Developing a Social Media Strategy for Sunshine 100

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This report analyzes Sunshine 100's social media crisis.

SOUTHERN CROSS UNIVERSITY
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TO: Paul Morgan, CEO, Sunshine 100
FROM: Jane Wilson, Director Social Media
DATE:
SUBJECT: Sunshine 100’s Social Media Policy
The involvement of social media has proven to be one of the most crucial piece for any business
organization to gain better profits. There are many aspects of a business like brand recognition, customer
satisfaction, business loyalty, etc. which are greatly affected by the presence of social media platform for
any business organization. (Muninger, Marie-Isabelle et al. 2019) The main point is to efficiently use
the features of these platforms, as not using them efficiently can also impact businesses in a negative way.
(Edosomwan, Simeon et al. 2011) A recent incident happened in a company named, Sunshine 100 is
the example, how social media can affect negatively. An employee of that company has posted something
about the product related to company on Facebook which has massively drowned the reputation of
company. Sunshine 100 must implement some social media policies for the employees so that nobody can
post any non-relevant content on social media which may affect the growth of business. This contains a
brief about the advantages and disadvantages of using social media in organization, how the posts of
employees can affect organization, and which policies must be implemented.

1. Advantages and disadvantages of using social media platform in business
environment
Usage of social media can both negatively and positively affect the growth of an organization.
Advantages
Using social media for advertising and promoting business is much more cost effective as compared to
traditional practice. Even the paid advertisements are also not very costly. When customers get connected
to the organization through social media, they can post their queries online, an organization can easily
respond to those queries, which ultimately increases their satisfaction. (Kuofie, Matthew et al. 2015)
Another advantage is that, if effective and genuine content is provided on the social media platform, then
more customers will get attracted towards the website which will result in more profit. One of the major
advantages is when an organization is present on social media platform the customer can understand the
product and services of the organization making the organization loyal.
Disadvantages
For promoting the business over social media platforms, more resources are needed. The inefficient use of
social media platforms can make greatly reduce the growth of business. (Zhu, Dong-Hong & Chang,
Ya-Ping 2013) The biggest disadvantage is if anything inappropriate content is posted will result in a
negative impact on customer and business.
2. Impact of employee’s comment on social media platforms
When an employee of the organization post or comment about something related to the organization, it
directly gives the reflection about the brand of the organization. Every comment about the organization
over the internet is making the audience to know about the things happening in the organization. (Crtalic,
Ashley et al. 2015) Sometimes there may situations when the information reaches to some untargeted
audiences which are not even in the area of targeted audience, such unintended audiences feels
uninterested in the organization’s work and gives negative reviews which result in lowering the brand
popularity.
In case of Sunshine 100, an employee has clicked the pictures of the healthy food manufactured by the
organization and posted the picture on Facebook with caption as “Junk food, junk food everywhere”. The

post has greatly affected the reputation of the brand. The news has become the headline of new channels,
and the company was even unable to launch their new product.
A single comment or post about the product of organization over social media can surely make the
reputation of the company under attack, as media people are always to give hot news regarding the
happenings of the world, which ultimately can affect the standards of the organization in a negative way.
3. Social media policies to be implemented in organizations
Implementing social media policies in the organization is the best practice to be used. Defining policies
help the employees to regulate the structure and kind of data they can post on social media platforms.
(O’connor, Kimberly W. et al. 2016) Defining the policies limits the employee’s freedom to post the
content online. In the situations where no social media policies are defined as in the case of organization
named Sunshine 100, the employee has total freedom to post anything which sometimes can drown the
reputation of the organization.
The policies must be made in such a way that they are neither too tight for the employees as they may feel
untrusted nor the policies must be too loose, giving authority to post anything without thinking about the
reputation of the organization.
Some of the best social media policies that can be implemented for the employees working in an
organization are:
Specifying the category of users having full control, some control, and no control over posting the content
related to organization. Specifying the rules that must have to be followed while posting anything online.
There must be transparency regarding the information of the content publisher. (Stohl, Cynthia et al.
2017)
If the above policies are implemented in organizations like Sunshine 100, organizations can be benefitted
to a large extent while using social media platforms.

Communication Template
Title Information
1. Timing Working hours from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
2. Audience Employees, Managers, and Stakeholders
3. Sender Jane Wilson, Paul Morgan, Alice Jones
4. Key Message Content regarding the information of product and services to be published on
social media platform of the organization.
5. Desired
Outcome
Enhanced brand reputation and increase in the number of customers which
ultimately increase the profit of the organization.
6. Medium The medium for communication should be E-mail.
7. Materials Materials used for transferring files must be MS-Word or MS-PowerPoint
8. Frequency The frequency of communication should be half-yearly
The social media platforms can impact the organization’s reputation in both a negative and positive way.
It depends on the users, how they are utilizing the power of social media for enhancing their business and
increasing the number of customers by attracting them with advertisements of the business. As the
Sunshine 100 Company’s reputation get down by a minor post of employee, so social media policies must
be implemented for the users who are posting the data related to the organization. For better social media
outcomes, better policies must be applied by keeping in mind the background of the company. Control of
posting must be given to specific users only for limiting the undesired results.

PowerPoint Slides

References
Muninger, Marie-Isabelle et al. (2019) The value of social media for innovation: A capability
perspective. Journal of Business Research. [Online] 95116–127.
Edosomwan, Simeon et al. (2011) The History of Social Media and its Impact on
Business. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship. 16 (3), 79–91. [online].
Available from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/889143980/
Crtalic, Ashley et al. (2015) Boundaries with Social Media: Ethical Considerations for
Rehabilitation Professionals. Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling. 46 (3), 44–50.
[online]. Available from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1728268404/.
Kuofie, Matthew et al. (2015) An Overview of Social Media for Marketing. International
Journal of Global Business. 8 (2), 65–82. [online]. Available from:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1776310675/.
Zhu, Dong-Hong & Chang, Ya-Ping (2013) Negative Publicity Effect of the Business Founder’s
Unethical Behavior on Corporate Image: Evidence from China. Journal of Business Ethics.
[Online] 117 (1), 111–121.
O’connor, Kimberly W. et al. (2016) Helping workers understand and follow social media
policies. Business Horizons. [Online] 59 (2), 205–211.
Stohl, Cynthia et al. (2017) Social Media Policies: Implications for Contemporary Notions of
Corporate Social Responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics. [Online] 142 (3), 413–436.