Social Media in Business Organizations Today

Social Media in Business Organizations Today

By the year 2015, it is estimated over three billion individuals and corporations will have a form of social media account, according to BMC Public Health (1). After learning this it is not surprising to find out that the term "social media" is being used more and more every day. Social media has enhanced communication between individuals and organizations and it has the potential to supplement public health communication, however it does not come without consequences.

The best way to describe social media is a social instrument of communication that interacts with its users to send and receive information. Because many websites are forms of social media, we can separate them into different functions including social bookmarking, social news, social networking, social photo and video sharing, and wikis. Social bookmarking includes sites like Pinterest, Del.icio.us, and Blinklistaq that allow users to keep track, or bookmark, websites, links or anything the user wants to access at a later point. Digg, Propeller and Reddit are examples of social news sites allow users to interact by voting for articles and commenting on them. The most recognized of these media connections is social networking where people can intermingle by adding friends, joining groups, and commenting on profiles, stories, and photos. Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are the most common social networking sites while YouTube, of course, enables sharing photos or videos and commenting on user submissions. The least known of these five are wikis, which allow operators to connect by adding articles and editing existing articles. Wikipedia is an extremely common wiki, as the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

While social media includes all these sites, most people only think of social networking sites when they hear the term "social media." Sites like these have played a major role in business communication, organizations and modern behavior. "In particular, social media allows organizations to talk to their customers, for customers to talk to each other, and for customers to talk to the organization," (BMC Public Health 1). Social media websites have both positive and negative reactions among the population, but there are possible solutions to integrating social media in today's business organizations.

Business organizations are also taking part in the social media phenomenon in order to keep up with times. Customers want access to company's websites and be able to connect with other people who share their same interests. Being able to join a group on Facebook allows the company to advertise and keep their company in people's mind. Organizations are falling behind without a social media page is at a great disadvantage compared to competitors with fan pages. Business executives have to learn how to incorporate social media into