Social Networking

When use properly, social networking can become an advantage to individuals as well as the business fields. By adapting to the habit of using social networking, business can promote their companies by targeting to the right market. Social networking is a great way for business to stay updated with the industry and keep up with the current events. It also helps to know how the public feels about the companies. Customer service is important to corporate so by knowing what the public wants, it will help boost the trust customers have with the companies. Of course, the dark side of using social networking would be the fact that some top level managers will spies on what employers say about the company through Facebook, Twitter and etc. Facebook is a great example. People tend to constantly updating their Facebook status with their feelings and what they are doing at every moment. There was a case where an employee was found cursing at their level managers on Facebook and of course, the manager found out and fires the employee by replying to that employee's Facebook status.

Of course, social networking can also be use to build business relationships with colleagues, potential clients or future workers. In the article, Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting, Ms. Maureen Crawford-Hentz was thankful to the rises of social network technology. She was recruited to work for the company Osram Sylvania because she opened a LinkedIn account. Social networking can be very effective and by using it, employees can become more productive. People can express themselves better on the web and thus, letting other employees see the other side of you can create a better workmanship between workers or between managers and workers. Even President Obama sets an example of using social network to benefit the community. During election period, candidates spent tons of money on campaign, while for President Obama, he found a great way of using social networking to his advantage, in the article, How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power , he gets his supporters to unit together through social networking, Facebook. As stated in the article, "All of the Obama supporters who traded their personal information for a ticket to a rally or an e-mail alert about the vice presidential choice, or opted in on Facebook or MyBarackObama can now be mass e-mailed at a cost of close to zero." Social networking definitely helps improve the interaction between people and even strangers which can become a dark side of social network technology. As mentioned above, reputation, what one says on the web can come to haunt them. Freud and identity theft are another big issues on social network technology. Thus, it is important to think carefully of what we put on the web and who we share them with.

I strongly believe that social networking is designed to be interactive so one can build stronger relationships with each other. In the future, social network technology will evolve our everyday life in which work takes up most of our time. For companies especially big firms with hundreds and hundreds of employees, it will be great if they can establish a database or online network that have employee's basic profiles and interests. In that case, one can get to know and interact with another department's employees even when their work does not interact. Of course, with an online social network site, when coming to problem solving within the organization or having a big project, this will save time and get works done more effectively.