaign to give away a free plane ticket. In this campaign, the company created a competition in which the winner could choose 302 of their Facebook friends to fly with them from Australia to Malaysia and back for free. The result of this campaign was overwhelming as it resulted in doubling the amount of flights, grew Air Asia’s Facebook fan base by 30%, PR worth approximately $1.5 million was generated and Air Asia brand reached to over 2 million people in Facebook (Freberg, et al, 2011).

DisadvantagesEvery good thing has bad effect or disadvantage also. Social media too is not any exception to this rule. It is important to consider the format and audience of each type of media and to use the appropriate tool for conveying the message. For example, Wiki might work for all three issues; Facebook only for exchange of information or maybe practices; Twitter could help for reminders about things that need to be taken care of, but the message must not exceed 140 characters. It is highly important that people are comfortable using the media, otherwise they will avoid it.

As social media has reached every corner of life, the opportunity for the cyber criminals has increased by allowing them to launch fraud schemes, spams and even virus attacks as well. As more people are using this platform, there are chances that people will be falling prey to the various online scams that seems to look original and ultimately results in data or identity theft (Martin, 2009). This possesses risks to attract legal compliances for the companies, if the employees are using the platform to view illicit, offensive or objectionable materials at work.

Additionally, social media can potentially results in negative comments from employees about the company. In January 2013, the U.K. electronics retailer HMV laid off hundreds of staff members — including the company’s online marketing and social media planner, who live-Tweeted her and the other employees’ dismissals (Cross, et al, 2013). Another major disadvantages about this media is the loss of productivity of the employees, especially if the employees are busy in chatting or updating profiles on social networking websites during the actual working hours.

ReferencesCarr, Nicholas. (2010) The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. W.W. Norton, Connell, R. (2009) Academic Libraries, Facebook and MySpace, and Student Outreach: A Survey of Student Opinion, portal: Libraries and the Academy, 9 (1), 25-36.Cross,R. A. Parker, and S. Borgatti (2013). “Making Invisible Work Visible: Using Social Network Analysis To Support Strategic Collaboration,” Calif. Management Rev., vol. 44, no. 2, 2002, pp. 25–46.Freberg, K., Graham, K., McGaughey, K.

, & Freberg, L. (2011). Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions of personalityHaythornthwaite, C. (2005). Social Networks and Internet Connectivity Effects. Information, Communication & Society, 8(2), 125 - 147.Martin,T. (2009). Social media is meant for conversation, not marketing, Advertising Age, 80(6), p11