Analysis of Social Media Communication in Management: MNG81001

This report analyzes the challenges and opportunities of social media in organizational communication, focusing on the case of Sunshine 100. It examines the vulnerabilities of social media, such as misuse and dissemination of misinformation, contrasting these with traditional communication challenges. The report then delves into the impact of individual employee behavior on an organization's social media presence, using the 'KidsEats' campaign as an example. It outlines essential elements of effective social media policies, including employee conduct, copyright respect, and rational thinking. Finally, the report presents a communication plan, detailing timing, audience, key messages, and desired outcomes, aimed at fostering responsible social media behavior among stakeholders. The report concludes with references to relevant literature supporting the analysis.

Running head: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
1. Introduction and comparison of challenges of social media tools with traditional
communication challenges
Social media communication has become a significant factor in determining the
communicational aspects of organizations in the present corporate scenarios. It is presently
utilized organizations for various reasons such as marketing, public relations, customer service,
CSR and various other important communicational needs of the organizations. The major
challenges that can be faced due to the usage of the social media tools can be related to the
vulnerability to be misused (Bharati, Zhang and Chaudhury 2015). One significant criteria is that
social media can be targeted by various malevolent groups that can spread false or misleading
information about a given group or organization. Another criteria here is the threat of
dissemination of the wrong information about the company if not properly managed.
Additionally, social media can easily be mis-utilized for collecting and distributing confidential
data about the organization (Toledano and Avidar 2016).
In contrast the traditional organizational communication mediums are also affected by
different types of challenges. Magazines, fliers, newsletters in the past have posed challenges in
regards to wrong presentation or data, lack of simple language or lack of relevance. The
challenges are related to the changing of the messages in accordance of the mediums used (Sajid
2016). Another significant challenge is related to reaching the most number of people through
the message. These traditional mediums often had lower reach. One significant criteria can also
be said to be the challenge of this medium in gathering attention of the audiences. Managing
these challenges along with the right amount of tools require effective coordination and strong
gatekeeping and negativity detection approaches to be implemented.

2MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
2. Impact of individual behavior on social media on the organization
Individual behavior on social media can determine the negative or positive effects of the
same on the organization. In case of the KidsEat social media campaign of Sunshine 100 a
similar incident occurred. A positive effect of employee behavior is that the organization may
actually attract future employees to the organization. The member may actually make a post that
proves that he is happy within an organization and this can make others develop better sensibility
towards the organization.
The negatives comments can hamper the goodwill, reputation and brand image of the
organization. In this case member wrote a misleading comment stating that junk food was
everywhere on a post that was actually supposed to promote healthy foods. This kind of incidents
create much more problems for organizations as the people making the controversial comments
are actually the people belonging to the organizations. This raises further questions in the minds
of the target audiences in regards to the validity or reliability of the message that is being shared
by the organization. It sometimes becomes easier for them to spread the miscommunications
among a much wider audience. Media and other organizations can quickly enter the scenario and
actually accuse the organization of discrepancies (Razmerita, Kirchner and Nielsen 2016).
Hence, it can be seen that a wide number of stakeholders can be affected due to immature and
unwanted social network behavior from the part of the employees of any organization. The
impact if not controlled effectively can jeopardize the entire campaign and communication of
any organization.

3MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
3. Social media interaction covered by organizational policies for social media
There are various significant social media interactions that the social media policies of an
organization needs to cover. In organizations like Sunshine 100 it becomes important that
effective monitoring of its employee’s social media activities take place. Through the case study
it was seen that certain essential elements were given prominence towards forming an effective
social media policy for the organization (Bharati, Zhang and Chaudhury 2015). Positive attitude
towards the job was an important factor. Additionally, courtesy is important as the organization
wanted its employees to be courteous and professional in their social media interactions. Rational
thinking is another important part that should be included within the social media policy as the
employees need to mature enough to distinguish between acceptable and controversial behavior.
Respect of copyrights and avoidance of revealing personal information are also important
consideration. Because individuals need to respect the original content of the organization. It is
very much important for participants to engage in social media behaviors that in no way
jeopardizes the reputation of any organization or harms any group or individuals (Go and You
2016).
The social media interactions that the companies need to look forward to covering in their
policies are: Employee interactions on the official page of the organization, employee
interactions with other employees or supervisors in the dedicated organizational group,
employees posting comments about the organization and employees posting on behalf of the
organizations (Razmerita, Kirchner and Nielsen 2016). These are the factors that can actually
contribute towards the creation of problematic situations if not controlled through effective
regulations.

4MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
4. Communication plan
1. Timing The timing would be from next week onwards from the 5th of May
2. Audience The audience would be all the stakeholders of the organization from
employees to shareholders.
3. Sender The message would be sent from the CEOs office via the Director of
Social Media
4. Key message The message would cover the key concepts of ethical social media
behavior, rational social media use, Maintenance of organizational
loyalty, Respect for organization, peers and supervisors, respect for
culture and values, Vigilant behavior against mischievous comments
against organization and individual social media responsibility.
5. Desired
Outcome
Target audience becomes aware of the social media issues. Target
audience understands the value of ethical and responsible social media
behavior. Organization is successful in the creation of an optimally
efficient social media strategy.
6. Medium The medium will be intra organizational channels such as emails,
newsletters, social media, audio-visual mediums, etc.
7. Materials the materials to be left behind are posts, blogs and anticipatory

5MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
declarations
8. Frequency The message would be sent weekly for the first month and monthly from
then onwards.
References
Bharati, P., Zhang, W. and Chaudhury, A., 2015. Better knowledge with social media? Exploring
the roles of social capital and organizational knowledge management. Journal of Knowledge
Management, 19(3), pp.456-475.
Cohen, E., 2017. Employee training and development. In CSR for HR (pp. 153-162). Routledge.
Go, E. and You, K.H., 2016. But not all social media are the same: Analyzing organizations’
social media usage patterns. Telematics and Informatics, 33(1), pp.176-186.
Key, T.M. and Czaplewski, A.J., 2017. Upstream social marketing strategy: An integrated
marketing communications approach. Business Horizons, 60(3), pp.325-333.
Razmerita, L., Kirchner, K. and Nielsen, P., 2016. What factors influence knowledge sharing in
organizations? A social dilemma perspective of social media communication. Journal of
Knowledge Management, 20(6), pp.1225-1246.
Sajid, S.I., 2016. Social media and its role in marketing.
Smith, B.G. and Gallicano, T.D., 2015. Terms of engagement: Analyzing public engagement
with organizations through social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 53, pp.82-90.

6MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Toledano, M. and Avidar, R., 2016. Public relations, ethics, and social media: A cross-national
study of PR practitioners. Public Relations Review, 42(1), pp.161-169.