Sunshine 100’s Social Media Policy: Advantages, Disadvantages, and Communication Strategy

This memo analyses the viability of social media as a means of communication at Sunshine 100. It evaluates the benefits and disadvantages of social media use, the potential impact of employee behavior on the organization's image, and the contents of an effective social media policy and communication strategy.

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MEMO
To: Paul Morgan, CEO, Sunshine 100
From: Jane Wilson, Director of Social Media.
Date: 17th January 2019
Subject: Sunshine 100’s Social Media Policy
As the technologies are evolving, there has been a drastic change in a number of business
functions, including the communication. The rise of the social media has refined the
communication flow within and outside the entity (Breunig, 2016). Thus, the thesis statement
of the memo is to analyse the viability of the use of the social media as a means of
communication at workplace.
The memo will evaluate the benefits and disadvantage that are associated with the social
media use. The memo will also enable to learn the potential impact of the behaviours and
words of employees on the image of the organisation. The memo will conclude with contents
of an effective social media policy and the communication strategy.
Advantages and Disadvantages associated with the social media use
A number of advantages make the use of the social media for communication, viable for the
corporations. The primary advantage of the social media use is that these act as a cheaper
means of advertising and promotion and help the entity to reach large number of customers
(Carlson et. al, 2016). Thus, the distribution and communication area is wider. When
compared to the cost of traditional advertising means, the social media advertising is cheaper
and faster. Another chief advantage is that it is useful in the event of recruitment and hiring.
The professional social media sites not only aid in building professional relationships, but
also aid the company to hire personnel across the globe (Chalmers & Shotton, 2016). Further
major advantage can be stated in the form of enabling effective and timely collaborations
among the team members irrespective of the time and distance issues. It must also be noted
that the electronic communications stay for longer while as compared to the paper
communications (Holland, Cooper & Hecker, 2016). Thus, it is easy to track back the
communications. Lastly, the social media use leads to the employee engagement and
recognition.
The social media use for communication at workplace is also marked with certain
weaknesses as well, which are listed as follows. Competitors and intruders can use the social

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media to hamper the privacy and get access to the confidential information about the
business. Thus, privacy, viruses, data breaches or the violation of the statutes and regulations
is a major drawback of the social media (Roshan, Warren & Carr, 2016). The second major
weakness of the social media use is that there exists a large amount of information over the
internet. Thus, while the employees are engaged on social media, the chances to get
distracted are very high, which may further impede the productivity of the employees and
company as a whole (Robertson & Kee, 2017). Another weakness can be stated to be that
social media means can be used as a means of spreading derogatory content or harassing
behaviour.
Employee’s behaviour, social media use, and image of organisation
It is essential to note that as electronic communications stay for a longer time and can be
traced back, it has the potential to undermine the image and goodwill of the company (Van
Zoonen, Verhoeven & Vliegenthart, 2017). This can occur when the employees intentionally
or unintentionally post certain content on social media, which do not go in lines with the code
of conduct of the company. It can also occur when an individual is posting a content in his or
her personal capacity, but the same is interpreted to be on behalf of the organisation. Thus, an
employee behaviour or comment on a social media platform can leave far reaching impacts
on the organisational image.
Contents of an effective social media policy
In order to avoid the possible harm to organisational, it is essential to develop a social media
policy and educate the employees about the same. The policy must cover the legal and
security aspects, in addition to the roles and responsibilities of the employees while posting
content on social media (Walden, 2016). The applicable laws must be highlighted together
with the code of ethics and objectives of company.
Social Media Communication Strategy
The management of the company can convey the said policy with the help of the
communication strategy as follows.
1. Timing- 18th January 2019
2. Audience- Employees and members of the company.
3. Sender- Communication Manager.

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4. Key Message- Considerations of use of social media
5. Desired Outcome- Educating employees and members about the use of social media
6. Medium- Announcements and emails.
7. Materials- Handbook of code of conduct of company.
8. Frequency- Beginning of month.
Thus, the discussions in the previous segments aid to conclude that there are both benefits
and weaknesses that govern the use of the social media, and employees must be careful of
posting the content on online platforms and websites. The management of company is
advised to formulate a social media policy to educate the employees about the same with
the help of a communication strategy as stated in the previous parts.

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References
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Learning,’ Learning Organization, vol. 23, no 4, pp. 249-270.
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Chalmers, AW & Shotton, PA, 2016, ‘Changing the Face of Advocacy? Explaining Interest
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374–391.
Holland, P Cooper, B & Hecker, R 2016, ‘Use of social media at work: A new form of
employee voice?’ The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 27, no.
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Robertson, BW & Kee, KF 2017, ‘Social media at work: The roles of job satisfaction,
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70, pp. 191-196.
Roshan, M, Warren, M & Carr, R 2016, ‘Understanding the use of social media by
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361.
Van Zoonen W, Verhoeven, JWM & Vliegenthart, R 2017, ‘Understanding the consequences
of public social media use for work. European Management Journal,’ Vol. 35, no 5, pp. 595-
605.
Walden, J 2016, ‘Integrating Social Media Into the Workplace: A Study of Shifting
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pp. 347-363.