Organizational Uses of Social Media

The firs thing I thought about when I learned about this weeks blog topic about organizational social media, was the failed fictional platform Dunder Mifflin Infinity. The platform was meant to help build sales and bring the company into the 21st century. Instead it provided a place for sex offenders to hang out online.

I work for the Project Management and Communications Team within The Office of Research and Graduate Studies, and we use social media a little differently . All of the employees are member of a Facebook group. We use the group page to organize non work meetings (that usually happen on Tuesday’s and involve Taco’s). It is also great way for people to share work relevant ideas, and even ask input on certain projects.

My office even uses a specialty program called basecamp which allows us to create checklist for events and create a central place for all of our important files. My boss can assign us tasks through the platform and we can update her on our progress, where she can review it anywhere. 

Even within this class we use Facebook groups to communicate online. I really appreciate the ability to check on assignments and interact with other classmates, without having to log into canvas. And I get updates on my phone when someone asks a question about an assignment, making it a faster way of communicating about class.

Class Cloud Day

Class cloud day enlightened me to what makes twitter different than the other platforms. I now realize that twitter is designed to stimulate conversation. Unlike Facebook which leans more towards interacting with people you know in real life, and Instagram which is obviously photo oriented. Twitter allows people to arrange content by topic, conversation then have the ability to spread like the branches of a tree. The speed at which conversation can progress on twitter is what gives the platform strength, I poked fun of myspace because that failing is one reasons its basically defunct. @capn_kirkham Don't forget to approve your friends comments! #socmeddiscuss #myspaceprobs

I have a  friend who has created a whole friend group exclusively with people who he met on twitter. I don’t think the chances of that happening with another platform are as high. The platform itself does a goos job of instigating action. When Dane tweeted to Quinn that she needed to replace the twitter egg with a profile pictures. I quickly had Quinn turn around I snapped a picture and I tweeted it right at her. 

I really like the issue that Lillibeth brought up when she composed tweets that included hashtags that were already trending. I think you would have to be careful to make sure your content is good. I feel like I did a pretty decent job when I, tweeted "#DearMe I wish I could tell myself 7 years ago that I never needed to take #TheACT #socmeddiscuss" but ultimately if its a feed someone is following it might be an effective way to get attention. 

Twitter is probably has one of the highest learning of any social media platforms. In class, I had the ability to talk to people an coordinate my tweets, but it moves so fast that it hard to understand when you should quote, reply, or favorite. The frustrations I have with the platform are probably similar to how my mom feels when she tries to text me an image from her iPhone. 

A little experiment where I what I can learn about a classmate using strictly the internet

Amanda Massengale, or Mandy as she is preferred to be called, isn’t a person who enjoys broadcasting her life across the internet. A quick evaluation of what is visible on her Facebook page reveals that she probably sings, enjoys creating Bitstrips, and she has relatively easy access to an iron.  The lack of information available about Mandy allows me to conclude that she is protective of her identity. Mandy doesn’t like exposing her identity online; she would prefer to sit back and watch.

Mandy is at least a third generation member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a conclusion formed from information provided from her grandmother JoAnn Gunnell's Obituary. Her other grandmother who has most likely remarried  Galene Miller is still living, and gardening is an interest she shares with her granddaughter. She expressed this shared interest with a  comment on one of Mandy's viewable photos. Since I was able to find information that implies that both of Mandy's grandparents are from the Tremonton/Brigham City area, I would assume Mandy's parents Steve and Deann Massengale were probably raised in the Brigham City areas and then later moved to the Roy area to raise their family. 

Since there is little information published online about Mandy, I had to dig a little deeper to learn about her. I used websites to analyze excerpts from her blog, which she uses exclusively to publish assignments required for her social media course at USU. When I inputed writings into an analyzer meant to guess the author's gender, the majority of the time the algorithm concluded she was a male. This suggests that she is more concerned with actions, ideas, and analysis as opposed to perceptions, and implications, based on information provided by the article "Do Women and Men Really Write Differently?" Another algorithm, which compares writing samples to well known authors, found similarities between Mandy's samples and Agatha Christie. So based on my limited information poetry could be an interest of Mandy's.

Based on the Bitstrip below taken from Mandy's Facebook page, she enjoys cooking. Her Linked in profile shows us that after a year and a half working at McDonald's, she decided to use her foodservice skills for institutional work, first at factory, then at two medical care facilities, and now as an employee of USU Dining Services. Based on the timing of the bitstrip I would guess Avalon Hill was one of her preferred employers. Most of these positions lasted around six months, suggesting that she moves home during the summer to work for "This is the Place Heritage Park" which is located in the Salt Lake City. Her summer position explains her one of her bonneted profile pictures.

When Mandy worked for Heritage Park, she was a performer showing patrons a glimpse of life in the pioneer days. She was a performer for the park, and according to her Linked In profile, this isn't the only example of her love of the performance arts. She has directed choirs and coordinated music for her church.

It's hard to form conclusions about Amanda Massengale, since she keeps her online profiles locked down. This does aid privacy, but it does prevent potential employer from getting a true sense of who she is based on her internet presence. 

Employers Social Media Vetting Policies

I remember a couple of years ago being warned by my mass media professor that employers were starting to vet their potential employees on Facebook before hiring them. I was concerned at first thinking about what they might see and conclude about my character.  I was tempted to rush home and lock down my privacy settings, only letting my friends access information about me. As I began examining my profile I started to see all the posts that a potential employer might see and none of these posts bothered me. I became proud of my profile. I wasn’t worried about the conclusions people would form when then scrolled through my digital life.

A lot of my classmates wondered if it was unethical for employers to scan Facebook pages before considering new hire. People didn’t like the idea of social media having this power over them, a power that could make or break their careers. When I thought of the ethics of the situation, I had one conclusion. The power social media has over people is a choice. We give employers the power to comb through our lives when we set up accounts. We can control what we post on social media, and we can try to control who sees it, but the only way to ensure privacy is to disconnect. 

A Huff Post Article  from 2012 states that 37% of hiring mangers admit to looking at potential candidates' Facebook pages. I've even helped my bosses look potential hires up on social media, too, so I could assess and provide my opinion on whether or not I think they would be a good hire. If you're worried about your online presence this article has some good tips on cleaning up your profile to appease potential employers. 

The Video Chat Battle

The battle between Video chatting platforms is intense, and ultimately I believe it will be won by the company that provides ease of use across all platforms and the simplest implementation of contact lists.

Skype was the first notable platform. I have an hard time navigating the unfamiliar interfact and since it requires a Microsoft account, the contact list isn’t integrated with platforms me and my friends already use. So prior to creating a Skype call I have to contacts them via some other means and obtain their Skype address.

FaceTime, is one of the most intuitive services I use. I can call any of my contacts through my iPhone. I love being able to turn switch between a FaceTime to a traditional call with just one button. The biggest issue with FaceTime though is it only works on Apple devices. I believe there will always be a place for FaceTime in the world of video chat, but the biggest battle will between google hangout and Facebook messenger.  

Google hangouts have a lot of advantages when it comes to productivity allowing coworkers to share google drive files, and allowing up to nine people in on a video conference. Facebook’s messaging app’s lack some of the productivity features, of it’s google base counterpart. But where it shines is contact connectivity. My Facebook network includes every person I would want a potential video chat with. I don’t have to ask them to download a specific app or sign up for an account. We are already connected. Within my community Facebook is use so frequently that the odds that a contact is logged in on any device is much higher than in any other platform.

Foursquare/Location based Social Media

When Foursquare launched in 2009, it was an app that used phone GPS antennas to allow people to check in at local business and share that information with their friends and followers over other social media platforms. Foursquare gave people the ability to leave reviews of the businesses where they checked in. It was also a somewhat gamified, location-based app. If you checked into a location more than anyone else, the app would give you the “mayor badge.” Besides the digital pat on the back of the badge, some businesses would offer incentives to people who had reached mayor status, like giving them a dollar off coffee or a free scone.  

Facebook’s nearby friends feature never really took off. The app allowed people to share their real time locations with their network. The app never really caught on; people weren’t keen on the idea of everyone in their network being able to track their every move. While other GPS-based friend finding apps have flopped the creators think they have the solution. 

Foursquare has split its app in two. It is focusing Foursquare on checking in at businesses and providing users with reviews tailored to the users’ tastes. Its new app Swarm is taking on the GPS friend-finding social aspect. What Swarm will do differently than Facebook’s nearby friends is that it doesn’t show your exact location. It only show you who is nearby, who is on the same block, in the same neighborhood, or in the same city. If you decided you would like to meet up to a person in your curated Swarm network you simply check in with them and then you provide your exact location. 

In Facebook’s goal to replace SMS texting with its Messenger app, it needed to give its app an advantage over normal texting. One of the ways it does this is by making it much easier to share GPS coordinates with other users. Within its current app, there is a toggle button which allows people to send their location with every message they send. For people who only occasionally want to share their location with others, this might be the simplest option.

Modern Day Mob Mentality

In early January, Jarrid Tansey delivered a pizza to a local car dealership. The dealership gave Jarrid two twenty-dollar bills and two five-dollar bills. Jarrid assumed that the extra five was part of his tip so he returned to his restaurant. When he arrived, the dealership called the restaurant saying Jarrid stole seven dollars. Jarrid returned to the dealership to return the money. At the dealership the management berated him. The interaction was captured on a security camera and the video wound up on YouTube.

The video received so much reaction that one of the viewers of the story started a GoFundMe campaign to “get Jarrid his tip.” Support from the online community poured in. Currently over $30,000 have been donated to Jarrid Tansey. In an interview Jarrid did with a local news station, Jarrid seems thankful for the support,  but he insists that he harbors no ill will towards F&R.

Crowd funding has exploded in the past few years. It’s been used to fund movies, provide surgeries for uninsured individual, and in Jarrid Tansey’s case, it allows people an easy way to support a cause with more than just words. The online community used their wallets to speak - they monetized their support for Tansey. This is an interesting development that proves that social media can create real change.

In this case, Jarrid Tansey has a story with which people connected. A good story is what is needed for a person to reach into their digital pocket and send money to a stranger. Crowd funding can fiscally support individuals needing medical treatments or families needing support after a tragedy. What bothers me is that people with genuine needs may not get funding if they don’t have a compelling story like Jarrid’s.


The support for Jarrid wasn’t the only result of this social media firestorm. The dealership in question has been ripped to shreds on Yelp and Google Reviews. Yelp seems to have implemented measures to mitigate the dealership’s backlash from the incident. There are only five reviews total. While all of them are negative, Yelp must be monitoring content and removing content that is not explicitly related to the purchasing of cars. Google, however, has no interest in moderating the content posted to Google Reviews. There are over 2,700 one-star reviews. This is the most succinct review relevant to the Tansy incident:

Treat people like garbage and you get garbage reviews. Enjoy the power of viral video, turds. Learn to treat people a little better and the world will serve up something better than a shit sandwich.

Many of the reviews seem to more related to the buying and selling of cars, the dealership’s main business. The posters probably recognized that not referencing pizza in the review might damage the dealership’s reputation more effectively. In a few months when the buzz surrounding these happenings has worn off, people interested in purchasing a car from the F&R auto sales will definitely think twice before submitting a loan application.

This Tansy incident is a great example of how effective videos can be at sharing information. If the event was shared in any other format, it would have been much harder for people to empathize with Jarrid Tansey.  Six years ago when Internet speeds were slower, watching a video online required a moderate amount of load time. In those days, I would often find myself annoyed news articles that only conveyed information through a video clip. Now that the majority of people have access to speeds capable of streaming HD movies with no buffer, Jarrid’s story was able to go viral.


Social media allows people’s actions to become public affairs. We are growing ever more conscious of our actions and how they will be recorded. There is this constant threat that any wrong-doing could end up haunting a person or a business forever. This threat is motivating us think about the effects of our actions. Society members being conscious of their actions is a good thing, but if this awareness is created out of fear is it really making our world a better place? A real estate company in Michigan was inspired by the Tansey event enough to give their pizza delivery man a $2000+ tip. Was this donation to someone in the same position as Jarrid just a kind act or were the realtors motivated by the good PR they could stand to receive that could potentially bring in clients and commissions?