WEEK TEN - SOCIAL MEDIA ROCKSTAR

So this week I'm thinking that a position within Social Media would be an element to consider when looking at job adverts. How amazing would it be to have a job title as - Social Media Rockstar! Would it be feasible to act as a consultant for businesses who wanted to improve through the use of Social Media? I think I'm capable of assessing how well a company uses Social Media and make recommendations on how to improve. Now there's a thought! Amanda Affleck, Virtual Social Media Rockstar!

This weeks lecture was given by Margaret McCann on Managing Social Media, Implementation and Control and was to be presented over a two week period. With a slight delay due to technical issues, we started off by looking at how to increase productivity over time through the use of technology. From this we were able to discuss implementing stages of maturity which were highlighted as: unawares, obstructors, neutrals, supporters and champions. Margaret placed this implementation action into the Social Media Life Cycles which Defined Goals, Identify Tools, How the tools can be used, Implement Action and Evaluation. Lon Safko, author of 'The Social Media Bible' identifies 5 P's of Social Media Implementation; Profiles, Propagate, Produce, Participate and Progress. He identifies sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and how they are free to set up a profile page. I found a short Pod Cast on You Tube which discusses, how by measuring your progress you are better able to manage:

We then went on to discuss how to implement these strategies from a bottom up and a top down perspective, and were able to discuss advantages and disadvantages to both. Mainly based around the individual employees and how they adapt to change and the management styles or culture of the business may affect how well it will work.

Like all technology there is an element of risk involved and this is the next topic discussed in the lecture. Margaret highlighted that Social Media can be a strength and a weakness:

"The relatively open and participative nature of web 2.0, is at once, a strength and a weakness" (Deans C, 2009, p58).

So is it a case of use at your own risk? The weaknesses include the risks and ethics involved and we discussed the most obvious risks such as privacy, loss of reputation, and as mentioned earlier in my blog, cyberstalking etc. What impact could these risks then have on a business? WSI Digital Marketing published a list of additional risks to both the employer and the employee with recommendations to avoid the risk. This then made me think, what are the legal implications of social media?
Now surely the use of Social Media should be to improve and enhance your business whether a simple decision is made such as replying to someones comments about your brand or experience on Facebook or a more complex decision such as launching a new business product or service. I understand that to get results from Social Media you really need to create a process based upon the aims and objectives set by the company. Also the need to use appropriate resources and activities by integrating social media to achieve them. But surely by just increasing your number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers alone is not going to help you achieve this?

I downloaded a free guide, '4 Pillars of Social Media Success' which provides a simple framework that aims to help you use social media to grow sales or cut costs with customer service. I think  this would be beneficial to any business who was considering using Social Media to achieve business goals and KPIs. As this lecture was to be presented over a two week period this topic is....

This weeks seminar was very fiery!!!! We were split into groups and given Social Media Employment Cases based on Social Media and employment gone wrong. Each group was to debate for and against the arguments in the Case Study. This was a great activity as, although I didn't agree with the argument our group was to debate, it forced me to consider both sides of the argument and listen to others. The Case Study we were given was based on a teacher who had had a bad day and posted an insensitive post to Facebook on how much she hated her students and made reference to a recent news story about a young student who drowned during a school field trip to the beach. This had resulted in termination hearings for the teacher which, personally, I thought was a bit drastic however we had to debate that the officials were right to investigate and hold termination hearings. Yes the comments made were inappropriate and most likely in breach of some form of confidentiality or behavioural policy which would have put the school reputation at risk but everyone makes mistakes. It got quite fiery between the groups and it was a valuable lesson which made you think about the consequences of our actions with regards to Social Media. Further reading, and I was shocked to find out that the teacher was fired over the incident and was shown on the Anderson Show. Kinda glad now that I didn't post those videos of me and a few friends using our car parcel shelves as sledges to slide down the hill at 3am New Years Day! Well hey I may be a 'mature student' but I still know how to have fun, and it could have been worse - it could have been the parcel shelf from a company car!