Analysis of Social Media Policy for Sunshine 100: MNG81001 Report

This report analyzes a memorandum concerning the importance of a social media policy within the context of Sunshine 100, a company promoting healthy eating. The report begins by comparing and contrasting the challenges posed by social media with those of traditional communication methods, highlighting accessibility, interactivity, and the real-time nature of social media. It then delves into the impact of employee behavior on an organization's identity, differentiating between positive and negative effects on brand image and emphasizing the need for clear social media usage policies. The report outlines the specific social media interactions a company's policy should cover, including brand protection, confidentiality, and conflict resolution. Finally, it proposes a communication strategy for the Director of Social Media to effectively disseminate the policy to staff, including an audit of current employee social media presence, and content creation guidelines.

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Name:
Course
Professor’s name
University name
City, State
Date of submission

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MEMORANDUM
To: Management
From: Jane Wilson
Communication Manager
Date: 3rd may 2019
Subject: Workplace Social media policy
Introduction
In this era of social media and online communication, the reputation of both an employer and
employee is greatly influenced by the social media posting. Any message by an employee will be
seen as an indirect or a direct case resulting from the employer. Any message scrutinized and
will reveal what the company may or may not be wanted to be associated with. For sunshine 100,
the company promoting healthy feeding trends to school kids need a good social media use
policy where the employee may know that their activity online 100 percent influences the
perception of the company (Binder, 2016).
Q1 :Compare and contrast the challenges posed by social media tools with the challenges
posed by traditional forms of communication

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Social media has become a force to recon with in a contemporary business culture, a fact that the
media is a key driver in interaction between the consumers and the company. The audience is
larger than the traditional forms of communication. Social media has seen a fundamental shift in
the way a company like sunshine 100 conducts its public relations and marketing strategies
(Chaudhri, 2016). The main challenges of social media over the traditional forms of
communication is that;
Social media is accessible to the audience whether targeted or not and by passes the traditional
forms of communication as gatekeepers. For traditional media, a journalist must pass through a
clatter of by standers like editors and researchers just for the story to get out.
Social media is very interactive and has its pros and cons. The direct conversation with the
audience can lead to direct criticism over the media than in traditional forms (Gao, and Feng,
2016).
Due to the real –time nature of social media, many companies have been blindsided by crisis
born and propagated on social media.
Competition between companies may lead to toxic relationships where a rival on a social media
platform sponsors or influences a trend to kill the competitors based purely on malice.
Social media is ever dynamic, if a company does not conform to social media practices, then it
may be left out on the many changing dynamics of social media marketing and influence
(Kavada, 2015).
In social media, everyone is a journalist and due to the massive number of people on the sites,
any bad journalisms from the company gets noted quickly and may affect the company’s name.

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It require PR or communication experts to do their homework thoroughly before releasing any
information.
2. Impact of an employee behavior on social media on organization identity ( Positive and
negative effects of social media on brand image)
There is a need for social media usage policy for a company. An employees post on social media
reflects directly as the behavior of the employer (Meijer, and Torenvlied, 2016). In peoples
perception, the employee acts as an agent of the employer and therefore if he or she says
something, it must have come from the company.
Negative effects
This is so wrong yet it will always lead to questionable impact on the company’s behavior. A
negative post on twitter, Facebook or Instagram or any other social media site will truly impact
on the relations of the company to the public. An example is the Facebook post by the sunshine
employee which led to public outcry on the impact of the company on children’s diet. However,
social media is here to stay.
Positive effects
It is much cheaper for the organization to operate a good social media presence than buy ad time
on daily news and dailies. Therefore, there should be a workplace policy on interactions of
employee on social media and the impact that come from bad publicity associated with social
media use (Ngai, et al, 2015).. Bad social media use impacts on the company negatively.

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iii. What social media interaction should a company’s social media policy cover?
Social media has become part of the business environment. The interactions with social media
should be covered by the company’s social media policy. The strengths and weaknesses of social
media either bring value or devalue the companies brand; in brand interaction, the policy should
ensure that; Protecting the brand of the employer by ensuring there is a consistent experience
that aims to promote the brand and not to damage it (Godey, et al, 2016).
Policies on posting of derogatory, defamatory and or inflammatory content to the public that
maybe associated with the company. The employee should not share any confidential or
proprietary information of the company as it will be addressed in a legal manner.There should
also be a policy on posting of pictures and information that imply illegal conduct or cause bad
publicity of the company to the public. There should be clarity on who should speak for the
company on social media although every potential post from the employees will be directly
associated with the company (Razmerita, Kirchner, and Nielsen, 2016).
There should be a plan to deal with social media conflict in case someone leaves a negative
comment on the companies social media sites. Consideration of potential legal risks for the
company. Another policy is to keep the employees and the employer brand secure in the social
media platform (Rutter, Roper, and Lettice, 2016).

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4. . Using the communication plan template, devise a communication strategy for the
Director of Social Media to communicate the social media policy to staff.
What When To whom How
Newsletters Every end of every
quarter
All employees E-Newsletter
Memo When necessary Concerned
emplyees/ targeted
department
E-mail
Social media bits Every time All employees Social media
Pop-up messages Every time All employees Organization portal
and social media
The strategy for the communication manager is to
1. Audit the current employees social media presence.-the manager should know how the
employees are using their personal social media platforms
2. Document the intended social media use for the company and the employee and not to
curtail the freedom of the employee (Valentini, 2015)
3. Create the mission statement for the companies social media policy and employee should
adhere to it while using their media
4. Create and curate the engaging content on behalf of the company
5. Create guildelines and policies and effective measures to be undertaken in case someone
contravenes the policy

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6. Analyse track and document on the usage of employees social media engagement
For sunshine 100, the company promoting healthy feeding trends to school kids need a good
social media use policy where the employee may know that their activity online 100 percent
influences the perception of the company (Tajvidi, and Karami, 2017).
Sincerely,
Jane Wilson
Communication manager

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References
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management
across borders. Routledge.
Chaudhri, V., 2016. Corporate social responsibility and the communication imperative:
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Gao, Q. and Feng, C., 2016. Branding with social media: User gratifications, usage patterns, and
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Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R. and Singh, R., 2016.
Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer
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Kavada, A., 2015. Creating the collective: social media, the Occupy Movement and its
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Meijer, A.J. and Torenvlied, R., 2016. Social media and the new organization of government
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Ngai, E.W., Moon, K.L.K., Lam, S.S., Chin, E.S. and Tao, S.S., 2015. Social media models,
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