Matthew Thomas Wolfe

I understand that social media is important for companies, esp in marketing, but I do not agree with their looking at current employees’ FB pages- while I think that people should be responsible and not post potentially damaging photos/statements on their page, I don’t like the idea of “big brother” watching/monitoring…

1) I agree with companies using social media to find new employees such as LinkedIn because it is a great tool to find new talent for your organization. I do not agree with them looking at current employees because I am not sure why that matters so much.

2) I do not think that the older generation will be “forced” to adapt. I think some will join because they will want to but others will not because they just don’t understand it. I think eventually it will get to a point where everyone will be on it, but it will just take a while to get there.

3) I do not think that it is okay for businesses to not allow their employees to use social media. I think it does effect business growth because a lot of people would not want to work for a company if they were not allowed to be on social media.

I think business should allow its employees to have access to social media. It is the part of company culture. If employees have free access and can use social media during work hour, it shows trust of employer and add feeling of respect, personality to employees.

I believe sites like LinkedIn are great social media tools that help not only employers but also potential employees as well. I believe it helps employees because if someone has an interview with a company and they want to know what its like working for that company, they can quickly search and find their employees and potentially connect and ask questions about the company. I do believe that older generations need to adapt to the changing times just like anything else in the corporate world. If you do not adapt to the times then you will quickly realize that you’re out of a job in most cases. I believe not allowing employees to use social media has to be handled on a case to case basis. If a company has a legitimate reason to do so, then yes it is acceptable. I don’t think it would effect business growth because companies are aware of the pros and cons of not allowing employees to to use social media. If it truly hindered a company’s business growth, then that company wouldn’t ban the use of social media for very long.

i think social media is a great way to for businesses to promote their new products and find employees. But finding employees through social media can be little hard for a business because the people who are not on social media and have skills and talent that a company needs are left behind because they are not on social media and the company misses out on those people who can really help the company in a big way.

1. I agree that companies using social media to look at potential employees is beneficial for the company. Sites like LinkedIn are designed to better assist employers in finding accurate candidates. I personally have received interview requests in the past thru LinkedIn for positions I would have never come across had I not had a profile.

2. I wouldn’t necessarily say that older generations are going to be forced to start using social media. Even though it may be beneficial for them to be able to adequately use social media, to pay for the training is not worth it for many companies. A lot of large corporations have now created social media departments which are made up of younger college graduates.

There’s no questioning that the increased use of social media has provided companies with many benefits in order to get ahead in the market. Whether it be consumer information on goods and services or finding the right person for the right job, social media has had a big impact on how companies operate. I think this is a good thing because it provides businesses with resources that can be utilized in order to achieve improvement. Sites such as Facebook can be used by companies to research customer feedback and opinions while places like LinkedIn offer a search engine to find potential job candidates. I think it’s fine for companies to look at current or possible employees using social media because employers need to be able to ensure that their employees can be a proper representation of their company. As for older generations being forced into using social media, I think it depends on what their job entails. If they work for a company’s marketing department, I think they would probably be asked by their boss to join in on the social media craze in order to acquire certain information or create more product awareness. I also think its fine for employees to not have social media. It’s true that it has its benefits when it comes to running a company, but employers can’t justly force their employees to acquire social media. However, this could potentially hinder a company’s prospective growth because less social media means less attention that the company is getting, which could hurt sales among other things.

This article discusses how social media can be used to strengthen many areas of an organization. It can be used to provide product awareness, find potential employees, and even give valuable feedback on your product and services. The new age is now here and social media will be the life and death of many companies because of the capability of news become viral in minutes. I think that the use of social media as an outlet to find prospective employees is a great way for companies to find out what applicants are truly like and find people that can fit into the organizations image. I do think however that social media should not be the only way that they search and review potential candidates. Many time social media can paint a bad picture about someone and not clearly show what a person’s strengths are within the workplace. If social media is used as a tool to review candidates they can gain access to a larger portion of information and allow them to make a decision that will put the new employee in the best position to give the organization a healthy addition to the team.

I definitely think that companies can use social media to find new employees, if we’re talking about using a platform such as LinkedIn. I think with any other platform it is not really doable, especially because on other social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter no one is really putting their skills or ideas out there most of the time on industries. So I think depending on what platform a company used social media could be a way to find new employees. Even so that can be limiting as others have stated because there are potential new employees who do not have social media or use it frequently which could be a very unfortunate disadvantage. Also people who are older are put at a disadvantage especially if they do not use social media. So I think that while social media can help to find new employees other methods have to be used as well. As for companies looking at their current employees and their social media, like Facebook and Twitter I do not agree that it should be allowed as most social media sites of employees are separate from their work. I think that keeping those things separate from work is important since most people do not use their Facebook and Twitter for work related issues.

Wow – nice article on the use of social media in the workplace – a definite hot topic in this global world! I can see by your comments you all have strong thoughts – this should make for an interesting debate!

To answer the first question you bring up, I would say absolutely! LinkedIn has given me many opportunities I have never even thought would be given otherwise. It gives employers and employees a better way of communicating with candidates for new job opportunities and lets the employer communicate with a candidate before handing in a resume and that is your first impression. It creates a more relaxed first impression environment where your resume isn’t just thrown out or put into a pile.