Should Companies Block Social Media?

Social media is literally taking over business as we know it. It is now hard to have a conversation about anything business related that social media is not indirectly or directly involved in. Being about to utilize social media definitely gives you a competitive advantage in the workplace. This is why it is surprising that there are still companies that are banning social media in the workplace.

I like that this article defends social media in the workplace:

http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Why_companies_should_stop_blocking_social_media__9024.aspx

         The figure that the article gave for the companies that have social media sites blocked for their employees is in my opinion, shocking. 54% is way to high for how prominent social media is in today’s society.

According to the article, half of all Americans will own smartphones by the end of the year. What this means for businesses is that even if they choose to block sites like YouTube and Facebook, their employees have unrestricted access to them on their own person phones.

         Overall I think that it is silly for companies to block social media from their employees because they can access it on their phones if they are that persistent on using it. I feel like if you have the kind of people that work for you that you can’t trust to just take breaks for short periods of time to see what is happening on social media, than you do not have the right type of employees working for you. What do you all think? Is social media too distracting for employees to handle or is it a nice option to give them during a break?

#TwitterStudyFindsTrends

A new study done by sociologists at Cornell University found that people all across the world have similar “emotional tones” in their tweets at different parts of the day, week, and even when the seasons change. The researchers based these findings on tweets from 84 different countries around the world. The tweets they studied were from more than two million people. What this study lead researchers to believe is that in general, people from all different parts of the world are feeling the same kind of moods in a somewhat simultaneous manner. 

They think this means is that our moods are shared “underlying biological rhythm”. The article states that this “rhythm” can be in all different environments and cultures. These researches concluded that the pattern on Twitter is that people most noticeably tend to feel happy in the mornings and then right before bedtime. I think this is incredible that in 84 different countries people are all, for the most part, feeling the same way. 

             There is some criticism of the software used to determine this study. One of which is that when people tweet, sometime they are sarcastic and this software is not sophisticated enough to pick up on things like sarcasm. Another criticism (and a very valid one in my opinion) is what someone tweets, it may not necessarily be how they are feeling.  Dan Gilbert who is a Harvard psychologist started in the article, “Tweets may tell us more about what the tweeter thinks the follower wants to hear than about what the tweeter is actually feeling”.

          What is your opinion? Do you think the results should be disregarded because the software cannot pick up on things like sarcasm, or account for things like a misrepresentation of people’s true feelings?

"Facebook Timeline: Zuckerberg's Biggest Gamble Yet"

After hearing bits and pieces about the new Facebook timeline, I decided to read some articles about it. The more interesting article I found was on a site called mashable.com. The writer of the article was Lance Ulanoff, and he was calling the Facebook timeline, "Zuckerberg's Biggest Gamble Yet". I have posted a link to the article below.

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-timeline-zuckerberg’s-biggest-gamble-yet/

Some critics of the timeline and open graph argue that it is just an excuse to organization your information so that marketers can cater to you more. I disagree with this argument, because I feel like if Facebook were that concerned with maximizing their profits, they would simply charge users for having a Facebook profile.

From what I understand, the Facebook timeline will summarize your entire life in a concise way so that your Facebook friends can see as much, or as little as your want of your entire history.

        Obviously, people’s Facebook pages were not created when the user was born, so there will be a lot the user has to fill in about this past. Facebook is saying that they are making these changes in an effort to, “Recover the past”.

After reading this article and being more informed about the new timeline, I feel like it will be a great new addition to Facebook. I do think it will take some getting used to, and it may be confusing at first, but overall I think it will be very informative. In your opinion do you think the timeline concept will be a good addition or bad edition to Facebook?

The Evolution of Customer Service

In chapter two of Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Paul Gillin suggests for businesses to “Have a Conversation”. I thought this was a very interesting topic because the thought of customer service becoming digital is such a new idea. Everyone knows customer service has been revolutionized since the dawn of the Internet and social media.

People love to complain. The book mentions that calling customer complaint lines is a thing of the past and people have made their complaints digital.  The Internet now makes doing that so much more convenient for consumers to do. Consumers now have multiple outlets to display their unhappiness with services and products.  Some examples of these outlets from the reading include personal blogs, social networks, and sites like Consumerist.com. The book says that editors at the Consumerist are required to do little fact checking. How the site works is they expect their readers to see if the facts are right and then correct them if they are not. The site operates like a free market; it will correct it-self. Social media is the new customer service hotline.

 The book states that customer service is your weakest link.  I would say that I agree with this statement, or that it can be. I think some companies realize that what can separate them from other companies is having excellent customer service. Customer service is something that turns your customers into your repeat customers. This section of the book talks a lot about acknowledging mistakes with social media when they do happen. How you handle mistakes can make or break you. The example we discussed in class about the airline breaking the guitars a perfect example. The company fell short on their customer service and got a lot of bad social media publicity from it.

I think overall when businesses choose to put in the time to interact with consumers via social media it is well worth their time.  Companies now have a much higher incentive to listen to what consumers are saying about their products because consumers are no longer willing to be ignored. For the first time in the history of marketing the conversation between consumer and seller is two ways. I think the new interaction is great. If sellers are made aware of what improvements can be made to their products, it will improve increase the demand for the product because it will be tailored to the customers specific needs.

What do you all think? Are social media conversations with companies beneficial to both the consumer and the seller?

Linkendin

I read a great article on msn about the do's and don't's of connecting with a future employer on LinkedIn. Here is a link to the article.

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-2689-Job-Search-How-to-connect-with-an-employer-via-LinkedIn/

       The article talked about getting the most out of using LinkedIn, and how to use it to your advantage in the job market. I feel like LinkedIn is the professional version of Facebook. Facebook helps in so many areas of our lives now, we should LinkedIn to help us as well, not hurt us. 

      The article outlined some helpful tips for using LinkedIn. I think the best two tips they gave, and their top two were to 1. Don't be shy 2. Don't be needy. 

      I think the point of don't be shy is very important, because if you are on LinkedIn and do not take advantage of your connections than being on the site is pointless. Use your connections to your advantage; don’t be afraid to ask for a favor, or to network yourself into a company you are interested in. There is also something to be said about not being needy. People do not want to feel responsible for you getting hired or not, especially if you do not know the person very well, or if you recently met them, so not being too pushy is important too.

      I also liked that the article talked about looking for the hiring manager. This seems like it could be very beneficial. Knowing someone’s email to be able to contact him or her directly can give you a competitive advantage. The article says that it is ok to contact the hiring manager directly. This could be a great for writing a cover letter because you will be able to addresses the letter to someone, and not use generic terms for addressing them, which could make you come off as unprepared or not professional. Especially in today’s economy it is so important to make yourself stand out from the competition, and getting in good with a hiring manager via LinkedIn could be your ticket in the door.

      Personally I think LinkedIn is a wonderful concept and is under utilized but hopefully is something that will become more used, since it is such a useful tool. After reading this article I feel more seasoned on the proper ways to use LinkedIn and how to hopefully make no mistakes when job searching on the site. I have had a LinkedIn account since this summer but only recently polished it so I would feel comfortable with future employers browsing my page.  (Which I hope some are!)

      What do you all think? Have you ever used LinkedIn to contact an employer, search for a possible job, or to just check out a company? 

Facebook Firing

I read an article about social media on the Whas 11 website which is a news station in Louisville.I have posted a link to the article below.

http://www.whas11.com/home/12-examples-of-people-getting-fired-over-Facebook-101977118.html

      In the article it talked about 12 specific cases of people losing their jobs over content that they had posted on their personal Facebook pages that the wrong person viewed or their message was deemed inappropriate.

     The terminations were from a wide range of careers, everyone from teachers, firefighters, and a cheerleader have all had problems with abusing social media. The reasons for getting fired also had a wide range, one example got fired for just saying her job was “boring”, while others were more extreme examples like a teacher trying to be funny asking if anyone knew of discrete hit man.

The article stated that in 2009 in an Internet security firm named Proofpoint assessed that 8 percent of companies who have more than 1,000 employees have terminated an employee for social media mess ups. The company did the same poll in 2008 and the results was only 4 percent. This is a growing problem, and I would guess that in 2011 this percentage is much higher now. 

My opinion on all of this is that if you are posting something you would not want your employer to see on your Facebook page, or any social media site, it is something you probably should not be saying in the first place. No status update is worth losing your job or jeopardizing your career.

What do you all think? Is it violating your freedom of speech to not be able to post whatever you want on your Facebook, or has it turned into basically another resume for free game to be judged by employers?