Social Media Usage at the Workplace: A Case Study of Fantasyland Municipality

This document discusses the implementation, assessment, and evaluation of a social media policy in the workplace, using the case study of Fantasyland Municipality. It explores the benefits and drawbacks of social media usage, the importance of regulating social media usage at the workplace, and provides guidelines for employees. The document also suggests measures for assessing the efficacy of the social media policy and emphasizes the need for a regulatory and control team. The social media policy of Fantasyland Municipality is described, along with its purpose, elements, and guidelines.

Running head: I.O. PSYCHOLOGY
Social Media usage at the workplace: A case study of Fantasyland Municipality
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Explanation of the manner in which the municipality can implement, assess, and evaluate the
efficacy of the social media policy regarding usage in the workplace
Usage of social media has become quite popular for the organizations. As the
technological advancement has been capturing all the business sectors in terms of production and
distribution, the marketing or promotional activities are also done through social media now-a-
days. As stated by Icha & Agwu (2015), social media is an effective tool for marketing as that
helps the organizations to reach out to the target audience in a time and cost efficient manner.
However, as social media is beneficial for promoting the activities of an organization, there are
some drawbacks also. Negative feedback by clients, customers or employees can harm the
business reputation as well as revenue of the organization (Collins, Shiffman & Rock, 2016). For
a municipality like that in Fantasyland, WY, it is important to have a good reputation regarding
their activities else the people of the city might revolt against the municipality and the effective
functioning could be affected. Moreover, the level of employment might go down, which will
also affect the business operations of the municipality. Hence, it is highly important to regulate
the official social media usage, especially at the workplace.
Fantasyland has previously barred its employees to participate in the social media as a
representative of the municipality, however, it has created its own Facebook page and a Twitter
account to communicate with the people of the city and keep them updated about the activities
undertaken by the municipality. The purpose of creating an official Facebook page and a Twitter
account is to regulate the individual activity of the employees on the social media and also to
promote the positive outlook of the municipality regarding their business towards the public. The
social media policy also encourages to recognize the positive performance and the achievements
of the employees.

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Thus, the social media policy for the municipality of Fantasyland prohibits the employees
to post any negative review on their social media pages. To maintain the efficacy of the social
media policy, the municipality management of Fantasyland should circulate a notice to the
employees regarding the do’s and don’ts on the official social media page. In other words, there
should be a communication guideline for the employees on the social media page for the
employees. The penalty actions should also be mentioned in the notice. The employees should be
asked to behave responsibly in the social media and they should not violate the social media
policy of the organization. The municipality should also open up feedback posts and forum
discussions in every three to four months regarding their performance and also for feedbacks of
the public on what should be improved. Thus, social media accounts can be used for improving
their municipality business performance as well as designing and implementing new measures
for the benefit of the public as per their suggestions (Nyaribo & Munene, 2018). This is a
measure for assessing the efficacy of the social media policy by the municipality of Fantasyland.
To evaluate the efficacy of the social media policy, the municipality should have a
regulatory and control team on the social media usage in the workplace. This team should be
responsible for handling the social media accounts and to check whether any communication and
behavior by the employees is violating the guidelines. All the posts and comments by the
employees as well as by the residents of the city should be reviewed by the team before it is
made public. Inappropriate materials, such as, negative comments, inappropriate photos, and any
internal conflict should not be posted on the social media page and that should also be controlled
by the regulatory team.

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A fair and equitable policy is developed for moderating the posts of the employees to ensure that
any inappropriate content is not posted on the social media page of the Fantasyland municipality.
Policy brief and purpose
The social media policy of Fantasyland municipality is meant to regulate the usage of the
social media in the workplace. The policy is aimed at controlling the behavior of the employees
regarding the social media use, whether they are using their own account or handling the official
corporate account. The policy provides reasonable, fair and practical advice to avoid the issues
that might arise due to irresponsible usage or behavior of the employees on the social media in
the workplace.
Policy elements
By social media, varieties of online communities are referred to in this policy. These are
Facebook account, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, forums etc. Furthermore, the personal social media
and corporate account of the organizations are also considered as social media, which need
regulations at the workplace.
Policy guidelines
 Employees should know and adhere to the organization’s code of conduct, other
company policies and penalty policies while using personal or official social media in
reference to the organization.
 The employees should also be aware of the effect of their actions on the social media on
their images in the workplace along with the organization’s image. Hence, they should
behave responsibly on the social media.

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 Employees should also know that there is a regulatory team that handles the official
social media account on behalf of Fantasyland municipality and all the posts and
comments are reviewed before those are made open to the public. Hence, employees
should refrain themselves from posting any negative post or comment or picture that
could harm the reputation of the organization. Any violation of the code of conduct on
the social media can lead to strict actions by the organization.
 Employees are encouraged to participate in constructive discussion posts and forums and
give suggestions to make improvements in the organizational environment, operation
management or introducing new welfare activities by the municipality.
 No confidential information about the organization should be published by the employees
as that would be a violation to the data confidentiality policy of the organization.
 Social media use should not affect the responsibilities of the employees at the workplace.
They should not remain engaged with the social media accounts in a manner that would
affect their performance and productivity.
 No personal social media account can be accessed from the workstations at the
workplace.
 It is recommended that the employees must keep their personal accounts separate from
the official page activities for the municipality.

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References
Collins, K., Shiffman, D., & Rock, J. (2016). How are scientists using social media in the
workplace?. PloS one, 11(10), e0162680.
Icha, O., & Agwu, E. (2015). Effectiveness of social media networks as a strategic tool for
organizational marketing management. J Internet Bank Commer, S2.
Nyaribo, Y. M., & Munene, A. G. (2018). Effect of social media pertication in the workplace on
employee productivity. IJAME.