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Social media related ethics essay
Social media related ethics essay
About the impact of social media
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Can your company hijack your social media accounts?
Social media has dramatically altered the face of business and has rapidly been adopted as a way for organizations to build relationships with clients. These relationships are achieved by building brand awareness, as well as by increasing effective and efficient communication (Smith, 2013). Like all relationships, the connections built by using social media channels must include a certain level of trust and ethics, or these outlets are not deemed as genuine and valuable. In fact, this very aspect of social media is a primary reason for the value associated with these accounts. There is a growing need for organizations to adopt policies that govern the use of social media to protect both the employer and employee.
There are many documented issues surrounding ethics and the abuse of social media that concern both the employer as well as the employee. This is a valid concern when dealing with the impact of emergent social technologies as this enables us to perform activities in new ways. Situations may arise for which there are not adequate policies in place to deal with outcomes in an ethical manner (Moor, 2005). Not only do employees need to be cognizant of these situations, but business must take care to remain inside customary ethical boundaries.
Some organizations, in an effort to jump on the social media bandwagon, have crossed ethical lines to take advantage of the popularity of this medium. Organizations can do this by taking advantage of the vast information this outlet offers. Ethical boundaries are crossed when business uses an employees’ personal networks as a means to achieve business objectives. Is this a practice that is ethically acceptable or have the companies cros...
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...best serves the customer base and ensures that the advertising is truthful. Following these ethical approaches builds trust and loyalty in your brand and will ultimately ensure the organization’s success.
CONCLUSION
Social media has transformed the work environment and involves employees at all levels of the organization. To explore the ethical usage of social media by employees, the impact this outlet has on an organization must be understood. An employee’s use social media reflects upon a company which extends to an employee’s personal, non-company use of social media (Lunday, 2010). The usage of social media by employees is a direct reflection upon the organization. The key is to make sure the organization has adequate social media policies in place to be clear as to where to the line is drawn between the employee’s rights versus the goals of the organization.
Companies have determined what an employee does while at work or away from work on social media can greatly affect the company’s image. For example, the National Football League (NFL) has a code of conduct policy that holds employees of a team and organization accountable for the employee’s comments on social media. An employee, on their own time, is no longer a private entity, acting on their own accord without consequences from their employer. This new approach to managing a company’s image or message dictates how a company monitors and responds to acts, whether they are behavior, speech or actions they find inappropriate.
Organizations want to ensure their image is protected and understand that social media is an essential part of public awareness. When a corporation exercises social responsibility in the form of fundraising or setting up employee giving programs, using social media to promote these actions helps to create a positive branding environment, and it’s a great way to engage with your audience on a deeper level that goes beyond your products or services (Frontstream,
Over the past fifteen years, the use of social media by both the general public and by the business world has expanded dramatically. Social media is one of a number of social technologies - any technological device or technique that can be used to facilitate communication between individuals. Social technology includes everything from the telephone to Wikipedia. Social media, on the other hand, is the use of media platforms which were specifically create to connect users with other users and give them a peak into each other's lives by allowing them exchange information, messages, ideas, pictures, and other personal communication. However, it’s been known to abuse this rapidly growing technology.
In the last few years social media and technological tools have become a significant part of communication and their popularity has expended to the all areas of our life. The youngest generation of "always on," those who are always connected, post, like, comment, and provide information about every aspect of their life (Imaging the Internet, 2012). This phenomenon, has expanded also into professional lives, business, and health care environments (Randolph, 2012). Undoubtedly social networking like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or many different blogs are an indispensable part of our reality, however as the most popular modern communication tools are also not free from abuses and carry some ethical issues. A proper use of social
In order to get insights into the consumer perception about the role of advertising we have reviewed a number of articles and conducted four in-depth interviews. A number of research papers reach opposed conclusions. These vary from the ones stating that "the ethicality of a firm's behavior is an important consideration during the purchase decision" and that consumers "will reward ethical behavior by a willingness to pay higher prices for that firm's product" (Creyer and Ross Jr.
Social media has immensely evolved in how many companies and employers do business in recent years. It has helped many companies grow and expand by usage of social media by mass and instant communication and advertising through this technology. Like anything, there is a side effect. The social media "downfall” is the subject of employees bashing their employer's reputation in regards of employee’s communication via social media about their employers. With such controversy, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has had to step in to distinguish what is considered lawful of unlawful termination due to these actions by employees and their employers. The question to ask if such an issue should arise is to determine if it is concerted activity or not. This will help the NLRB determine if proper disciplinary procedures have been taken.
Social media creates a host of communications issues that are not easy to counteract. In the case study, Social Benefits of Social Disaster?-Best Buy; there are two glaring examples of how social media creates issues from its communications. The first of which is the risk to security. In this case, an easy to guess password was used by a hacker to misuse a twitter account. Implications were felt not only by the individual that was hacked, but the company suffered financial losses. Further issues could have occurred if the hacker was interested trying out the password on internal Best Buy systems. As a manager, it is critical to stress to employees the importance of communications that contain sensitive information and how to choose a password that provides the highest level of security. (Robbins, Decenzo, & Coulter, 2013)
Social media is an imperative public relations tool for companies to utilize in their business practices. Social media cannot be regulated so anyone can say what they please about the company, whether it is good, bad or ugly. Social media is developing rapidly and there are new platforms
One of the ethical dilemma that could arise from the use of social media is when a client searches and sends a friend request or adds a worker on Facebook. Another ethical dilemma could be when a client follows his or her worker on twitter/Instagram. This could potentially take the workers privacy away because the client might get to know more than they should such as personal information, family photos etc. on the other hand, it could get in the way of the helping process or therapeutic relationship, especially if the worker do not explain to the client why they cannot be friends on social media.
In order to generate sales, marketers often promote aggressively and uniquely, unfortunately, not all marketing advertisements are done ethically. Companies around the globe spend billions of dollars to promote new products and services and advertising is one of the key tools to communicate with consumers. Conversely, some methods that marketers use to produce advertisements and to generate sales is deceptive and unethical. Ethical issues concern in marketing has always been noted in marketing practice. According to Prothero (2008), ethics itself has a profound, varied and rich past. It emphasizes on questions of right and wrong or good and bad.
Since the introduction of internet in the 1990’s, its importance worldwide has always grown tremendously. From the first email send to the domination of Facebook and other social media websites, it has changed the way people communicate. The use of social media is increasingly becoming the preferred way people share their daily activities, ideas and knowledge and that is why it’s the most talked about and used platform. Many companies are encouraging their employees to use various social media platforms and engage online for office productivity, posting opinions and presenting their thoughts. Corporations realize that Social Media tools such as blogs, forums, podcasts and social networking websites makes internal communications faster, more convenient and effective. Social media is a low-cost, high-impact tool that can also complement and reinforce your existing communications efforts. It gives a new dimension to internal communications in many ways: building relationship with employees, leads to diverse thinking and innovation, and reduce costs and Increase Productivity. Social media has impacted positively in the business world, but its downside has impacted teens in high school, with issues such as cyber bullying, and people using Facebook and twitter to get over their boredom and research proving that the more they use social networking websites the more envious they feel.
As college students and adults prepare for the real world, people are constantly faced with how to prepare for interviews and the hiring process with jobs. One factor of that is the gray area that is the idea of social media and networking helping to assist with the hiring process. Technology has become a privacy and employment issue that future employees face. When it comes to employment companies a have no boundaries and employers need to realize that social media should be used only for non-bias practices and not employment decisions based on someone’s Facebook post. Topic: How Privacy and Employment Laws effect Social Media changing the Hiring Process.
Social Media means the use of web-based and mobile technologies to make communication an interactive dialogue. It takes on many different forms including social blogs, Internet forums, magazines, micro blogging, photographs or pictures, wikis, videos, podcasts, rating and social bookmarking. With the world in the midst of a social media revolution, it is very obvious that social media like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp etc., are used extensively for the purpose of communication. This form of communication can be done with a person or a group of persons. Today most of the people working in the organizations, especially the young generation are hooked on to the different social media for keeping in contact with their peers. It is media for the social interaction as a superset beyond the social communication. There are both advantages and the disadvantages of using social media. One very important advantage is online sharing of knowledge and distributing information among the different groups of people. And this online sharing of information also promotes the increase in communication skills among the people. There are also disadvantages of
Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter allow users to access company information, photos and employees as well as ask questions and express personal experiences with the company. It also allows potential employees to understand the vibe of the organization and gain a deeper and more personal understanding than a website. However, with social media, it is important to not ove...
..., which can result in decreased productivity. An employee may be spending more time viewing their friends’ posts and pictures, rather than focusing on their job. Social media can be addicting to some people. This should be monitored by all business owners. Employees can attend a party with people taking pictures, and then the pictures can be misconstrued or distorted. Online reputational concerns can be critical for businesses along with their employees. It can result in loss of employment, loss of economics, and unforgivable social humiliations. Businesses are at another disadvantage while using social media because followers can post negative comments on the business’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram site. Also, a hacker can retrieve the company’s page and post false information. A business or organization’s reputation will suffer from these actions. (Oravec 97)