Social Media New Media and Improvements to IT

1. Each social media site has unique features and a unique graphical user interface. I have at one time or another been members on MySpace, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, but found that most of these do not suit my social media needs 100%. For this reason, I believe that it is important to be a member of more than one social media site. The main differences between the different social media site is regarding their function. Facebook functions most as a means of keeping family and friends connected. Therefore, it is the most personal of all the social media sites. MySpace is more media and content focused, which is why it was originally used by musicians and artists; it still has that look and feel. Twitter is best for marketing and news media, as it allows companies to keep customers aware of their brands and allows information consumers to learn about anything they want in real time. Google+ is one of the more mystifying of the social media platforms, and I have yet to figure out how to use it to my advantage.
2. The main difference between Google+ and Facebook is the “circles” concept, which means the platform is “meant for sharing with groups — like colleagues, roommates or hiking friends — not with all of one’s friends or the entire Web,” (Miller, 2011, p. 1). Thus, I can share content only with the group of my friends who are interested in the same hobbies I am. This is helpful, but it is also a feature that requires a lot of work on the part of the user. Each time I connect with a new friend on Google+, I need to remember to add that person to a circle. For this reason, Google+ does not have the same advantages as Facebook for the average person even if it may be helpful for businesses. Google+ seems less personal than Facebook, but it does present some advantages over Facebook, including the ability to tag content for different groups and keep one’s content segregated according to interest.
3. A number of former employees were fired because of their social media presence. In several of those cases, the employee used social media to decry working conditions or low wages: clear examples of the exercise of free speech. One example even made it to the courts, and the courts ruled in favor of the employee. James Kennedy worked at the restaurant Chipotle. One day Kennedy tweeted that he only received $8.50 per hour, while the restaurant was bragging about giving away free food as a promotion. Kennedy was fired, and he successfully sued. The courts ruled that “Chipotle's social-media policy violated federal labor laws,” (Sun, 2016, p. 1). The case also illustrates the way social media can be used for worker empowerment as well as for consumer empowerment. Companies are now a lot more responsive to feedback from employees and customers because complaints can go public immediately, impacting reputation and brand.
4. Warehouse management systems technology have streamlined warehouse operations, but we still have a long way to go before truly optimized productivity. One known issue is accuracy. There have been numerous errors due to differential time stamps and lags due to different Internet speeds. To resolve this issue, it is strongly recommended to upgrade the hardware infrastructure and ensure that time zones are automatically linked. Second, the current warehouse systems are not fully integrated with cost accounting and strategic management. It would be helpful to have a system that will automatically let strategic managers know about changes to our supplies that might impact consumer pricing. This would allow for more accurate pricing, leading to fewer losses and more satisfied customers. Finally, our current warehouse management system is not fully automated for order fulfillment and supplier refills. We need someone to manually monitor the warehouse capacity and then place an order with the supplier. It would be much better to integrate our system with the supplier so that ordering is instantaneous. This would reduce lag time, and therefore improve efficiency.





References

Facebook: https://facebook.com/
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/discover
Miller, C.C. (2011). Another try by Google to take on Facebook. The New York Times. June 26, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/technology/29google.html?pagewanted=all
MySpace: https://myspace.com/
Sun, C. (2016). These social media fails got people fired. Entrepreneur. 18 March, 2016. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271823
Twitter: https://twitter.com/