Impact of Social Media on Banking Employees-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Impact of Social Media on Banking Employees. Answer: Introduction Since its time of inception, social media had influenced upon the world so much that the online service meant for creating a connection between people is now being utilized to mend organizational structures. The dramatic change of technology has affected the social media platforms as well (Ashley Tuten, 2015). The following literature review would include the ideals of different authors in published journals and books about the impact of social media in banking organizations and the employees there. This would have an overview of social media and its implementation in banking sectors. Finally, it would present a clear idea of how the social media influences the occupation and behaviour of the banking sector employees. The impact of social media on banking sectors and employees As per Bharati, Zhang Chaudhury (2015), social media is the software platform, which does not rely on just one user or programmer to access but includes the involvement of multiple users to contribute to the same platform continuously and collaboratively. These activities of contribution include sharing links, text and multimedia files to a third party internet application to interact with each other. Social media is regarded as a Web 2.0 application development that supports user-driven interaction via web. The idea of social media was to adapt to a technology that enables people to have a one-on-one and group interaction for sharing ideas, multimedia and more over a website enabled medium. In the contemporary world, there are numerous social media platforms that people have made an integral part of their lives. These include, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg and many more (Kane, 2015). Involvement of the general mass has become exponentially increased in the social med ia websites and applications in due course of time such that life without social media is unthinkable now. We know that expansion of social media has not confined itself into affecting the lives of general mass but also to the organizations. Since, the social media platforms have a huge amount of consumers present online; it is easier for the business organizations to present their business ideals to the possible customer base in real-time and receive feedback for it as well. It enhances the chances of an organization to build its own influential market presence. Therefore, it is required that an organization include strategic use of social media in enhancing the business being in the customers view. It promotes the business, saves the promotional costs and even helps an organization in overcoming their economic challenges. However, in Malaysia itself, it has been found that organizations have started implemented the usage of social networking platforms for corporate communications and promotional activities. Since, 47 percent of the total Malaysian population uses these platforms, the Ma laysian organizations are being able to reach out to the cream of the society benefitting their business including the banking sectors (Kane, 2015). Literary evidence on the effect of social media on banking sectors and employees According to Schivinski and Dabrowski (2016), social media enhances the opportunities of engaging the customer base to the organizational structure in newer ways. It increases the chances of customers being more intrigued in the brand and the organization. Due to its ability consumer engagement in a timely and directly at relatively low costs, social media is relevant for organizations of all sizes, be it small, medium and large (Felix, Rauschnabel Hinsch, 2017). It was found to have significant positive impact on perceptions and attitudes of a consumer toward ecommerce websites. According to the findings, it has been perceived that with the advancement of technology, social media has expanded its availability from immobile devices to mobile ones. It can be easily accessible from any device having connectivity to the internet. As a business strategy, the usage of social media amongst employees has its positives and its negatives amongst the employees working in the banking sectors (Malhotra, 2017). Engaging employees for posting and sharing content related to the banks marketing strategies and promotions indeed make a good impact on accelerating the market base. However, studies have found that the employees facing the clients, such as loan officers, personal bankers and financial advisors, are forbidden to use social media when it is utilized for business purposes. Although, some are of the opinion that employees can post. Although, it is unclear about the rules for them to post without any proper training done (Dijkmans, Kerkhof Beukeboom, 2015). It forms a bigger proscription on the employees facing the clients who posted business purpose contents on their social media accounts accessed personally. Gap in the literature The literary evidences have successfully covered the overall impact of social media on the organization and its employees. It reveals that the usage of social media comes with a positive and a negative impact. The total number of organizations in Malaysia that is adapting to the latest technology of utilizing social media to its benefit for promoting the business however fails to focus on the accumulated impact it has on the banking sectors. There are evidences of the rules and regulations about the usage of social media in banking sectors and their employees but there is little or no information about the effect of such usage regulations. In addition, all the evidences are based mostly on the professional perspective rather than the effect of social media on banking employees if they use it for personal purposes during the duty hours. Therefore, it needs to be researched upon about the effects social media embarks ahead the employees in banking sectors both by quantitative and qualitative method if the usage occurs during the duty hours but for entirely personal purposes. It is a known fact that using personal accounts of social media during working hours is prohibited in most organizations, however, people find out ways due to the addictive nature of this technology. What drives the urge in the employees to break the prohibitions can also be a point of research further. Conclusion Therefore, it can be concluded from the above report that a marketing program can be based on social media for all the organizations including the banking sectors, however, the use of social media on accordance to the employees working hours is a questionable issue. If used as a promotional tool, the effects of social media usage amongst banking employees can be beneficial to the organization, but client-facing employees face many prohibition and obligations whilst the usage of social media during working hours is in question. The social media has influenced the world in a big way and continuing to do so with the advancement of time and technology. Therefore, it is the best low cost timesaving promotional tool that the organizations can implement in their business strategies. References Ashley, C., Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement.Psychology Marketing,32(1), 15-27. Banks, M., Zeitlyn, D. (2015).Visual methods in social research. Sage. Bharati, P., Zhang, W., Chaudhury, A. (2015). Better knowledge with social media? Exploring the roles of social capital and organizational knowledge management.Journal of Knowledge Management,19(3), 456-475. Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P., Beukeboom, C. J. (2015). A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation.Tourism Management,47, 58-67. Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., Hinsch, C. (2017). Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework.Journal of Business Research,70, 118-126. Kane, G. C. (2015). Enterprise social media: Current capabilities and future possibilities.MIS Quarterly Executive,14(1). Malhotra, P. (2017). Impact of Social Networking Sites on Financial Performance: A Case Study of Indian Banks. Schivinski, B., Dabrowski, D. (2016). The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands.Journal of Marketing Communications,22(2), 189-214.