1. LeAsha Moore
‘Bringing Social Media Perspectives Together’
Comm 4900
Within the last ten years social media has taken on a big role of daily functioning. Many
people have implemented social media in their day-to-day lives such as using their social media
pages to stay informed with current news, communicating with employers and potential
employers, and discussing various subjects and issues that’s happening in the world today.
Social media such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and snapchat have used an interesting
approach to change the scope of business and strategic planning in terms of marketing and
advertising. Companies are now using social media more to brand and expand their networks.
Many companies create their own social media pages to stay informed with the technology
generation. These companies exclusively hire employers to work on the upkeep and
maintenance of their social media accounts. It’s safe to say that social media will be here to
stay in the long run. The social components and benefits that social media provides for business
and companies helps to professionalize their brand by allowing the company to stay informed
with modern and media savvy approaches. Many celebrities use social media to connect with
fans. News outlets such as Foxx, CNN, and World News use social media to keep followers
updated on current news that’s happening in the world. Social media allows followers to get up
to date, second by second and minute by minute news. The perspectives of social media range
widely from small impact to a great impact, depending on the ways in which social media is
used. Many companies feel the need to take caution when searching for new employees, social
media pages are often used to conduct background research on employees to make sure the
2. company would be a good fit for the employee as well as the company. There are many
perspectives to look at when reviewing social media and its various components. Within this
paper we will examine the various ways in which social media has influenced business and
made global impacts on employers and social service project. We will examine the ways in
which social media is used for big business, small business, and non-profit organizations.
Impact of social media on professional relationships
Social media can affect your professional relationships a great deal. Many employers
take social media into account when searching and reviewing employee profiles. What you
have on your personal social media account reflects who you are and what you have to offer.
Your social media is the branding and marketing of your personal life. In some aspects people
may view their social media accounts as their personal lives and used to express themselves
however they please. Many valid points and issues have been made about the line between
personal and professional as social media relates to a business setting. When you began
working for a certain company you reflect and market their company and brand as their
employer. Social media has impacted professional relationships because many people feel their
freedom of speech, personal expression, and opinions are jeopardized when they begin to work
for certain jobs and companies. For example, social media and Freedom of Speech have caused
a lot of legal action within the last few years. Right after the 2012 election, Deputy Chief Rex
Duke took to his Facebook account and posted a confederate flag with the caption “It’s time for
the second revolution”. Due to the backlash of his comments, the department demoted him
and reduced his pay. He later resigned. The district court deemed Duke’s social media
comments as divisible and could have been capable of impeding the abilities of the department
3. to carry out its responsibilities effectively. Many cases like Duke’s create problems when they
cross the lines of Freedom of Speech and professionalism, especially when your acts can be
seen as punishable. In a work setting the grounds for freedom of speech and first amendment
rights are compromised under worker laws. An employer can be subjected to lowering pay,
demoting an employee, or firing an employee if the employee jeopardizes the brand of the
company.
Impact of social media and federal emergencies
Social media is one of the main sources people get their information, whether factually
accurate or inaccurate any major events that happen in the world social media often makes it a
topic of discussion. In 2016 many major events occurred that reflected the economical standing
of different areas of the world. News of the conditions of Detroit Public Schools went viral after
photos of the horrible living conditions were put on social media. Trending topics began to arise
with hashtags such as #DPSCrisis as more people began to show awareness about the horrible
learning conditions students were forced to partake in. Social media was one of the main
driving forces in gaining news coverage for Detroit in their teachers who could no longer take
the horrible conditions of the schools. Pressure from social media demanding answers from
government official’s revealed how funding for schools had been redirected into bailout funds
for the city, deemed as a felony by law. Many teachers, staff, educators, and administrators of
many of the Detroit Public Schools began going on strike as money for school supplies had been
cut and teaching conditions had become unbearable. Social media continued to help and push
for change as Michigan was hit with another crisis. The Flint Water Crisis took a toll on social
media as many people discovered the water conditions Flint had been dealing with for over two
4. years. Flint Michigan was a great topic of discussion and still is as social media got news that
Flint water had been poisoned with lead, which effected a whole city. Governor Rick Snyder
was hit with much social media pressure as many people demanded answers as to why he
knowingly allowed a whole city to be poisoned. Many citizens of Flint have demanded Rick
Snyder to be arrested for his careless acts. Social media played a prominent role in helping aid
Flint with clean water. Many people from all over the world sent thousands of clean water to
Flint as a resource to help aid an ongoing problem. Social media created Hashtags such as
#FlintWaterCrisis, celebrities such as Cher, Madonna, Puff Daddy, Beyonce, and many more
used their platform to help aid Flint. Celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon took to social media to
challenge other celebrities in helping fix Flint’s water crisis. The impact of social media and
federal emergencies helps a great deal because it provides much needed awareness. Many
government officials and politicians try to sweep problems under the rug until pressure and
demands from the people arise, social media is the number one place where change can help
influence and make a difference on behalf of federal emergencies. Social media also keeps the
world informed on important issues.
Literature Review
‘It's Not All Bad: The Social Good of Social Media’
As social media continues to grow and be used in everyday lives distractions such as
tweeting, blogging, and connected and updating with friends. Many scholars have commented
on the positive aspect social media has brought for users. Scholars have linked ‘news alerts’ to
being one of the fastest ways to connect and inform global users of current events. Being able
5. to connect and stay informed on news worldwide has been credited to the popular use of social
media. With more and more accidents being linked to distractions of the phone, many scholars
have credited social media in helping to impact driver safety. Social media has helped in
numerous was such as launching driver safety campaigns to ensure drivers understand the
importance of not being distracted by their devices. ‘Safety Messages’ have shown to help
lower accidents and car related deaths. Social media is not all bad as many people may think, it
has been an effective tool when dealing with awareness for many political and social issues.
Social media has helped to generate donations for emergency relief disasters and has been one
of the driving forces in sponsorships and media exposure. Social media is definitely here to stay
and will be used more often for the good of society.
‘Here’s How Social Marketing Techniques Can Be Used for Social Good’
As social media continues to grow and develop much bigger than the social rimon just
chatting with friends and connecting with family. Business are beginning to use social media to
market their companies and connect with customers and potential consumers. Many
techniques can be used for social good. In a recent article marketing techniques are used by
different business that help to contribute to the social good of society. Companies such as
Heifner International use social marketing to help people all over the world. Many companies
use different social marketing techniques to help get people involved in charities and acts of
kindness. These marketing techniques are a lot different from traditional media strategies. They
assure the world is able to hear and see real life problems in hopes of giving a hand of help.
Anita Wing Lee used social media marketing techniques for social good when she went to visit
6. Greece. She used a social media broadcasting site called ‘Periscope’ to showcase the impact of
the Syrian Refugee Crisis to the world. These types of social good techniques creates much
needed awareness on issues that aren’t regularly discussed in the media. Using social media for
social good can help to push for global change around the world, these kind less acts benefits
everyone involved. These types of social good acts are important in keeping a balance of reality
for social media.
Literature Observations
Many of the articles gave a perspectives of ways in which companies use social media to
market, promote, and generate business revenue. Social media is an important developmental
aspect for big business as well as small business. Social media sites such as LinkedIn helps to
maintain professionalismonline, while social media sites such as twitter and Instagram
continues to create friends and family connections. Many of the articles gave great insight on
using social media to market and brand yourself. The articles discussed ways in which non-
profit organizations benefitted greatly from using social media websites. Using social media
websites helped non-profit organizations interact with customers on a personal level, it helped
to generate their name and brand, and also gave the organization a chance to tell followers
what the organization was about and what the different organizations stood for. These social
media techniques helped different organizations a great deal in gaining community support as
well as branding their organization locally and sometimes worldwide. Some of the literature
articles went on to discuss various ways in which social media behaviors differ across cultures.
7. The article gave an interesting viewpoint of the ways in which different parts of the world view
the importance of social media. In America, social media may be a very useful resource in
marketing. While in other countries social media may be a secondary option due to privacy or
different ways each culture views business. In China some top networking sites are blocked
completely! Some of the literature articles gave great perspectives on the following/like reports
of celebrities. Discussing the various ways in which celebrities and famous people use social
media. Interestingly enough many celebrities are not allowed to personally use their own social
media accounts due to contracts or public relation representatives viewing it as too risky. In
these cases many social media accounts of celebrities are monitored and postings are often
reviewed before posting. Another important literature article that was discussed was
networking. It’s important to discuss the various ways in which networking plays a prominent
role for your success. In a 2011 article released by Forbes, the myths of networking for business
is discussed. The article went in detailed discussing important myths to disregard when
networking in a business aspect. Myths such as ‘everyone is on social media’, this article broke
down the various ways in which employers use different myths to get employees in. The fact is
that social media is not yet on everyone’s radar, and not everyone uses social media. I was able
to observe and reflect on many of the literature readings, but one of the readings I felt was
most important is ‘Extending your social media’. This article discussed the important ways in
which social media can be used to help you connect with people and various ways in which
social media is used as a tool for self-networking and branding. Putting your best foot forward
on social media is very important, because your social profile often reflects your life and gives
the world an insight of who you are. Extending your social media world discussed the
8. importance of understanding your social media world. Many people forget or misuse social
media, this article discussed the importance of connecting with people and not being so
devoted to the social number following. The article went on to discuss the importance of using
social media to build the “Know, Like, and Trust” of yourself and the individual. Because social
media plays a vital role in many of our personal and professional lives it’s good to understand
the various ways in which social media can be used to connect and showcase and reflect a
business world.
Conclusion
Social media continues to be a useful resource in our everyday lives. We use social
media for learning techniques, business connections, marketing strategies and the overall
promotion and development of our lives. Social media has help to structure various social and
justice movements, it has helped to educate the world on many issues, and has been used to
keep users informed. As I reflect back on the social media use I conduct every day, I have
learned the importance of branding myself professional as I prepare to transition from a college
student and emerge in to the professional career role. I feel my social media world will continue
to play an integral part in my world because I want to focus my career on public relation and
higher education. Learning to brand and conduct my social media world is not a very important
as I began to market myself for employers and the next step in my career field. The
perspectives on social media are very important and are a great learning tool to know and
understand.
