The popularity of social media has wholly transformed the way that people live their personal and professional lives. In many cases, it has provided a positive platform for people to start grassroots movements as well as to voice their concerns. Social media allow people to connect with others when that connection may otherwise prove to be impossible. Social media even provides an avenue for small businesses and enterprising individuals to advertise goods and services without using professional marketing companies or strategies. All of these things are positive reasons why social media has gained so much popularity within society. Unfortunately, there are also some negative aspects to social media. Much of this involves social media management as well as social media compliance on the part of businesses and employees.
Social media management is a necessary part of operating a business successfully. Several years ago employees were monitored based on their overall performance at work without cause for concern related to things such as social media or the Internet. This was mainly because these avenues of communication had not been perfected and were not widely used in either business or personal work. This allowed supervisors to monitor employees based on their overall effectiveness at their respective job duties as well as through observation while they were at work. As a result, it was often relatively easy for supervisors to keep a tab on what the employees did all day.
As the Internet gained popularity and social media became a leading platform for communication in all facets of life, it became much more difficult to regulate what employees were actually doing at work. Many employees were eventually found to be logging onto websites that were inappropriate while at work, therefore, causing a backlash for the entire company. As social media became more popular, the problem was exacerbated. Therefore, it quickly became apparent that social media compliance would become a necessity. The bigger problem was how to enforce it for effective results.
It is safe to say that compliance comes with effective management. Compliance, in its simplest form, means that both companies and those who work as paid employees will adhere to specific guidelines that prevent them from crossing certain boundaries at work. In other words, business must be conducted in a professional and courteous manner, without infringing on the rights of other individuals. Compliance is now enforced by using software programs that monitor the activities of each employee, collecting information on everything ranging from how many times an employee logs onto a certain website to the contents of emails and social media posts. This, in turn, makes it much easier for companies to keep tabs on what employees are doing and to ensure that effective management is in place.
