MNG81001 Assessment 3: Social Media Policy Memo for Sunshine 100

This report analyzes a memo written by Jane Wilson, the Director of Social Media for Sunshine 100, addressed to CEO Paul Morgan. The memo outlines the importance of social media policies within the organization, particularly focusing on the potential negative impacts of employee social media activity. It compares the challenges of social media with traditional communication channels, emphasizing the need for employee guidelines to protect the company's brand and disseminate information effectively. The memo details the impact of employee comments on the organization, the scope of necessary social media policies, and a communication strategy for the director to inform staff. It also includes references to relevant research and concludes by reiterating the critical role of social media policies for Sunshine 100's continued success, highlighting the importance of employee conduct, accountability, and clear guidelines.

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Memo
Name
Institution
Date

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To: Paul Morgan, CEO, Sunshine 100
From: Jane Wilson, Director of Social Media
Date: 5th May 2019
Subject: sunshine 100’s social media policy
Social media guidelines have outlined the ways employee in any organization should
conduct themselves whenever they post and communicate with their customers in social media.
This policy helps to protect the organization’s new products and allow the worker to disseminate
the company’s information to the target audiences. The prime scheme of this memorandum is to
display the negative out-turn of social media in Sunshine 100. It will also look at the merits of
installing policies of social media. The following will be dealt with, similarities and differences
of challenges caused by the social media and traditional tools of communication, the impact that
is caused by an employee’s message on an organization on their platforms, the scope of the
policies in sunshine 100, finally, how to make a communication strategy for the director to relay
information to the staffs regarding policies.
Similar and dissimilar challenges posed by social media and tradition channel of
communication
To start with social media is the latest form of communication where people buy and sell
products online while the traditional channel form of communication refers to the use of radio,
magazine, television and printed billboard to advertise the business products. Before the sunshine
100 decide to use either form of communication it must understand the challenges that are posed
by social media tools and challenges that are posed by traditional channels of communication.

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Similar challenges that are posed by social media and tradition channel of communication
` Social media is facing a challenge of keeping the conversation going with the customer
since it is a two-way conversation. Sunshine100 have to always keep in touch with their target
audience in order to convince them about the quality of the brand they promoting (Ryden,
Ringberg and Wilken 2015). The traditional channel of communication is facing a similar
challenge of not getting the feedback in the real-time since it is one-way.
Dissimilar challenges posed by social media and tradition channel of communication
According to Veil, Sellnow, and Petrun (2012) social media, in terms of cost, is less
expensive whereas the traditional channel of communication is more expensive. For the sunshine
to advertise its product it will have to pay a quarter amount that it would have used on traditional
media.
Social media uses their products to build trust with their customers through frequent
interaction in their platforms while the traditional channel of communicationuses opinion from
the buyers to see whether the product will be bought when the advertisement is repeated more
frequently.
The effect of worker’s comment on the company
Sunshine 100 need to engage its employees in representing the organization on social media in
the process of promoting their products brand and building their name. Cervellon and Lirio
(2016) argued that about two billion people globally use social media, therefore it is easier for
employees to reach many people with information about the brands of their organizations. In
their free time outside the work, the employees engage themselves with various activities.

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In this time they are free to share the information about the brand and make comments hence
promoting it. They also show consistent behaviors with regard to brand worth. This behavior in
social media may represent a breakthrough of a product.
In addition, the credibility on the brands’ comment from the employee increases when
they talk while they are in private life than when they are in the profession. This depends on the
kind of comment the employee make and can be positive or negative.
Sunshine 100 as an organization might pinpoint some behavior in an employee that may
act as barriers to brand promotion in social media. According to Jha and Vakkey (2018), this
includes; the employees are not aware of their role in the social media In the process of
promoting their products, misunderstanding in an organization amongst the employees where
many employees tend to be ignorant of the existence of social media. Finally, may the existence
of discomfort among employees whether to use the platforms at work. This behavior acts as a
barrier to the promotion of the brand.
The scope of policies
According to McDonald and Thomson (2016), the company ‘on social media should
cover the following;
Rules and regulation. This area should highlight Sunshine 100 expectation on how the
employees will conduct themselves on social media. For instance, the company’s policies should
ask the employee to swear whenever they want to post a suggestion on the company’s social
media. This area entails the following instruction, confidentiality-by outlining the information
that is to be posted or not and the brand instruction that is what to post and not on the bases of
the product.

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The policies should cover the roles and responsibilities of the employees. In this area,
there must be clear guidelines on who is assigned to carry a particular duty in the social media
for example inspection and approval of the message. Madimogale and Kroeze (2011) suggested
that this can be made easier by constructing a table with two columns. The first column indicates
a particular responsibility on certain social media, for example, the brand instruction. The
individual responsible for steering that task is indicated in the second column. Sunshine 100
should have personnel’s who carries out the following roles and responsibility; approval of the
message, crises management and trainer of employees.
Lastly, sunshine 100 policies should include accountability. According to Bertot, Jaeger,
et at 2012 argued that when the company mistakenly post something that is irrelevant to what is
supposed to be posted the first person to lay blame is the employ who posted. To avoid this
embarrassment the employer should always remind their employee to be cautious of what they
post.
Communication Plan
The social media director in sunshine 100 can use the below communication technique to
create awareness to staff on the policy of the social media.
Timing. This refers to planning in order to communicate the issue of policy to the employee at
the right time. The manager must know the convenient time of communicating the policy to the
staff.
Audience: The manager must be certain that the message will reach the target audience.
This is because when the message doesn’t get to the right audience it’s of no use to the company
Sender: The manager passes the message to the staffs. In this scenario, the manager
communicates policies to the staff via effective channels.

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Key message: This is the main idea that the manager wishes to communicate with the
staffs. The message should be clear and precise so as to produce the desired response or
outcomes.
Desired outcome: In this instance, the staffs are supposed to understand the issue of
policy and start practicing them whenever they use social media to represent the company.
Medium: This is the channel that communication follows. The manager should be keen in
selecting the appropriate medium for the message as this will allow the manager to achieve the
desired outcome.
Materials: This refers to the resources that the manager will require in order to
communicate the subject matter at hand effectively. The material required includes phones and
projectors.
Frequency: This refers to how often the manager should communicate the issues of
policy to the staffs. This may be scheduled on a number of times either weekly or month to
discuss the issue at hand.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, for the sunshine 100 to continue thriving well in the market it
must have social media in which employee can act as a private ambassador to promote the
company brands when choosing a social media a sunshine company must consider the challenge
posed by each media. Finally, the company must know what to include in when stating the social
media policies such as the roles and responsibility, accountability and rules and regulation.

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References
Carlo Bertot, J., Jaeger, P.T. and Grimes, J.M., 2012. Promoting transparency and accountability
through ICTs, social media, and collaborative e-government. Transforming government: people,
process and policy, 6(1), pp.78-91.
Cervellon, M.C. and Lirio, P., 2016. When employees don't'like'their employers on social media.
MIT Sloan Management Review.
Kumar Jha, J. and Varkkey, B., 2018. Are you a cistern or a channel? Exploring factors
triggering knowledge-hiding behavior at the workplace: evidence from the Indian R&D
professionals. Journal of Knowledge Management, 22(4), pp.824-849.
McDonald, P. and Thompson, P., 2016. Social media (tion) and the reshaping of public/private
boundaries in employment relations. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18(1),
pp.69-84
Modimogale, L. and Kroeze, J.H., 2011. The Role of ICT within Small and Medium Enterprises
in Gauteng.
Rydén, P., Ringberg, T. and Wilke, R., 2015. How managers' shared mental models of business–
customer interactions create different sensemaking of social media. Journal of Interactive
Marketing, 31, pp.1-16.
Veil, S.R., Sellnow, T.L. and Petrun, E.L., 2012. Hoaxes and the paradoxical challenges of
restoring legitimacy: Dominos’ response to its YouTube crisis. Management Communication
Quarterly, 26(2), pp.322-345.