Week Four Journal

Running Head: EMPLOYEE’S SOCIAL MEDIA CONDUCT 5

Employees’ Social Media Conduct

Kaleena Springsteen

PHI 103 Informal Logic

Daniel Hayes

April 3, 2017

Counter Argument – Social Media Conduct

Social media is the trend that has taken over our lives very quickly and has a great amount of impact in everything that we do. It has become an important part of our personal and professional lives. As a result it is believed that the social media conduct of employees should be monitored in order to ensure that no such conduct is observed that causes the company to have a negative image.

However, this point is not entirely valid. Social media is a form of freedom of speech and if companies try to regulate what their employees are doing on social media it is ethically wrong and too intrusive into their lives. Social media is a part of their personal lives and the company does not exercise a right to see and control what they do there. It is separate from what they practice in professional life and their social media image is not to be associated with their work.

Building onto the above point, all professionals also know how to use social media properly. They themselves are aware that it is not to be used in any way that would taint the image of their company.

Companies need to invest in the training of their employees if they fear that their social media conduct is negative. This can be covered if they are trained and developed in a way that they would be strong in ethics and communication etc. Other than this the company need not pry into their personal lives that includes their behavior on social media.

The side that would agree with the above point realizes that social media regulation on account of making sure that employees are behaving nicely is not right on the company’s part. On the other hand, those that disagree with the point would want regulations in place by the company that would restrict the way that the employees use social media. This however reflects well on the company as it shows that they are trying to exert too much control over their employees and this does not account as a strong employee value proposition. Employees and potential employees would not like working for this company.

If anything, this can be used to the company’s advantage. They can ask their employees to promote the company brand online and on social media so as to create good impact. Instead of restricting this, the social media of the employees should be considered as an opportunity and a strength rather than a weakness or a threat. Employees can write blogs about the company and the company can guide them on how to effectively use it to the company’s benefit and to motivate the employees, the company can attach incentives with this. (Wright & Hinson, 2008)

In conclusion, one can see that companies should use all the resources that are of high impact and use it to their advantage. This includes the use of social media by their employees and they should come up with strategies to use it to further a positive image of the company as it can become an important part of the promotion mix. (Mangolda & Faulds, 2009)

References

Mangolda, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 357-365.

Wright, D. K., & Hinson, M. D. (2008). How Blogs and Social Media are Changing Public Relations and the Way it is Practiced. Public Relations Journal , 2-21.