#UOSM2008 - Topic 4 Summary

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This week topics of ethical issues raised by social media with regards to educational and business use has been extremely interesting.

For me the most exciting part was trying to distinguish between these two lines. Business often want to educate their customers in a business environment too try and encourage users to buy their products. In some cases they need to educate the user in order to increase the chance of a purchase of a product or service.

For the first time in this module I struggled to think of an ethical issue of social media within education. Thank you for the comments which kindly gave me some guidance of the sort of examples required.

As always, different members of the module each took a different approach on the title. The general feel that I got from reading others blog posts. Is that it is becoming increasingly apparent that some sort of guidelines/laws need to be put in place for both business and educational communities with regards to social media. By having these it will hopefully reduce the number of ethically unacceptable incidences. For example it is not acceptable, as discussed in depth, for a head of PR to tweet racist comments, but nor is it acceptable to tweet savage unnecessary abuse in response. As discussed in a previous blog post just because you’re on twitter doesn’t mean you can say what you want.

On the other hand many people discussed whether a one size fits all policy will work or not, the chances are that it will not, mainly due to the variety of users/points of views on social networks.

In my opinion there is always going to be a divide on what is considered a joke and what is abuse. This is more or less dependent on who is involved, any negative feedback I receive is always taken with a pinch of salt, and I never take it personally. But other people/organisations have global reputations to maintain and so taking abusive comments on the chin isn’t always an option.

#uosm2008 - Topic 4 -Discuss the ethical issues raised by educational and business uses of social media

Definition:

“Social media is the interaction among people in which they create, share, or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.” [1]

Ethical issues with social media:

From researching the #hasjustinelandedyet [3] it shows that ethical issues such as racist comments can be easily spread to a global audience. This is an issue because it is the twitter platform that allows the spread of this non-ethical content. This article [4] looks at how twitter is stuck in the middle between freedom of speech and slander laws.

Ethical issues with Educational Use:

For me educational use includes learning about someone. This is what businesses often do while screening candidates online. Is it fair that information intended for social interaction, e.g. Facebook profile pictures, can then be used to asses if your are an appropriate candidate for a job?

Ethical issues with Business use:

From reading an by the Institute of Business Ethics [5], the main issue to be considered is Integrity of the businesses brand image and ethics. This is often compromised by an employee using social media in an irresponsible way, this is sometimes done through a company account and other times done through a personal account, but mentioning the company in question. Various examples can be seen here http://www.smartplanet.com/photos/10-brands-damaged-by-social-media-disasters/ [6].

On the other hand -> Positive Aspects of Social Media:

Social media services such as twitter give a voice to people who have often felt excluded and powerless [2]. Every tweet is public and every #hashtag is valid and so it is easy to get views across and into the public eye. #freedomOfSpeech

Personal Experience:

For me the worrying part is when brands pages apear up on my newsfeed saying that one particular friend and 24 of your other friends like the particular brand. An example from my phone can be seen below.

I worry that many of the pages that I’ve liked may be used as an endorsement to my friends too. The way in that Facebook defend this point of view is that it is like walking out of a shop with a branded bag. By carrying it you tell other people that you like it, and almost that you endorse it.

But shouldn’t consumers who click the like button have a choice about whether their name is used to promote a brand or not?

Just because I’m carrying a bag from Primark doesn’t mean I have to carry it in Primark bag?!

The majority of my Facebook group likes are down to people hijacking my account anyway, with multiple pages including Justin Bieber and One Direction, this could mislead people to thinking I like these bands.

References:

[1] Ahlqvist, Toni; Bäck, A., Halonen, M., Heinonen, S (2008). "Social media road maps exploring the futures triggered by social media". VTT Tiedotteita – Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus (2454): 13.

[2] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/24/twitter-abuse-abusive-tweets-editorial?CMP=twt_gu

[3] http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/this-is-how-a-womans-offensive-tweet-became-the-worlds-top-s

[4] http://gigaom.com/2013/07/30/when-it-comes-to-free-speech-twitter-is-caught-between-a-rock-and-a-very-hard-place/

[5]https://www.ibe.org.uk/userassets/briefings/ibe_briefing_22_the_ethical_challenges_of_social_media.pdf

[6] http://www.smartplanet.com/photos/10-brands-damaged-by-social-media-disasters/

Topic 3 Summary - #UOSM2008

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Another great topic this week with some great discussions around users blog posts, as well as a very active twitter feed. What really caught my eye was the variety of ways in which people interpreted the questions, and then the discussion that followed this.

Many bloggers focussed on LinkedIn (including myself), as a resource that is valuable in creating an authentic online presence, mainly due to the way the website is designed to help users to achieve this.

Some focussed on the more social networking side, using twitter to interact with potential employers and follow relevant companies and organisations.

By tweeting directly at a company it instantly puts your name/profile on the radar. Especially if you combine this with a blog post, for example if Tesco tweets about a new scheme it’s launching, you can pick up on this write a blog post about it and include the link when you tweet them.

There was also a lot of discussion of whether the twitter character limit of 140 was enough to express an opinion or point. I believe from what I saw that it was, but more characters could definitely be useful.

However the most interesting fact for me was the fact that employers would be more worried if they didn’t find anything at all on potential employees. 5-7 years ago I barely had any online presence if any, and now it is a necessity to have one. This makes it very easy for users to get left behind; my grandparents have no online presence at all, not even an e-mail account. Could they be classed as a digital tourist?!

I think that by using a combination of all these angles with regular updates an authentic online profile can be created that will have a positive impact on the users employability.

#UOSM2008 - Topic 3 - Discuss the ways in which an authentic online professional profile can be developed.

Discuss the ways in which an authentic online professional profile can be developed.

There are various ways that an authentic profile can be developed. In my opinion the most effective way to build an authentic worthwhile profile is on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a great resource as the majority of services on it are there to help you build an identity that looks the part for employers, as well as highlighting key skills through the use of endorsements e.g. communication skills.

For example it encourages users to upload CV’s to their profile, and read relevant news articles about your desired industry. This directed further reading that you can do around your profile will definitely help when it comes to interviews and assessment centres, as the articles are relevant and up to date.

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However building an online authentic online profile cannot be done with a single service. In order to build a complete profile you need to use a variety of services with a consistent set of goals to portray the image you want.

A twitter account can be very useful to enhance a professional profile; it can even be linked with LinkedIn by using the #in. You can use them in harmony to post about useful links, or articles online that interest you. Employers find this appealing, as it shows a real interest in the industry.

An interesting statistic that I found relevant to this topic is that 75% of HR departments are now required to screen job requirements online. [2] I thought this figure would be high, but not this high. Employers are also reported to be more worried if they don’t find anything about you on the web.

Did you have any online presence 10 years ago?

The importance of the profile being the best is can be, is due to the fact that competition for jobs is now on a global scale. [3]

15 years ago a job application would have involved posting your CV to your employer’s physical location. Now application forms are done online, often before a CV is required. After these stage is when online profiles will be scanned.

The research completed by JISC also mentioned the blurring between “’real’ and ‘virtual’, public and private”.[3]

This is a danger that we have to look out for, as more and more people are blurring these lines, especially public and private. Users posting all 500 of their holiday photos on Facebook is fine, but you have to remember that everyone can see these, and that maybe certain photos would be better kept private.

Personal View

If like me you’ve already got LinkedIn and Twitter accounts the current issue is maintaining these profiles in a professional manner, and at the same time not blurring the private and public lines.

This YouTube video highlights how in years to come this could be the undoing of our future career paths. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2bniFJigI0\

Personally I let my Facebook profile go a little as the privacy settings are set so that only friends can see my information. As I primarily use this service for social interaction.

Conclusion

In conclusion building an authentic online professional profile is a constant process. It is not possible to complete it, and in order to benefit from having one (job prospects) new content must be professionally written and updated at regular intervals.

References

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2bniFJigI0

[2] Cross tab Marketing Services Survey – In Lisa Harris PowerPoint

[3] http://www.jisc.ac.uk

LinkedIn Pic -  http://blog.linkedin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/linkedinsuit.gif