social networking

Table

1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 2 2. POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES .................................................... 2 3. APPLICATION OF SOCIAL NETWORK IN PRACTICE ........... 3 3.1TANGIBLE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING ................................. 3 3.2 AN SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLE ............................................................ 4 4. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ........................................ 5 5. REFERENCE ................................................................................. 6

1. Introduction

Social networking is used to mean a social function such as conference, friend party or financial trade. However today, many individuals manage to achieve social connections through Face book, Twitter or Micro blog. The range of social networking is extended to web sites. (Roberts and Roach, 2009) To test how social networking works in management perspective, firstly the positives and negatives in business structure would be analyzed.

2. Positives and Negatives

Social network is good to help build a open and democratic team, avoid power from hierarchical structures and improve innovations and e-learning. Moreover, social networking is very important for human resources. In a company, top management team can effectively affect organizational performance through their internal and external networks. (Collins and Clark, 2003)

In addition, as the rapid development of technology, the enterprise can use social network sites to raise their awareness of business, carry on market research, and increase sales, and so on. It’s convenient to get information form internet social network with less cost and time.

However, there still exist the negative effects of using social networks in business workplace. First it can lead to lost productivity. According to Nucleus report, ―One in every 33 workers built their entire Facebook profile at work, and 87 percent basically said that their time on Facebook had no business-related purpose.‖(Nucleus Research, 2009) Secondly, the enterprise faces the risk of data leakage. When employees scan the social network sites frequently, it may embed malware or virus into computer

system. Then if the attacks can’t be stopped, the data may be leaked and the system may be destroyed. (Sperling 2009)

That doesn’t mean give up or ban social networking tools. The company should educate the employee and conduct a set of rational rules to guide the operation. Thus, it’s essential for the enterprise to balance the positives and negatives.

3. Application of Social Network in Practice

3.1Tangible Benefits of Social Networking

When the enterprise can understand the interaction of social networking well, it can find out the central person in team, strengthen and improve the effectiveness of the communication channels. What’s more, websites is a fast and convenient channel for a company to directly communicate with its customers. There are some tangible benefits using social media.

Firstly, enhance the awareness of the business. (Richter and Koch, 2008) People prefer to buy from the company they learn well. However, there are huge user base in Facebook, Twitter or QQ. If the company put their product ads into these social networks, more and more people will know the brand, and be willing to learn the brand further. After potential customers confirm the brand well, they will deliver this information to their friends and bring more potential customers.

Besides that, promote employee engagement with social network is another tangible benefit. (Richter and Koch, 2008) There are two ways to achieve this goal—establish external and internal social network. For many big companies, it’s difficult for their employee to interact personally, express emotional attachment, or speak to a right person. Social network sites can give them the freedom to make connections with

anyone. In the other side, through internal social network the company can generate the message fast, get feedback instantly, and take measures right away. Whether external or internal ways, the passion of the employee will be increased, then sales may go up. Making use of social network is a successful way to gain employee engagement.

At last, social network is an cost-effective method to seek for future employee or human resource. (Kluemper and Rosen, 2009) Traditional hiring process will take time and cost. But through social networking, business can search for suitable candidates according the requirements quickly. The social networking can help the company narrow down the range of the candidates more efficiently than before. At the same time, if the company involves in more social network sites, there may be more candidates appealed to the given position. Therefore, the company can hire more outstanding talents.

3.2 An Successful Example

From Coca-Cola to Verizon, even General Motors, many companies have tried to build brand loyalty through online social networking systems, but failed. However, Nike did.

In 2007, Nike launched Nike+, which can track the message of each runner in the exercise and link the runners from all over the world together through nikplus.com website. During the past few years, Nike has developed a large number of fans. For example, there were 800,000 runners to register and log in to sign up for a 10-km running race, which was held simultaneously in 25 cities in August 2008. Nike is experimenting with a social network to promote its basketball shoes.

It’s difficult to judge what positive impact on company’s financial position the social

network had. But website re-energize people’s favorite on Nike shoes. Sports One Source, a market research firm, said Nike occupied 48% share of running shoes in 2006. In the contrast, this figure reached 61% in 2009. ―A large part of the growth of Nike came from Nike‖, the analyst Matt Powell said.

Therefore, Nike is a company that has successfully used social networking to increase business presences.

4. Conclusions and Suggestions

From above discussion, there are many benefits and risks to use social network. In the future, the trend that employees can work in social network environment can not be changed. As a result, a large number of companies nowadays are going ahead by integrating social networking into their future development strategies in order to drive collaboration and increase productivity among partners, consumers and employees. (Shah, 2009) At the meantime, using social network for promoting sales of product and seeking for future outstanding talents will become the mainstream.

In the last place, to balance the positives and negatives of using social networking, there should be a code of conduct for employee to distinguish what behavior is acceptable or not in workplace. The rule must explain the results if it is violated. To avoid some conflicts, the company should better draw up the draft in consultation with their employee and keep update in employment law. Moreover, it’s significant to guarantee there exists flexibility for the employees to get formal and informal relax. (Broughton, Higgins, Hicks and Cox, 2009) As a result, only taking the advantage of social networking can produce the best possible results.

5. Reference

Serrat O. (2009), Social network analysis, Kowledge Solutions, 1-3.

Collins C. J. and Clark K. D.(2003), Strategic human resource practices, top management team social networks, and firm performance: the role of human resource practices in creating organizational competitive advantage, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 46, No. 6, 740–751.

Ed Sperling.(2009) Social Networks’ Security Risk, Forbes.com [Online] Available at:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/13/social-network-security-technology-cio-network-social-network.html [Accessed: 24 April, 2012]

Roberts S. J. and Roach T. (2009), Social Networking Web Sites and Human Resource Personnel: Suggestions for Job Searches, Business Communication Quarterly, 72; 110-114.

Richter A. and Koch M.(2008), Functions of Social Networking Services, The 8th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems [Online] Available at: http://www.kooperationssysteme.de/wp-content/uploads/coop08_richterkoch_functions_of_social_networking_services_final.pdf [Accessed: 24 April, 2012]

Kluemper D. H. and Rosen P. A. (2009), Future employment selection methods: evaluating social networking web sites, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 24 Iss: 6, pp.567 – 580

Shah R. (2009), Social Networking for Business-- Choosing the Right Tools and Resources to Fit Your Needs, 1st ed, Wharton School Publishing, New York, NY.

Broughton A. , Higgins T. , Hicks B. and Cox A. (2009) Workplaces and Social Networking: The Implications for Employment Relations, Institute for Employment Studies, Acas research publications [Online] Available at:

http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=3182&p=0 [Accessed: 24 April, 2012]

Nucleus Research, Facebook: Measuring the Cost to Business of Social Notworking, http://www.rb.ru, July 2009

My Job Group (2010) Social media in the workplace [Online] Available at: http://www.myjobgroup.co.uk/socialmediawhitepaper [Accessed: 24 April, 2012]