Social media, Internet-based websites like Twitter and Facebook, are a relatively new phenomenon that has taken over the social lives of many in much the same way that email has taken over the art of letter writing and communication. . It’s become the primary method many people use to stay in touch with family, school friends, and coworkers, both over long distances and at times when they can’t meet in person. For some, thankfully relatively few compared to the number of people involved, it has become the only form of social interaction in which they engage and has replaced television as the number one occupation for afternoons spent home alone. For others it is a distraction from the pressures of everyday life, a form of journaling detailing their feelings and actions or, again in relatively small numbers, a means of creating a different and better personality and presenting it to the outside world. Social networking sites are generally comprehensive, offering a wide variety of activities that the user can spend their time doing, from accepting status updates to the ability to comment, exchange information, write about events, and to some extent without no additional cost. , to play online games either alone or in competition with others.
The most popular social networking sites are often used by both individuals and businesses that bring their products and services to a wider audience through business pages, sponsored posts, and direct mail. For individuals, the use of social networking sites is clearly a personal matter, and time is allocated to the various sites based on need and desire. Commercially instigated networking, on the other hand, is a highly professional activity that requires a solid foundation of knowledge of both the product or service, the target audience, and marketing strategies. The two forms of social networks, private and commercial, have very few overlapping entities.
The only thing that needs to be accepted right away is that social media, whether it be on a single site or multiple sites, requires a huge amount of dedication and time. For the individual it is not enough to update their status, there is the desire to communicate, the need to keep in touch with other people in a Friends List or in a Timeline, to see what they are doing and often to comment . their activities in addition to sharing with more people. A private individual with a basic timeline connection to a hundred people within roughly the same time zone can expect to receive new updates every few minutes, depending on how active her friends are. For some, the feeling that they might miss something, a message or a relatively important status update, makes them constantly check the social network to see what has changed, what’s new and to add their own point of view, their own activities, events and experiences. mass. Seeing people walking down the street or standing in store doors, on the bus or waiting in traffic looking at their smartphones is no longer something that arouses interest, it is an integral part of daily life. People who don’t constantly check their chosen social media site are out of the loop, out of reach, and out of touch.
The companies that use the commercial facilities offered by the different social networking sites usually have a specialized team of experts who are dedicated both to advertising through said media and who have some previous knowledge of the operation of the Internet and IT. The creation and maintenance of a company website, the constant updating of information, contact with customers through a Help Desk or the execution of online contracts is no longer the only activity possible on the Internet. A company that does not have a Facebook page or is not present on LinkedIn, Twitter or a host of other social networking sites is no longer considered to be present on the internet. Social networking sites bring the company closer to the customer, allow for a higher level of interaction, and are an almost immediate means of getting a new product accepted in the marketplace. As with individuals using social networking sites, commercial use requires dedication, as well as excellent background knowledge and a good deal of time. Most companies present on the Internet will have a team dedicated exclusively to this task, which includes people responsible only for Twitter or Facebook and constant interaction with those who contact them or, in the case of Twitter, Mentioning (the inclusion of a name @ in a Tweet ) to them.
The one thing both individuals and businesses suing social networking sites have in common is the amount of time spent keeping up with or in touch with a long list of family, friends, and acquaintances online. The temptation to quickly check and see what is going on is constantly on everyone’s mind once they have built a stable base of contacts, especially when some of these contacts live in other time zones, outside of the normal two or three hours for both sides of their own time zone. The work and leisure hours of people living in Australia or New Zealand are different to those of people living in the United States or Europe and anyone wishing to experience live connections so far outside their own time zone must be available. outside of normal leisure times. , often during times when they would normally be working.
For anyone with a workplace Internet connection, the temptation to quickly log on to a social networking site and check what’s going on “just in case” is extremely strong. However, a quick check may mean that something that needs to be done for the company, for your employer, during company hours, during the time when they are paid to focus on company business, has been relegated to importance or changed at a later time. . Company time is being used to control a purely private activity that, for many companies, is an abuse of privileges, a waste of company time, and a direct loss of that person’s effectiveness for the company. A distracted employee does not work as efficiently as a dedicated and focused employee. The use of company facilities, such as an Internet connection instead of a personal smartphone or the like, also qualifies as a loss to the company and, for many, a breach of trust.
Updating the status during company time is also, for most companies, dangerous because it can give away information, labor practices, relationships between various colleagues and their employers or co-workers and the like. The interaction between an employee and an apparently trustworthy or trustworthy friend in a similar branch of the company could lead to an unintentional or planned breach of confidential information, especially when the employee is dissatisfied or dissatisfied with their workplace, policy company or simply having a bad day. That a person who receives information, innocent status updates or otherwise, is not who they say they are is a fact of modern life. Internet identities that do not correspond to reality are commonplace rather than the exception, especially when you consider that Facebook, easily the largest social networking site in the world, has allowed as many as eighty million user accounts. they could be fake; people or companies that hide behind an invented identity.
Faced with legal and contractual difficulties, in addition to a large number of employees with Internet access through company facilities or through their own private means, it is almost impossible for a medium or large company to control each and every one of the Internet related activities. Various spying, logging, or tracking software systems are available to keep a close eye on such activity, but all of these are limited to post-reporting and are labor intensive. The easiest, but not foolproof, way to keep social media activity to a minimum on company time is to ban it entirely or, when taking a more liberal view of the company, allow trusted employees a window of limited online access, provided that nothing related to company business, politics or normal events taken from business hours is included in status updates, tweets or posts on any social networking site.
For any and all businesses with constant internet connections for their employees, there is a loss through online activity, both in productivity and efficiency. This loss, both in time and money, is also present when employees use their own facilities to gain Internet access. However, it is difficult for a regular company if an employee is given time to update their private social networking sites, or to check if they are abusing the company’s trust and facilities and updating on the sly. Regardless of which, since all employees are present during business hours on company hours and are paid for performing a certain and specific function, the use of social networking sites during company hours does not should be acceptable. Social networks, for individuals, are a personal matter that should be limited to their own time, their leisure hours, and not at the expense of their employers.
