Social Media
My favorite social media platform is Facebook. Facebook visual and creativity is significant because I believe that a picture is worth a thousand words. The collective images on people’s Facebook feed tell stories, which I enjoy reading. I revel in seeing the images I share on my feed and scrolling through what others have posted. Furthermore, despite the fact that Facebook can be a little intense, it is a significant platform that I can as well post articles and writings, in addition to updates about life.
Over the past ten years, social media has evolved in many ways having tremendous impacts globally (Gilfoil, Aukers & Jobs, 2015). The most significant element that has evolved in social media is the expansion of the platforms and their successful incorporation into the business world. In 2005, Myspace was the most prevalent social site with Facebook only in America and restricted to College and High School Students. Youtube was just getting off and Twitter was not yet discovered. Currently, Google owns YouTube and is the leading video sharing site globally with Facebook used nearly by 1 billion people globally. With other Social Media platforms emerging all over, for example, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google plus, it is obvious that the next five years will experience the growth of other platforms.
The most significant component I would improve in the social media platforms is civility. It is the reason why social media is at times referred to as anti-social media. In most cases, social media has allowed people to act in a certain manner that they never would in face to face communication. Furthermore, social media platforms have also allowed bullying, trolling, and stalking, which are forms of criminal acts, particularly affecting minors. Therefore, specific codes of conducts need to be put in place to enhance inhibition from such unwarranted acts.
I believe that social media should be allowed at workplace because of its powerful nature of communication ability in sharing information and building relationships. Social media has transformed the way people communicate, share, and think (McHaney et al., 2015). Despite the fact that it can be a source of distraction in the workplace when employees use the platform to attend to personal issues, many organizations are making use of social media as a valuable work resource. Through social media, many organizations seek to enhance internal communication across different departments and increased levels of employee engagement.
Social media has enhanced communal collaboration in business to a greater extend. Its exploding progression has considerably transformed the way people communicate both at home and in the business world. Several social media applications sites, for instance, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ among others have enhanced business and social integration with clients (Ghauri & Maqsood, 2011). Social media has not only changed the way individuals communicate, but also presented boundless opportunities for businesses, particularly in the areas of public relations, internal and external communications, enlisting, organizational knowledge, and collaboration among others.
Social media has enhanced communication. For example, in an organizational setup, it is no longer necessary for people to communicate through the phone or letter. Organizations have designed social media accounts that employees only need to log in and immediately connect with others. However, it is significant that business create their own internal communicating forums other that the existing social media platforms in internal communication. The risk of using the existing social media sites, for instance, Facebook is that employees become unproductive and distracted, which is a waste of time.
References
Ghauri, M. T. K. & Maqsood, F. (2011). Incorporating social media into integrated marketing communications-The case study of Warid. Marketing Management, 36(8), 1046-56.
Gilfoil, D. M., Aukers, S. M. & Jobs, C. G. (2015). Developing And Implementing A Social Media Program While Optimizing Return On Investment-An MBA Program Case Study. American Journal of Business Education (Online), 8(1), 31.
McHaney, R., Warkentin, M., Sachs, D., Pope, M. B. & Ormond, D. (2015). Teaching social media in business. Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice, 14, 39-62.