The Impact Of Social Media On Information Exchange – A Study On Myer

Background of the company

Discuss about the Social Media Has Great Influence On Information.

Social media has great influence over how information is exchanged and obtained. It is still regarded and conceived as fear in some organizations and poses a potential danger within the purview of the organizational communication. The new developments in the media technology have influenced both the behaviour of the media users and the traditional media users. While, it is important to note that the new developments in the media did not replace the traditional media, but it has enhanced the whole process. Just like the traditional media technologies had their disadvantages, the newer media technologies also have their drawbacks (Badea, 2014). This study is based on the social media issues in an organization like Myer and the strategies to solve such issues.

Myer was founded by Sydney Myer after he came to Melbourne from Russia. Myer today is the largest departmental store group in Australia and has been an icon for the fashion and style for over 100 years. The company generates sold around 3.1 billion dollars in the financial year 2013 and the Myer has around 67 stores that are located all over Australia. The stores are also supported by the mobile platforms, digital and the online platforms for the purpose of online shopping. The combination of the offline stores and the online shopping websites has resulted into an omnichannel experience for the wide range of the customers and also the attract the new customers that would love to shop form Myer (Myer, 2018a).

The company focuses on inspiring the 1200 suppliers, 54,000 shareholders, 12,500 team members globally along with the many communities that are willing to connect and engage with the strong brand of Myer. The company also has a brand image of engaging the local community and also has a long history of philanthropy. The merchandise of Myer includes a whole range of 11 core products like the general merchandise, handbags and accessories, handbags, footwear, toys, electrical goods, homewears, cosmetics and fragrances, beauty products, intimate apparel, childrenswear, miss shop, menswear, womens wear (Myer, 2018b).

With the advent of the social media and the associated technologies, a large number of the organizations have started using the social media for the purpose of increasing its advantage over the others. The linking is done in order to in order to connect with the customers and also attract the future customers. Organizations now use the Twitter, Instagram, Facebook to actively and efficiently promote their products so that the product reaches to the wider range of the customers. The possibilities of the usage of social media for business promotion are endless and it has resulted in the growth of the business of several organizations. Myer is one of the largest departmental store groups in Australia and has been effectively using the LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. It is, however, important to note that the usage of the social media has inherent legal risks which can affect Myer adversely.

Social media in organization

 The participation of Myers in the social media has led to certain risks externally and internally from the employees and contractors. The various risks that are associated with the usage of the social media are as follows:

• Defamation
• Copyright and privacy infringement
• Information leaked by the contractors and the employees
• Inappropriate usage of the social media by the employees.

With respect to Myer, the major issues that have arisen are the improper usage of the social media, defamation, loss of confidential information and disclosure, reputation risks.

Reputation risk- This is one of the most common issues in all the major organizations and it includes the Myer. Myer has a social media presence and this has resulted in detailing their feedback on to social media. This means that when a customer is not satisfied with the customer support or has an unpleasant experience in the one of the departmental store of Myer. Such negative feedbacks on the social media can be detrimental for Myer, considering the ease with which information is shared over the internet. Thus it is necessary that the employees of Myer must reply to such comments fast without making any delay. Myer exclusively focuses on the customer service and the on all the fronts which include the online shopping site and the offline departmental stores. Thus, the negative feedback on the social media can adversely impact and damage the brand value of Myer. The figure 1 below shows some of the comments that reflect the negative feedback.

 

Figure 1: Negative feedback on Myer Facebook page [source: Facebook.com, 2018]

Improper usage of social media by the employees- the social presence of the Myers has allowed the employees to post improper materials over the social media during the business hours. The employees on the Facebook page can post comments which can derogatory for the customers that Myers is serving. Before the comments are checked by the official social media team, the post would have already been shared among the huge number of followers of the Myers. Reports from Fairwork Australia reveal a case where an employee was dismissed because he posted some abusive comments on Facebook and Fairwork conducted a research and found that the this violated the company handbook and thus the employee was charged with serious misconduct (Fairworkcentre., 2018).

Defamation- Myer belongs from a very competitive industry and it is a common phenomenon for the employees to move to the social media and make false promises, claims and false statements on grounds of the existing competitors, customers and company. An article was published in a financial review that highlighted the comments of the Bernie Brookes, CEO of Mayer. His comments made a social media stink and this resulted in a defamation remark with respect to the funding of the national disability scheme. Brooks in his statement stated that the Medicare levy is proper and best for the customers of the Mayer and is also not good for the discretionary income world. After this statement was made the consumers vented their anger on the social media in Twitter and Facebook and expressed their disapproval regarding the matter (Financial Review, 2018).

 Such matters are derogatory for the company and this instance is something that companies like Mayer cannot afford to escalate from the perspective of the public relations. Mayer should also try to win back the hearts of the consumers due to the cutthroat online competition.

Disclosure and loss of the confidential information- a program initiated by Myer called MyerOne rewards program and in this program, the gifts and the offers add up so that it can be used in the in-store. These cards include the customer’s personal information and if this data somehow gets leaked on the social media, it might lead to the loss of the confidential information of the thousands of the customers. This program turns the shopping experience into collection reward points. For every 1 dollar spent, the customer receives 2 shopping credits (MYER one, 2018).

Scams on the social media platform- Companies must pay attention to what their consumers are saying about the various scams related to the scammers that are targeting and chasing the credit card information. It is thus important for the organizations like Myer to focus more on the scams that occur randomly on the fake social media pages by effectively following the social media comments regarding the credit card scams. It has been found that a Facebook page was created on the 25^th birthday of Mayer. A fake Facebook offered prize packs to the customers. This was done by the spammers by sending multiple emails to the consumers pretending to be the retailer Myer and the emails promised to provide the sample packages. The customers are promised that they will be provided with the sample packages but only if the consumers provided the credit card information (SmartCompan, 2018).

Social media policy- I order to mitigate the potential risks, the social media policy is required for the active protection of the Myer Brand and the employees of the same. Some of the suggestions are that will be included in the policy are as follows:

• Copyright- copyrighting the design of the online shopping website can effectively stop the scammers from making fake websites and thus complete prevention of the scamming of the website and the consumers. There are different
• Checking the employee social conduct during and after hours- checking the online activity of the employees and completely banning the usage of the social media platforms during the office hours can effectively reduce the impact of the same on the organization. The computer that is used to during the work hours must have the social platforms blocked.
• Incorporate the rights of the employees so that the other employee’s social media activity can be taken care of and the potential risks are handled properly.
• Prevention of the disclosure of the confidential information- the company must follow a strong customer-centric policy and a special emphasis on the personal data of the consumers. Myer must have a special branch of IT department that will especially look after the safeguard of the confidential data. Firewall and the stringent procedures of lockdown must be kept so that the data kept in the servers can be effectively prevented. Confidential data like the credit card details, customer choices, and the customer login details must be kept with utmost secure peripherals attached (Väyrynen, Hekkala & Liias, 2013).
• Devising the procedures for handling the negative feedback via the social media by replying to the comments and replying to the feedback so that the issues can be solved quickly. Companies can have a dedicated team of experts that will handle the customer feedback and the grievances on the social media platform. The team will efficiently scan through the feedback messages and appreciate the positive feedback and at the same time address the negative feedbacks. The feedbacks are the most important part of Myer that wants to spread its name via the social media platform. The high number of customer base needs to be managed effectively so that the grievances do not hamper the brand image of the company (Hardhat, 2018).
• Credit card scams on the social media- the retailers can act fast by reporting the same to the customers via their official social media page and the scams can be reported to the authorities and the platforms. This procedure can be done on a regular basis to reduce the scams on the social media page. Myer can set up a team that will scan the phishing scams that are not affiliated and not legitimate according to the Myer. An important message can also be conveyed to the consumers regarding the fact the Mayer never asks for their consumers to submit their financial details via the advertisement and email. Also, it is important to note that the customers if are concerned about the legitimacy of the email or the advertisement, then such consumers can freely contact the customer service in order to clarify (Malhotra & Van Alstyne, 2014).
• The social media platforms can be asked to crack down on such fake Facebook pages and the enterprises that promote such illegal activities. Fake Facebook media pages can be reported and it can be tracked and blocked on the social media platform. Facebook commits to working in this field and for the betterment of its social media platform (Bonsón & Ratkai, 2013).

Conclusion

From the above study, it can be concluded that social media in the organization plays a vital part in the development of the company. In this study, a company called Mayer is used and is one of the largest departmental store group in Australia. The important part is that the company is facing issues with respect to its presence on the social media platform. This is, on the other hand, has hampered the conduct of its business and has also hampered its brand image, due to the increased number of consumer grievances.

Reference

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Bonsón, E., & Ratkai, M. (2013). A set of metrics to assess stakeholder engagement and social legitimacy on a corporate Facebook page Management. Online Information Review, 37(5), 787-803.

Facebook.com. (2018). MYER. Facebook.com. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from https://www.facebook.com/myer

Fairworkcentre. (2018). Social Media and Unfair Dismissal | Fairwork Online. Fairworkcentre.com.au. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from https://www.fairworkcentre.com.au/newsblog/Case-Studies/Social-Media-and-Unfair-Dismissal/

Financial Review. (2018). How Myer CEO Bernie Brookes caused a social media stink with his comments on the NDIS. Financial Review. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from https://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/how-myer-ceo-bernie-brookes-caused-a-social-media-stink-with-his-comments-on-the-ndis-20130502-jyak6

Hardhat. (2018). Hardhat – Myer Social Media Strategy. Hardhat.com.au. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from https://hardhat.com.au/our-work/myer

Malhotra, A., & Van Alstyne, M. (2014). The dark side of the sharing economy… and how to lighten it. Communications of the ACM, 57(11), 24-27.

MYER one. (2018). MYER one. Myerone.com.au. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from https://www.myerone.com.au/home

Myer. (2018a). founder. Myer. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from https://www.myer.com.au/c/about-myer/the-company/about-us/content-1878-1899.html

Myer. (2018b). Myer Today. Myer. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from https://www.myer.com.au/p/about-myer/the-company/about-us/content-myer-today/

SmartCompany. (2018). David Jones, Myer hit by marketing scams: How to shut down scammers by listening to what the internet says about your business – SmartCompany. SmartCompany. Retrieved 26 April 2018, from https://www.smartcompany.com.au/industries/retail/david-jones-myer-hit-marketing-scams-shut-scammers-listening-internet-says-business/

Väyrynen, K., Hekkala, R., & Liias, T. (2013). Knowledge protection challenges of social media encountered by organizations. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 23(1-2), 34-55.