The Rise of Social Media in the Work Place

The role of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in the work place has grown rapidly over the years since their emergence on the internet scene. Their roles are quite different and they work together to promote companies and their respective services, however they can also be used as a vehicle for individual promotion.

Twitter and Facebook work to draw interest to your company and gain exposure in the right circles, particularly when they are linked together and promote similar or in some cases the same stories but LinkedIn promotes individuals and their talents. These are the three main social networking sites but there are more - Google+ offers the opportunity to create circles of contacts so you can get a group of businesses in a circle in order to promote each other or work together towards one main goal. The rise of these networking facilities has been fast to say the least and they are now an accepted medium for businesses to promote themselves free of charge.

The UK based telecommunications company BT are the latest company to demonstrate how to take advantage of the digital age. With the launch of their TV channels covering different sporting events they have secured major sports personalities as presenters; Rio Ferdinand, Gareth Bale, Jake Humphrey and Clare Balding to name a few. The presenters have all been spotted endorsing and promoting the new channels on Twitter leading up to the launch in August 2013 and it is people like this that really make the difference when it comes to promotion. Social icons such as sports stars, television presenters and so forth carry a great deal of influence in society these days - what they think matters, largely because exposure to the 'normal' public is much greater. A huge proportion of personalities have personal Twitter accounts that can be found and followed by anyone who signs up to a Twitter account and it is personal choice who you follow.

The promotion by these particular personalities has been referred to by BT as 'encouraged but non-contractual' therefore they have no obligation to do it but they appreciate that if there is not a 'buzz' created around the new product, it will not be taken up by the public and they will not experience success in their field.

This may be a cynical view of the role of social media - all of it is purely a channel for promotion - but it's true and it's easy no less. The possibility of being head-hunted is much greater these days and you receive exposure to relevant areas of interest much easier and at a much greater rate. Facebook may die out in this sphere, but Twitter and LinkedIn (the online CV that allows you to be head-hunted) will continue long into the future provided they keep providing promotions!

For more discussions on social media and their role in contemporary society read our other articles on Ezine.

Social Media: Giving Rise to Bullying?

Bullying is a simple fact of school life, most people will experience some level of it at some point through their school and university careers but is there an argument for the presence of social media giving rise to a greater number of people being subjected to bullying?

School is a time for discovering what you’re good at, what you’re not, what sort of people you like and don’t and the friendships that you make and break will shape who you grow into. Bullying tests your resilience to those more trying times and it can be as serious as to make or break a person, some struggle but push through and become a more resilient person, some let it bounce off them and are relatively unaffected and then there are the saddest group that cannot take it and retreat into their shells never to reappear.

There is an argument for the rise in social media playing a major role in bullying. Children can be innocent and accepting of all people regardless of race, class, gender, sexuality and so on and so forth but they are also liable to point out how some people are different from others – there is no threshold for appropriateness. This means that simple things, like not having the latest gadget, leaves some children vulnerable to ridicule and this is where bullying can begin. Then there is the additional threat that comes with all of these gadgets: social media.

Facebook, MySpace and other such social networking sites are prime mediums for bullying to spawn. Firstly there is little or no adult supervision so children can both see what older members of the site are doing and they can also say things through type that they would not say through the spoken word because of the consequences – the internet allows for fewer consequences simply because of the perverse nature of being social and antisocial simultaneously. Secondly, there is a type of fever created around certain things, people jump on bandwagons much quicker if they see that friends or people they admire are also participating.

For victims of bullying it can also be a typical catch-22 situation. If they have accounts there is no escape from bullies, they can be accessed all the time and potentially the content on that page can be used to fuel the bullies but it is also way to become accepted and stop the bullying. Conformity is the best way to avoid bullying because you are anonymous among a pack.

There are lots of forms of social media available and indeed devices that allow easy access to these accounts but they are all accessed, one way or another, through the internet. For more information on internet or mobile phone service providers contact them directly on the Orange contact number. You can also find the contact details for all other service providers at the Customer Services Contact website.