Analysis of Social Media Usage and Policy Development for Sunshine 100

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MNG81001 MANAGEMENT
COMMUNICATION - CASE STUDY

To: Paul Morgan, CEO
From: Jane Wilson, Director of Social Media
Date: 1-May-2019
Subject: Concern for social media policy
This particular document is basically based on the formation of the social media policy which
should be formulated and implemented across the organisation. Social media tools such as
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., are very good platform to stay connected with their friends
and families, share content. However, the employees of sunshine 100 are too much active on
their social media platforms and hence their posts are affecting the image of the company.
Hence, I recommend some measures and policie to be formulated and circulated among them to
aware them about what sunshine thinks about their postings on social media platforms.
Traditional Communication tools Vs social media tools
It should be noted that both the kind of media can transfer information from one to mass number
of people, but it is also important to note that traditional media is one way communication but
social media platforms are two way communication system, where the person to whom the
information is been transferred can also give back the feedback to the sender (Cho, 2018).
It is important to understand that both the system of transferring information is very good. Social
media platforms can also give access to many other tools too such as photo sharing, messages,
and other sharing tools. Unlike the social media platform, traditional media platforms are one-
way communication scheme, like an organization who is advertising their products cannot get
feedback from the consumers. Social media can do it because social media platform give access
to share information also, which can transfer information to many and even can provide feedback
on the content uploaded. Word of mouth is what each organization want to share information,
and social media platform is very much capable to do so. Traditional media cannot share
information with many, and also information cannot be shared as word of mouth (Peek, 2015).
Employer social media influence on the organization
The information which is to be shared on the social media platform can influence any
organization completely. An employee working in any organization can influence or affect the

organization's image and reputation by a single comment or behavior of the employee on these
platforms. The activities which employee who are working whether it is of past, or present can
create a problem in the organization. Any person who is buying any product of any company, a
bad comment by any individual related to that product can affect the selling rate of the product.
As that person might or might not buy that product further and might change his or her decision.
Social media platforms are the fastest way of sharing information and influencing a heavy
number of people. There should be a good amount of monitoring on the posts of an employee on
the social media platforms, what they share, what they post is very important to monitor
(Flew,2015).
Hence it is important to aware the employee about, how deep their comments and behavior can
impact the image of the company. Ant person would change his or her mind to buy any product
if he or she sees any negative post on these platforms. Social media shares and spread
information rapidly, hence such wrong comment or behavior would spread throughout the
public, and hence it will affect the company heavily.
Formulating Social media policies with rules and regulations
While formulating social media policies, there should be a number of aspects which is required
to be included in the social media policies. These will prohibit or monitor a number of actions
made by the employee over an organization such as posting someone about the company,
comments or jokes regarding the organization (Cacciatore, 2018).
Confidentially: It should be clearly mentioned about the content which can be freely shared
among publicly which can enhance the privacy on the company's point of view. Confidential
contents or information regarding the company confidential rules or matter shall not be shared
among the public on these platforms. Any post or information shared by any employee can affect
the selling rate or image of that product and hence such information should be quickly monitored
and needful actions should be made.
Brand guidelines: Guidelines should be shared among the employees about how any employee
can post anything regarding their organization.
Involvement of the employee: It is important to involve employees in information which are
shared regarding the protocols of the organization (Freedman, 2015).

Communication plan template
Time 10:00 AM on 10th May 2019
Audience Employees who are active on social media
Sender Social media policy formulation team
Key message The main objective or message is to aware of
the new policy which is made for the use of
social media over the organization.
Desired Outcomes The Sunshine 100 would desire an outcome in
which all the employees understand why
these policies have been formulated and they
should follow the rules also.
Medium This information regarding this policy can be
given via email or memo which can be
circulated among the employees.
Material The past activities should be ignored, and new
rules should be implemented which can
enhance the working and monitoring on their
accounts effectively.
Frequency It should not be required to remind the
employee about such policies, as it is their
sole responsibility, but these should be
reminded within 4 months.

Conclusion:
It is the sole responsibility of all the employees to take care of their organization's image. In this
memo the social media policy implementation been circulated throughout the employees to
convey them about the new rules and regulations which are been going to be implemented. A
communication plan is used to socialize the employees regarding the new policy which the
organization has implemented.

References
 Cacciatore, M.A., Yeo, S.K., Scheufele, D.A., Xenos, M.A., Brossard, D. and Corley,
E.A., 2018, ‘Is Facebook making us dumber? Exploring social media use as a predictor of
political knowledge’,Journalism & mass communication quarterly, 95(2), pp.404-424.
 Cho, A 2018, ‘Default publicness: Queer youth of color, social media, and being outed by
the machine’, New Media & Society, 20(9), pp.3183-3200.
 Flew, T 2015, ‘Social media governance’,Social Media+ Society, 1(1),
p.2056305115578136.
 Freedman, D 2015, ‘The resilience of TV and its implications for media policy’,In The
Routledge Companion to the Cultural Industries (pp. 136-145). Routledge.
 Peek, H.S., Richards, M., Muir, O., Chan, S.R., Caton, M. and MacMillan, C 2015,
‘Blogging and social media for mental health education and advocacy: A review for
psychiatrists’, Current psychiatry reports, 17(11), p.88.
 Smith, S., Hadfield, A. and Dunne, T. eds 2016,’Foreign policy: theories, actors, cases.
Oxford University Press’
 Williamson, B 2016, ‘Digital education governance: data visualization, predictive
analytics, and ‘real-time’policy instruments’,Journal of Education Policy, 31(2), pp.123-
141.