social media in organizations

Social Media in Organizations

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Apr 15, 2023

Agenda• Background of Social Computing & Social Computing

Applications

• Business problem and how social computing help to solve the

problem

• Technology’s limitations

• Assessment of social computing prospects for success in the

marketplace

• Q&A

Background of social computing• Social computing allows individual users with relatively low technological

knowledge in using the Web to use their creativity, engage in social interaction, contribute their expertise, share content, collectively build new tools, disseminate information, and assimilate collective bargaining power.

• Corporate use of social computing applications is considered as part of Enterprise 2.0

• Social computing within an organization can empower and motivate employees thereby benefiting organizations.

• Currently, users are not passive consumers of content and applications but co-creators and innovators of them.

• Communities formed represent a database of demand information and from the marketing perspective, it can be used for promotion and distribution.

Social computing applications • Consist of Blogs / Microblogs, Social Bookmarking, Social Network Sites, Wikis,

Instant Messaging, Virtual Worlds, Multimedia Sharing

Social computing applications Blogs / Microblogs• Is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web

consisting of posts which could consist of both textual and multimedia content. Posts are typically in reverse chronological order and written by ordinary people.

• Blogs allow each post to be tagged by several attributes, resulting in efficient archiving and searches based on sorting on these tags.

• The option to allow readers to leave comments in an interactive format is one of the factors to the popularity of blogs.

• Can be divided into the following main categories:• Personal blogs• Microblogging – allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short

sentences, individual images, or video links which are called microposts. • Corporate and organizational blogs - used internally to enhance the

communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes.

• By genre - political blogs, health blogs, travel blogs• By media type - photographs (photoblogs), videos (vlogs), music (MP3 blogs), and

audio (podcasts)• Examples: Twitter, Tumblr, Wordpress, The Online Citizen, Facebook (Status

updates)

Social computing applications Social Bookmarking• A method for Internet users to organize, store, manage and

search for bookmarks that reference webpages of resources online. Descriptions may be added to these bookmarks in the form of metadata.

• Tagging is a significant feature of social bookmarking systems thereby enabling users to organize their bookmarks in flexible ways and develop shared vocabularies.

• There are extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks and web annotation.

• Businesses, libraries, and universities use social bookmarking as a way to increase information sharing among members. Social bookmarking is also used to improve web search.

• Examples: Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, PinInterest

Social computing applications Social Networking Site (SNS)• With the concept of real-time web and location-based, a platform to join, own,

and edit a personal profile page to publicly connect and communicate with other members who share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. Public friendship is the key SNS component.

• 3 Types of SNS:• Networking • Socializing • Navigation• SNS can be hybrid. For example, Facebook allow third-party developers to create

applications that could be embedded in users’ personal profile pages• By using data mining, companies are able to improve their sales and

profitability. With this data, companies can create customer profiles that contain customer demographics and online behaviour.

• Facebook sells tracked "social actions". That is, they track the websites a user uses outside of Facebook through a program called Facebook Beacon

• Examples: Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, FourSquare

Social computing applications

Social computing applications Wikis• A wiki is a simple content management system for creating, browsing, and

searching through information which consist of collaborative authoring of tagged hypertext content, with version control and user feedback features built in.

• Text is usually written using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor. As content is created without any defined owner or leader and wikis have little implicit structure, structure can emerge according to the needs of the users.

• Examples: Wikipedia

Internet Forums• Is an online discussion site where people can engage in conversations in

the form of posted messages where posts are temporarily archived.• A moderator can monitor the posts and modify the forum accordingly if

there are any posts that is detrimental to the company’s image.

Social computing applications Instant Messaging• A type of online chat which offers real-time text transmission over the Internet

thereby allows effective and efficient communication.• Additional features are: File transfer, Video chat• Examples: Facebook Chat, Lotus Sametime, Office Communicator

Virtual Worlds• Consist of massive multiplayer gaming platforms with unstructured objectives,

user-generated content, immersive 3D virtual reality shared environments, and social networking elements used between people through their avatars.

• Can be used for virtual discussions, education purposes, increase online presence for companies, virtual company events

• Examples: Second Life

Social computing applications Multimedia Sharing• Multimedia Sharing involves photo sharing, video sharing, and music sharing.• Examples: Flickr, Youtube

How Social Computing help to Solved Problem

• Harvard Business Review, 2011• 79% of Companies surveyed are using or planning to use social media

– 58% is currently using Social media– 21% are preparing to launch initiatives


Geographical Location of various offices

• Instant Messenger• Communicator• Virtual Life

Time-Zone differences



Increasing cost of sharing of

information

• Cloud Computing• Dropbox, Mega-upload

Increasing cost of travel


Increasing cost of advertisement

• Social Networking Site• Blog/MircoBlog


Buying habits• Online Blog-shop• Forum Discussion

High demand to access information

timely

• Discussion Forum • Social Website - Facebook


Finding Expertise & Recruitment Talent

• LinkedIn• Social Media Website

Lack of expertise or knowledge

• Forum• Blog


Marketing & Advertising

• Social Media Sites• Dropbox, Mega-upload

New Technologies & Competitors

• Forum• Social Media Sites

Limitations• Although business can use social media to great benefit ,

incorporating social media into the workplace has some limitations

1. Employee Productivity

2. Affects Employee Relationships

3. Confidentiality Concerns

4. Data Security

5. Regulatory and Compliance Requirements

Limitations (con’t)Employee Productivity• Wealth of applications, games and status updates • Companies that allow employees to use Facebook during the work day lose 1.5 percent productivity

(Nucleus Research)• Employees may misuse of social applications while at work • Employees may find themselves spending more time on social media than doing work-related tasks.

Affects Employee Relationships• Eliminates face-to-face communication with one another• Posting potentially inappropriate comments to display workplace displeasures may result in tension

in the workplace

Limitations (con’t)

Confidentiality Concerns• View or post objectionable, illicit or offensive content can implicate legal consequences • Even posting innocent message or tweets about business information may involve company

liability and risks

Data Security• More platforms create more access for viruses, malware, cross-site scripting and phishing • Attacks may steal usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and other corporate

intellectual property that can be used for fraudulent purposes


Regulatory and Compliance Requirements• View or post objectionable, illicit or offensive

content can implicate legal consequences • Yet despite the benefits of social media are obvious,

organizations struggle to keep pace with the evolving technology

• the spread of social media has been fast and furious • challenging companies to understand how to design

effective social media strategy and governance.


Ernst&Young (2012). Protecting and strengthening your brand – social media governance and strategy

Assessment of the technology’s prospects for success in the marketplace

• We feel that social computing is of great advantage to success in the marketplace within an organization and externally due to the following factors:

• Fostering innovation / Facilitating learning – Breaking down knowledge silos– Increasing interactive collaboration across the enterprise

• Sharing Information internally – Helping employees to find relevant information and expertise more quickly

• Cultivate a world-class workforce – By capturing the tacit knowledge of existing employees

• Data Mining • Create Brand Awareness

Assessment of the technology’s prospects for success in the marketplace

• Do not recommend completely banning social media from workplace.

• Encourage to educate employees on the acceptable use of social media – Training should be engaging, targeted, interactive and should not

be exclusively technical • Essential to have social media strategy and security policies

• Social networking is more about following knowledge– It will let business grow team of knowledgeable employees

• Businesses must clarify – The type of social networking allowed – Specify who is responsible for particular types of

communications – Be specific about what information can be posted to social media

THANK YOU.

Question

References• Drew Prindle (2012). How to use RSS Feeds. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://www.digitaltrends.com/how-to/how-to-use-rss/• Social Computing. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_computing• Wiki. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki• Social Computing. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_computing• Blog. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs• Social Networking Service. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_service• Instant Messaging. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging• Social Bookmarking. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking• Margaret Rouse (2010) . What is Social Computing? Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/definition/social-

computing-SoC• Panayiotis Zaphiris, Chee Siang Ang (2010) . Social Computing and Virtual Communities. Available from:

http://www.crcnetbase.com.ezlibproxy1.ntu.edu.sg/doi/book/10.1201/9781420090437 • Claudio FEIJÓO, Corina PASCU, Gianluca MISURACA, Wainer LUSOLI (2009). The Next Paradigm Shift in the Mobile Ecosystem: Mobile Social

Computing and the Increasing Relevance of Users. Available from: http://repec.idate.fr/RePEc/idt/journl/CS7503/CS75_FEIFOO_et_al.pdf• Paul R. Messinger, Eleni Stroulia, Kelly Lyons. Typology of Virtual Worlds: Historical Overview and Future . Virtual Worlds Research: Past,

Present & Future. 1(1). Available from: Directionshttp://www.business.ualberta.ca/PaulMessinger/~/media/business/FacultyAndStaff/MBEL/PaulMessinger/Documents/Research/TypologyOfVirtualWorldsInJVWR.ashx

• Laurie Buczek, Malcolm Harkin (2009). Developing an Enterprise Social Computing Strategy. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/white-paper/intel-it-developing-enterprise-social-computing-strategy-paper.pdf

• Internet Forum. Retrieved September 22, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum

social media in organizations

Social Media

social media

social interaction

social network sites

travel blogs

health blogs

popularity of blogs

organizational blogs

music mp3 blogs