Social Media Essays Examples

Social media is a collective name referring to online communication channels, aimed at community-based input, content sharing, interactions and collaborations in virtual communities and networks. Websites and applications intended for forums, social networking, blogging, social bookmarking and wikis form the different types of social media.

Examples of the most prominent types of social media include;

Facebook- a popular free social network site that allows registered users to create profiles. Send messages, upload photos and videos and keep in touch with friends and families.
Twitter- a micro blogging site that enables registered users to broadcast short texts called tweets. Members can follow others using different platforms.
LinkedIn-social network site specifically designed for the business community. Registered members can document the networks of the people they know and trust them professionally (Kaplan 2010).

Social media marketing

Involves taking advantage of social networking to help a company increase their brand exposure and have a broad customer reach. The objective is usually to create content compelling enough to allow users share it with their social networks. For medical services marketing management, high qualifications are needed to undertake this because of the sensitivity of this field. Here, security policies and guidelines are critical to avoid cyber bullying and impersonation. Regulations on information that can be posted are to be taken into account and professionalism observed (Kietzmann, 2011).

Principle learnt

The integration of social media in business and daily life has challenges therefore; social media policies should be in place to set expectations for appropriate behavior to ensure that employee posts do not expose the business to public embarrassment or legal problems. Directives on the type of information to be shared on a company website and when employees should identify themselves as representative of a company on a social network should be put in place.
This principle applies to all fields of our social media life; we need to have appropriate expectations of ourselves and behave well when interacting and exchanging information on social media. This is because the people we interact with online, will judge us by our posts on social media. The fact that our social circles include our siblings and parents they might come across insulting language and nude photos if posted which is an embarrassment (Moorhead 2013).
In career development, expectations of appropriate behavior are necessary. This is because most employers take record of social media accounts of the people they hire. To ensure the image of their company is not tainted later with employees who have poor social media conduct. To ensure I do not risk a chance to be hired, exercising a good conduct on social media is necessary. Many people have lost their jobs, families have disintegrated, and businesses closed down due to social media misconduct. Therefore, it is necessary to exercise good conduct both as a young person and as a grown up.

How I learnt the principle

My class work on social media policies has helped me learn this principle. As a user of social media while registering to be a member on Facebook and twitter I was provided with the terms and conditions to meet which included social media policies and guidelines. I have seen people whose social media accounts have been blocked due to misconduct, and others have risked prosecution.
A medical services marketing management company was in the news, it was shut down and faced legal charges for offering false information on social media about a medical service offered. Therefore, authenticity, honesty and open dialogue are key.

Why does it matter?

The principle matters in the short term because our present social life might determine our future life in terms of career through good networking. A good social network image is critical for good networking and career opportunities. In the long term, when one has a family a good social media behavior will enhance stable relationships and trust among couples and extended family members. This earns one dignity and respect.

What will I do? (My goals)

Increase conversations; connect with people to build up relationships and not just broadcast.
Build up authenticity honesty and open dialogue in my interactions
Build up my listening skills to enable me respond to what my friends and followers say about me.
Be engaging; try out new things but with caution (Asur, 2010).
Benefits and challenges
Some of the challenges include; Cyber bullying where impersonators and fake accounts encourage interactions without honesty, I might fall a victim to this if not keen. At times, personal opinions are assumed to identify with my institution, company or my business. In addition, this may undermine the institutions I am affiliated to on their commitment to integrity issues. On the positive side, working towards achieving these goals will, enhance my social networking through increased interactions. A good social media image will not be an obstacle when it comes to employer online monitoring of job candidates. It will also not expose me to disciplinary cases when in employment since I will gain good social media conduct. I will have few social media-related challenges in my relationship (Barefoot 2010).

References

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), 59-68.
Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business horizons, 54(3), 241-251.
Asur, S., & Huberman, B. A. (2010, August). Predicting the future with social media. In Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT), 2010 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on (Vol. 1, pp. 492-499). IEEE.
Moorhead, S. A., Hazlett, D. E., Harrison, L., Carroll, J. K., Irwin, A., & Hoving, C. (2013). A new dimension of health care: systematic review of the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication. Journal of medical Internet research, 15(4).
Barefoot, D., & Szabo, J. (2010). Friends with benefits: A social media marketing handbook. No Starch Press.