Organizations and Social Media

It seems as though these days every one has some sort of social media platform for personal use be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr etc. Even my 75 year old grandmother has a Facebook, with which she uses to keep an eye on my social life and give some, dare I say, interesting, advice!

 (Love you Grandma!)

But what about groups of people? Organizations, clubs, businesses, news corporations, the government? Anymore if a group or organization doesn't have some sort of social media they are outdated or old fashioned. Of course there are a few exceptions, I doubt't the CIA is going to be live tweeting much of their business! On my personal twitter I follow all of the major news corporations such as CNN and The New York Times as well as the SCOTUS (Supreme Court Of The United States). I follow every major airline, as well as the National Inter Fraternal Council. My Fraternity Delta Sigma Phi has it's own Twitter and 

Facebook page both on a national and chapter level. You could find almost any group on social media and follow their activities, so take a minute to look up your favorite band or clothing company!

But what do they use these social media sites for? Some mostly for the public benefit, press releases, breaking news, and such. Social media now though is taking an internal pathway and is being used for inter organization communication. For some, gone are the days of paper and email memo's, now some simply use a tweet or a Facebook messages to inform the staff or members needed. It's actually a great idea if you think about it. I have every social media platform linked to my iPhone and when I am message, tweeted at, tagged, or an update is posted to any of my accounts or accounts that I follow, I get a notification and since my iPhone is basically always by my side, I usually don't miss it!

The possibilities for the uses of social media with organizations is a rather long list! With this wide spread use of social media in organizations it is important though for them to learn how to appropriately use social media and to remember that it is really easy for one person to make a mistake that the whole world can see via social media!