Social Media in a Modern Business Context

Peter Machinist

Communication Seminar Dr. MacDougall

May 5, 2015

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What

What are some types of social media and how are business uses affecting a company

performance?

Social media refers to a form of communication using computers. Social media has a

global reach, which is significant for a business context. Since the late 20th century the forms

of social media have grown, as have the uses and applications. In a business context it is

extremely important to build and maintain connections. Social media makes this possible on

a global level. Recently, businesses have started using social media to help build such

connections. The type of social media, the ways business use social media on a company

performance will be addressed. The forms of social media that business are using such as

LinkedIn Facebook and twitter. In today’s completive business world being under pressure

from the digital revolution, the corporate brands- with its identity image and reputation is the

center of gravity for valuable and durable relationships between the firm and the interested

parties. (Vernuccio, M, 2014 pg 1) Some businesses are not as accepting of social media.

For example my sister job which at a literary agency does not let employees use her own

Gmail at the office.

How

Methods used to gather a data needed for this project included Interviews, Survey and a

content analysis. From the surveys charts and graphs have been included in the project in

order to show how the participants are answering questions. Another form of data collection

begging applied is interviews. My interviews subjects are professionals and work in the

business field and or even own and operate companies or work in the academic institution.

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The main point of this project is to show the importance of this type of media and how this

type of media is making a contribution to the business world. Social media is now a major

media in the modern business world. Social media sites like LinkedIn have become huge

contributor when it comes to hiring people. Facebook is a great way for companies to use the

digital age in their favor to effectively market companies.

Who

This study will include previous works from different sources including Rushkoff, Gumpert

and Cathcart and Amber Case. For instance, part of this study will examine Amber Case’s topic

“Humans As Cyborgs” as well as Gary Gumpert and Robert Cathcart’s study of media

generations, which is entitled, “Media Generations and Media Gaps.” Gumpert and Cathcart

discuss the media differences among people in different age groups. Case, however, discusses

humans as cyborgs needing constant use of technology. In this project or analysis the data will be

collected in a few different methods: surveys, interviews and content analysis.

A brief History of social Communication in Organizations

Since the beginning of human civilizations communication has been an extremely important

part of life. Before the invention of modern day digital technology humans communicated both

verbally and through newspapers. The Ancient Greeks invented amphitheaters, which they used

to project their voices when performing in front of crowds and for government meetings. These

ancient forms of social media have been used for thousands of years. Throughout history

primitive forms of communication have been used to send messages. Smoke signals as well as

drumbeats and bells were very early forms of ancient communication. Smoke fires could also be

used to warn people of attack on cities. There were many forms of social media that existed

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before the invention of the computer, email and or Facebook. The telegraph was developed in the

1840s. The telegraph operated by sending messages using an alphabet of dots and dashes that

represented English letters and was named “Morse Code” after the inventor. In 1844 the first

telegraph was sent from Washington DC to Baltimore. The way that this new technology

transmitted messages was through telegraph lines. In 1856 the first message using this new

technology was sent from Europe to the United States using wires laid across the Atlantic Ocean

and the telegraph could also be used to send message that people were in danger.

The term social media was coined to describe these and other new platforms of digital

communication that continually appear in this electronic environment, underlining their

participative collaborative social characteristics. ( Vernuccio M , pg 213) “Today we use social

media for many things such as job recruitment, marketing. In 1990s everything seemed to be

accelerating from the speed of technology to the growth of markets.” (Douglass Rushkoff in his

Intro to Print Shock 2013 pg 9). Today, we have seen the growth of social media as a new trend

that is used by virtually everyone. Interactivity has been defined in many ways ( Alba et al

1997 ,Jensen 1998 ; Liu& Shrum, 2007; Rafaeli & Sidweeks, 1997). Recent definitions have

emphasizing aspects such as active user control, two- way communication, and

synchronicity( Liu 7 Shrum, 2002; McMilliam& Hwang, 2002). Another perspective discusses

the facilitation of digital direct communication. The human animal is becoming less and less

directly connected with the world in which we live. We are using many types of media such as

Instagram Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to advertise company events. A type of social media

such LinkedIn is used to advertise jobs. From another perspective Berthon , Pitt and

Watson(1996) define web interactive by emphasizing to facilitations of direct communication

between the consumers and the organization regardless of the distance or time. LinkedIn can be

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used to review potential employees rather than the traditional methods of review of paper

resumes. LinkedIn doesn’t only save companies time, but it also helps the environment and

save’s them money.

There are other forms of social media that are being used. The most popular is Facebook.

Facebook attracts a lot of people and is now being used as a business tool. In the future

traditional marketing medias will no longer exist. For instance, people will use Facebook to seek

out Business. It is also able to promote events and lower companies costs. Facebook can be used

to connect with people and build up your business network.

There are two different modes of interaction that are being discussed. Social media are

charectecterized mainly by two modes of interaction, defined by Bordewijk and Van Kaam

(1986) and Jensen(1998). These two forms of interaction are “ consultation interactivity” and “

conversation interactivity”. The first consultation category describes a situation which users are

mainly the controllers of the dissemination and consumption of the content made available by

central source. Interactivity manifests it choosing the media available package, which is being

used to brand messages. This interactivity is a great way for companies to successfully brand

themselves.

Despite rapid growth of social media and the rising interests in its challenges and

opportunities in branding, there is a paucity of academic research focused on the phenomenon

with regard to online corporate communication and corporate branding strategy. There is a aim

from this study to identify the primary emergency strategies in the communication that is being

used in social media.( Vernucccio, M pg 213) This means that companies that are using social

media as a form of branding most have a plan of what to do if something goes wrong.

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Tetrad

What is a tetrad? A tetrad is a diagram that describes a certain type of media. McLuhan a

major media ecologist came up with the term, which is a tetrad in order to discuss the medias the

benefits which they poses. The tetrad show us four section. What does the media retrieve? What

is obsolete? How does this media enhance things? Now that I have explained what the McLuhan

tetrad is, examples will be given that relate to my topic.

Skype

enhances - F2 F real time com

- good for people to stay in contact

maintians connections - buisness tool for

meetings with people from different places

ReversalVirtual Office

ability to meet people from different places

Retrievel social nature of F2F

com physival appearence

can only see sholders up

ObsolescedF 2 F Communication

loss of traditional com

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The service, Skype has very many benefits. This type of service is excellent for international

business because you are able to see other people while talking any where in the world. Skype is

a much more efficient method of communication opposed to phone due to the fact that it gives us

a virtual office and video of the other party members and you nonverbal messages. Skype does

also have another benefit to the software, which is that it is very inexpensive. People who use

such service are less inclined to visit grandma since they have talked her using the video talking

service. On the side of things Skype can also pose potential problems. Internet connection speeds

can affect the video quality.

Facebook

Enhances Connecting people

communication picture sharing

Obsolece F 2 F com

people dont talk f 2 f

Retrievel Global community

Reversals need to see people

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Global community Facebook is a form of social that has benefits and negative aspects that are

explained in the tetrad above. Facebook is a great way for people who have not talked in a long

time being able to reconnect. This form of media makes it easier for organizations to do business

on a international scale. Facebook has made the world a smaller place meaning that a person

could be in New york and could be talking with a person for example who is in Moscow Russia

and etc. Facebook also has negative aspects such as taking away peoples face-to-face

communication.

Raw Data

Over the course of Dr. MacDougall’s students are working on a research capstone project that

can be done either in groups of two or solo. In this case my project is solo. Raw data being used

in the project is in charts and statistics. We will show the information’s in a percentage term as

well. The contents of this study will include academic previous research, along with research of

my own that is being collected using the interviews, surveys and content analysis. Today online

media, which include Facebook LinkedIn and other online medias, are replacing traditional

forms of marketing business methods. Using social media is both efficient for companies but is

easy to monitor and track performance.

Interviews

Interviews give us 1st hand information about how social media being used professionally

in the business world. Being that this research project is about o business and their use of social

media it is important to show both uses of social media in modern business. These interviews

will be with college social media experts and with business owners. My initial interview shows

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the academic side of the topic. Adam Coulter, the social media expert at Curry College gave me

a perspective of the improvements that social media is having on the college.

Curry College uses social media in a few specific ways. For example in the office of Institutional

Advancement, social media is used to connect with prospective student as well as with alumni

and parents. The different departments at the institution such as student activities, use social

media to promote events being held on campus. Social media is being used to get a good idea of

what your audience thinks and what they are saying about the college. It also gives us an

opportunity to jump in and offer information we consider essential.

With social media we are able to connect more easily and stay in touch with our large

alumni family. By sharing photos of events we encourage alumni to reconnect with the college

community. We also encourage them to come to campus to donate their time or make a financial

contribution to the college. Social media has negative components too. Smack College, a Twitter

account, makes negative comments about Curry, which reaches thousands of people. There are

also some legal issues when it comes to social media. We are unable to take pictures of children

at events without parent’s permission.

The college uses a program to track online social media performances. Melt Water Buzz

tracks the social media and works as a consumer relationship management tool. The introduction

of social media in the past couple years has improved our enrollment numbers. For instance the

2018 graduating class will be largest in our history. As a specific example the college’s online

social media presence has contributed to our online traffic. As of May 1, 2014 the national

deposit deadline we had a net of 698 deposits representing a 7.9% increase from the previous

year.

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The second interview was conducted with Mr. Machinist who is an auto and self-storage

business partner. The Collectors Car Garage was an idea that was dreamed up by Mr. Robert

Machinist 15 years ago. It would be a place for car aficionados to store their high-end cars. This

interview gave me some very important information about how social media is being used in this

type of industry. The Collectors Car Garage and Self-storage is a high-end car lover’s country

club in Bedford Hills NY, which is being operated by James Machinist, who is the business

Director of Operation. The CCG has recently made a social media appearance using different

types of social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instegram which are updated on a daily

basis; However, if an event is being hosted the social media platform may be updated more

often.

There are also negative aspects to social media. For example, posting pictures of client’s

cars could possibly anger them and possibly disenfranchise the clients. Social media is not

controlled. You are not able to only seek out only one group of people. Once something is posted

social media anyone can access this information. People who aren’t financially fortunate enough

to have high-end cars don’t help the business grow and prosper. On the legal side if a picture of

the Ferrari car logo is posted without the automobile, this could have a potential legal

ramification with Ferrari. An expert controls the social media portion because James is not

experienced enough to handle it.

Each interview, which is conducted, get a different perspective. For instance interview

differ baed on the subject profession. My next subject work at a law firm in Ny and the

information obtained will be from the perspective of someone who I working in the law field

with lawyers.

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The final person who I interviewed Michael Pumpkin works as a part of the web

development team at Proskuer Rose a major law firm in New York. This department is restively

big and is made up of 50 people. The proskuer company has started using social media in the

recent past. The company primarily uses Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn as the main social

media devices. The company makes a post on social media everyday for the lawyer’s

promotion. Before making posts we have to get the lawyers permission.

How is social media making a contribution to the company? The social media is

promoting the law firm and the individual lawyers who work at the firm. By prompting the

attorneys will gain them clients, which is helpful on their behalf. Being that Proskier is a big law

firm means they have many department such as Labor Corporate. The future for this business

means that social media will continue to become a bigger and bigger form of advertisement

service with time.

Survey

Since multiple methods are being applied in this project, interviews only show a certain

side. Surveys are able to present a different form of data. Surveys present a different type of data

collection that presents qualitative data. For instance the survey can give a different perspective

to data collection, which interviews cannot present. During this section information will be

presented using bar graphs fallowed by detailed information discussing the individual results.

During the survey consisted of a variety of different question such as what a form of

social media drives the most traffic to a companies website and what media is least successful in

generating Internet traffic. For instance having to do with answering the question, which is what

drives the largest, is Facebook by a 50% compared to the other forms of social networking tools.

For a company to use social media and make sure that the goals of the organization are being

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achieved. Companies use programs to track companies’ performance also called analytics. A

well known analytical software used by many companies is Google analytics.

How and why does social media benefit a business? Modern day marketing firms are

turning to digital forms of marketing channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Social

media brings a new alternative perspective to marketing in a growing digital world. Social media

was even rated as the best form of marketing tool in today’s business world. Social media has

increasingly become a bigger player in todays work environment. People who took my surveys

responses varied in there own responses to the questions, which were being asked. The first

person that took the survey indicated YouTube as being the most important form of social media

for his business. This organization uses social media a lot in their own business. The business

could take role in integrating we are currently doing with traditional methods into what we are

doing on the digital side. The responses from the other participants varied, and many said that

Facebook was an extremely important form of social media.

After collecting this data as a researcher made me able to organize the information that

had been gathered. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter is becoming extremely popular in modern day

business. The majority of marketing today is done using online media. Social media marketing

is done doing a specific method starting with the initial step, is strategy. Being that when you are

doing a marketing plan coming up with a plan is the initial step in a marketing campaign.

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This survey shows the amount of people that are using the different forms of social

media. Survey monkey which is the survey being used to conduct the survey distributions builds

graphs that present the percentages that people are answering. The chart above shows the

percentages visually in the form of a pie chart. Visual examples often are better more efficient

methods of presenting data then Just presenting the information in writing. This specific graph

shows the social media devices and which site generates the most Internet traffic. From the

results we are able to see that Facebook and LinkedIn are two of most effective types of social

media being used by companies.

When conducting a study and especially in a research analysis it crucial to know the age

range being a component of the studies demographic. The subjects that are being studied are part

of an age range that varies from 18 to 60. The majority of the individuals making up 69.23% of

the total participants were part of the 18-29-age range. This shows that the majority of my

subjects are in the younger range.

Body

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Social media has brought a new aspect to business operation. Now business who are

using social media as a type of media for marketing are communicating to their Target market

differently then they did in the past. Now modern day digital marketing is a two way street.

Companies are not only providing information in the form of advertisements but now people are

able to talk back about what they think is happening creating a two-dimensional communication

channel. It is two-way communication which many companies using. The digital media channel

brings us into the concept of a changing human being.

Businesses are becoming more technologically advanced in the ways that operations are

being conducted. For instance we are getting more advanced in technology. When computers

first came out, they were the size of building. Now they are extremely small and many laptops do

not have disk drives.

Let’s present the information to show why social media and digital marketing is such an

import part of today’s business world. Social gives business advantages, such as cost efficiency

and customer to business communication. The main part of this project, which is the capstone,

will show work from a variety of theorists that have been discussed in this course. How these

theorists are relevant to the topic, which is this project. For instance, Adie Clark wrote an article

that was entitled “Natural Born Cyborgs”. Adie Clark is discussing the issue of electronic

virgins. In the future we may have silicon chips in human skin. So we are becoming more like

the Terminator because of all the technology that we are using. So many in the future we will

have wires in their skin and actually become partially machines.

What does this mean about us human beings? Will we be turning into Arnold

Swartznager, the terminator? Does this notion that we are slowly becoming more machine like

mean that evolution is still occurring? Are we continuing to become more advanced? Humans

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are continuing to become advanced and still are evolving. This is simply the notion of becoming

more advanced as a society. As technology gets more advanced, as humans we do too.

Will we become even more advanced? What will be next? Will the future of humans be that

every person will have a computer chip in their body. The human beings will have devices

implanted into our skin.

Content Analysis

What social media drives the most internet traffic 1. Facebook 8/13 = 61.54% 2. Bloggers 0 3. Google + 1/13 = 7.69 % 4. Pintrest 0 5. Twitter 0 6. LinkedIn 3/13=7.69 7. YouTube

Age of Subjects 18 0 18-29 69.23% 30-44 23.08 45-59 7.69 60+ 0

How often social media is used Extremely often 15.38% Moderately Often 23.08% Slightly often 7.69 % Not at all 7.69%

How does your company track your social media Bitly 0 Google analytics 91.67% Melt water Buzz 8.33%

Conclusion

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The future was associated with the Grateful Dead in their playing of their first concert, “I

Dream of Jeannie” which premiered on NBC. Certain events and inventions were promising

much change so fast that Alvin Toffler was motivated to write his seminal essay “ The Future as

a way of Life,” in which he coined the term “ future shock” ( Alvin Toffler Present Shock). As

the future comes we can anticipate volcanic dislocations and twists not merely in our social

structure, but also in our hierarchy of values or the ways that individuals perceive reality. These

massive changes increase velocity while it bewilders and crushes many people. Toffler believed

that these things were changing fast and soon we would lose the ability to adapt. Medical drugs

make us livelonger and techniques in medical field would alter our body’s genetic makeup.

These extreme changes made Toffler think that “ a form of functional illiteracy in the

contemporary world. “ (Toffler Narrative Collapse Pg 15). With these extreme changes people in

the future may be unable to read as we can now.

There were also negative aspects foretold from all the new technology. Computers

presented negative problems such as viruses and bugs in the system. Certain industries benefited

from the Internet making their business simpler. What do I really own? With the Internet you

don’t own much. For instance the stock markets imitate expansion was one of many stories of

the future focused culture. Trading stocks became easier because it could be done using the

Internet, which made things a lot faster. The Internet also brought people news in a modern

digital way.

What is the future of social media? In the future will all businesses use social media for

marketing platforms? The future will bring a lot more social technological progress. Maybe it

means that people will have devices implanted in their bodies. For instance instead of having cell

phones, images of cell phone screen will be projected human skin.

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What are ways that the theorists that we have been talking about apply to the topic?

Being an academic project information needs to be given from the experts in the communication

field. The society, which experiencing is a technological time meaning the world leading search

engine is customized and being presented as a flow of data branded “ Google Now.” (Rushkofff

Present Shock 2013). Before the beginning of the 21-century people were looking forward to the

advancements in developing technology such as the ability to pay medical bills using the internet

and or trading stocks. People who were looking forward to the future were called trend caster

and “ cool hunters” became the highest paid consultants. The future started to bring forward new

technologies with types of business models and approaches which not only promised more of the

same but something different: ( Rushkoff Present Shock 2013 pg 10). This type of shift brought

faster. Many companies are reluctant to use social media. For example the company my sister

works at a literary agency doesn’t let its employees use their own Gmail accounts at the office.

Going back to the theorists that are being used in my paper were there examples still relevant or

will they be relevant in the future. What meyorwitz said about media space and what he said his

writing is true today.

Over the course of this senior seminar course, has given me the opportunity to explore a

topic that interested me. During this capstone project we had to come up with a research question

about are set topic. The research question, which was used in my project, was how social media

and the types of social media are being used in business and how these medias are helping

organizations performance. During the data collection stage showed me that the introduction of

social media into a business platform increased companies overall performance. The field, which

is social media in business, is by no ways done and with time business will continue to be using

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these types of media. In the future companies will really on digital communication rather than

traditional print advertising.

This project has shown me how important social media is business. How the use of this

technology makes communication simpler and less expensive more organization. On the side

certain industries such as the financial industry are not able to use social media because of

government regulations.

The future brings a variety of new technologies that we have seen in science fiction

movies. Such as the hologram computer a invisible car. Maybe in the future we will have

technologies that haven’t even started to explore. The future could mean that time travel is

possible or that are bodies have continued to evolve that we are able to speak with other people

using are minds throughout large spaces meaning that we could talk with people internationally

without even using a computer or a telephone. Or for traveling we may not be traveling plane but

rather teleporting. The future wills a time of technological innovation, so if you can think and

imagine it you can make it.

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The future tetrad was a tricky one because you had to think out of the box. The example chosen

was time machine since in the future we will be much more advanced when it comes to

technology. Having all these notions of technology invasions makes me think we are going to

eventually have time machines. Time travel will enhance the ability to meet important historical

figures from the past along with seeing what life was like in the. Time on the other hand may be

negative because there are certain things that you would rather not see. Time travel will also give

us information from first hand experience that we would not learn from a history book. Or the

time machine will also let you go in the other direction, which is into the future. So we can use

this future technology in order to prevent major catastrophic events from happening.

Time Machinie

Enhances - ability to see

things from past - meet

important hisorical

individuals Reversals

Obsolesced gives us to much

information

Retrievel imagination

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Work Cited

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Retrieved March 4, 2015, from Ebsco Host.

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