E-Commerce the Use of Social

E-Commerce

The use of social media in e-commerce: Rewards and risks in the workplace

Many, some might say most, individuals today use social media to enhance their personal lives. Social media has also been used effectively by business organizations: it is a rare enterprise, large or small, that does not have an online 'fan page' on Facebook, or a corporate Twitter account that 'tweets' frequent updates about new ventures or promotional offers. Yet the accessibility of social media has also caused many employers to fear it as a potential productivity drain upon their employees. The ease of logging unobtrusively onto Facebook may be too great a temptation for some workers.

But rather than worry about employee time theft, and trying to bar employees from using social media online, other employers are taking a different approach, namely that of incorporating worker's Facebook and Twitter accounts into the workplace. This is one possible method to create greater cohesion between team employees working in different geographical locations. The new ability of Facebook users to filter content and create different pages visible only to people from work or home enables users to deploy social media in a manner that is 'work safe,' still allows them to conduct personal business through their accounts. Creating work teams that connect through Facebook and Twitter could facilitate personal relationships with colleagues that enhance the team's productivity, even when workers cannot meet face-to-face.

Incorporating the use of Facebook and Twitter into the methods used to connect a geographically-dispersed team would be an ideal way to create a more cohesive and functional unit. The fact that individuals check these accounts so often would encourage them to touch base with their fellow team members more frequently. Whenever they logged onto Facebook they would see messages from members of the team, along with the status updates of their non-work 'friends.' Given the short project deadlines, this type of incentivizing of close team contact is essential.

Both employers and employees would benefit from workers gaining greater skill in using social media in general. Using Facebook would enhance the participant's skills in terms of apportioning content to certain users, posting interesting links, and creating attractive images online. Using Twitter would enable them to become more fluent in the 'micro-blogger' style. They could use these skills in other workplace areas, such as creating content for the corporate Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Of course, there are some understandable concerns. Workers might worry that by pressing the wrong button they could inadvertently reveal too much to their colleagues. Another ethical question is that of blurring personal life with professional life: incorporating social media, when individuals are made aware of work-related posts and tweets 24/7 may mean that they feel pressured to constantly keep abreast of work-related information and can never 'switch off' the office. This raises the employee's stress level and also raises the question of the amount of uncompensated-for time with which they must deal. The different time zones in which the team members operate could also encourage them to adopt a 24/7 day, as someone might be 'tweeting' about a critical concern when other employees is sleeping, or relaxing with family and friends.