William Karavites, Kara Madison, Christie DeBernardis
Introduction & Explanation
Having an online presence used to just mean that you were able to visit websites and possibly owned your own. Today, having an online presence means much more than that, you could have an online presence by:
Belonging to a Social Networking site
Submitting to an online blog
Having an article of yours published online
Generally having information about yourself in multiple resources
One could easily tell if they have an online presence by going through simple steps/ asking themselves simple questions
Do you belong to Facebook,MySpace, Twitter ...etc
Have you ever commented on a blog
Either using your real name or online alias
Do you use sites like Reddit or Digg?
Have you ever publish an article?
Try Googling yourself
This is a very easy step to find out how much of an online presence that you have
Why is this important?
Studies have shown that ~75% of employers have searched the web to find information about job candidates. Also, around ~26% lose potential jobs because of what employers found out about them online. It used to be that employers would have to focus on only what is available in front of them and word-of-mouth to know about a potential employee.
Different types of Online Presences
Social Networking Sites
A "Social Networking Site" could be define as: We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. . They are sites where anyone can join and communicate with other people. Some examples of social networking sites are:
Most SNS's (Social Networking Sites) allow you to:
Post comments and pictures to your profile and other profiles
Set a "status"
Upload pictures so that others can see.
Some let you "tag" your friends in them
While having your own website/blog/article published online is usually the most well-known way to have an online presence, SNS's
This link shows the "evolution" and time-line of different social networking sites appearing.
Effect of Social Networking Sites in the Workplace
Social Networking Sites can have both a hugely postive and negative effect when used in/for the workplace
Postives:
Ability to expand marketing.
Most SNS's allow business to "buy" parts of a page or ad's throughout the page. While brick-and-mortar stores might not be affected that much by this new form of advertisement, there are a large number of business's that are only available online, and this is one of their main forms of advertising.
Availability and Awareness
In the world today it is easier for companies to reach a wide range of potential employees by simply being available. Having an account on a social networking site allows easier communication between workers and/or potential hires. The recent college under-grads and graduates are the largest demographic on most SNS's and because of this, it is advantageous for companies to have an account because it will allow them to reach the younger crowd in an enviornment they are comfortable in.
Also, having a presence on a SNS will allow companies to be able to better see the upcoming trends.
Negatives:
Decrease in productivity.
Since employees would be able to easily communicate with friends and possibly play games on most SMS's, they will spend more time on the site and less time actually working.
For Example-" If every employee in a 50-strong workforce spent 30 minutes on a social networking site every day, that would work out to a loss of 6,500 hours of productivity in one year! Although this may be a generalization, organizations look very carefully at productivity issues, and 25 hours of non-productive work per day does not go over well with management. When you factor in the average wage per hour you get a better (and decisive) picture."[1]
A recent MIT study found that in one organization the employees with the most extensive personal networks were 7% more productive than their colleagues. In the same organization, however, the employees with the most cohesive face-to-face networks were 30% more productive.[2]
When sites become more feature-rich, this will start to consume more band-with, lowering the speed of the companies network.
There are also a large number of legal risks that employees and employers face when using a SNS:
* Employers viewing their employees' or job candidates' social-networking Web sites may provide the predicate for claims under the employment-discrimination statutes or a state's legal activities laws, where an employer takes adverse action against an employee immediately following such viewings that the employee or job candidate claims was because of a legally protected status or activity;
* Employees may assert unfair-labor-practice charges under the National Labor Relations Act to the extent their employers take adverse employment actions shortly after viewing employees' union-related postings on social-networking Web sites;
* A manager may provide performance-related feedback on a social-networking site such as LinkedIn, that an employee may claim is inconsistent with less favorable feedback given in the employer's performance-evaluation process, which an employee may use as circumstantial evidence of an improper motivation for an adverse action;
* Employees may argue that their employers violate a social-networking Web site's terms of service or an employee's common-law privacy rights by accessing such a Web site to conduct checks on prospective or current employees;
* Employees may assert claims against their employers based on co-workers' allegedly harassing communications on social-networking sites;
* Public media may focus unwanted attention on employers that take adverse action against employees using information obtained from their employees' social-media Web sites;
* Employers that rely solely on social-networking sites to recruit job applicants may be excluding qualified candidates who do not have access to or who elect not to use social-networking technology.
To be sure, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing the multitude of legal issues arising out of employers' and employees' use of social-networking Web sites.
A particular company's approach to dealing with these issues largely will depend on its tolerance for risk, the importance of Web-based communication to its business objectives and the realities of the industry in which it operates.
For example, while a traditional manufacturing company may prefer to limit its use of social-networking sites, such behavior is anathema to the culture at certain high-tech and media companies, that actively encourage their employees to use social media to promote company products and services, or their company's employees themselves.[3]
Blogs
One could define a blog as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the write".[4] We are most used to seeing a Blog as a place where a person can write out their thoughts and ideas and share it with the rest of the world. Blogs can range from tiny personal ones only meant for a small audience, to one built by a huge company meant to educate their customers and promote their ideas. Blogs could be seen as a place where anyone can share their ideas and not be told to "stop", because their blog is meant to be their own personal
space.
This can cause problems because some people have created very controversial blogs in cyberspace. If someone views this blog, it is likely that information of their visit is shared both on the server side of the site and the users computer. With specialized computer programs today, people have the ability to link your e-mail address to your name and then to each blog you subscribe to, this can cause many problems if your employee finds out you are posting inflammatory material to certain blogs.
One would also have to watch to make sure that they don't talk negatively about the company or fellow employees on their blog or other blogs. It would adversely affect one's chances of getting a job, or keeping a job if a upper-level manager or boss found out about the remarks.
This link has some great information about how to write a blog correctly and safely, how to use a blog to "up" your chances of getting a job, and examples of blogs.
The Effect of an Online Presence
The Effect of an Online Presence | Introduction & Explanation | Different types of Online Presences
William Karavites, Kara Madison, Christie DeBernardis
Introduction & Explanation
Having an online presence used to just mean that you were able to visit websites and possibly owned your own. Today, having an online presence means much more than that, you could have an online presence by:
One could easily tell if they have an online presence by going through simple steps/ asking themselves simple questions
Why is this important?
Studies have shown that ~75% of employers have searched the web to find information about job candidates. Also, around ~26% lose potential jobs because of what employers found out about them online. It used to be that employers would have to focus on only what is available in front of them and word-of-mouth to know about a potential employee.Different types of Online Presences
Social Networking Sites
A "Social Networking Site" could be define as: We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. . They are sites where anyone can join and communicate with other people. Some examples of social networking sites are:
While having your own website/blog/article published online is usually the most well-known way to have an online presence, SNS's
This link shows the "evolution" and time-line of different social networking sites appearing.
Effect of Social Networking Sites in the Workplace
Social Networking Sites can have both a hugely postive and negative effect when used in/for the workplace
Postives:
Negatives:
There are also a large number of legal risks that employees and employers face when using a SNS:
* Employees may assert unfair-labor-practice charges under the National Labor Relations Act to the extent their employers take adverse employment actions shortly after viewing employees' union-related postings on social-networking Web sites;
* A manager may provide performance-related feedback on a social-networking site such as LinkedIn, that an employee may claim is inconsistent with less favorable feedback given in the employer's performance-evaluation process, which an employee may use as circumstantial evidence of an improper motivation for an adverse action;
* Employees may argue that their employers violate a social-networking Web site's terms of service or an employee's common-law privacy rights by accessing such a Web site to conduct checks on prospective or current employees;
* Employees may assert claims against their employers based on co-workers' allegedly harassing communications on social-networking sites;
* Public media may focus unwanted attention on employers that take adverse action against employees using information obtained from their employees' social-media Web sites;
* Employers that rely solely on social-networking sites to recruit job applicants may be excluding qualified candidates who do not have access to or who elect not to use social-networking technology.
To be sure, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing the multitude of legal issues arising out of employers' and employees' use of social-networking Web sites.
A particular company's approach to dealing with these issues largely will depend on its tolerance for risk, the importance of Web-based communication to its business objectives and the realities of the industry in which it operates.
For example, while a traditional manufacturing company may prefer to limit its use of social-networking sites, such behavior is anathema to the culture at certain high-tech and media companies, that actively encourage their employees to use social media to promote company products and services, or their company's employees themselves.[3]
Blogs
One could define a blog as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the write".[4] We are most used to seeing a Blog as a place where a person can write out their thoughts and ideas and share it with the rest of the world. Blogs can range from tiny personal ones only meant for a small audience, to one built by a huge company meant to educate their customers and promote their ideas. Blogs could be seen as a place where anyone can share their ideas and not be told to "stop", because their blog is meant to be their own personal
space.
This can cause problems because some people have created very controversial blogs in cyberspace. If someone views this blog, it is likely that information of their visit is shared both on the server side of the site and the users computer. With specialized computer programs today, people have the ability to link your e-mail address to your name and then to each blog you subscribe to, this can cause many problems if your employee finds out you are posting inflammatory material to certain blogs.
One would also have to watch to make sure that they don't talk negatively about the company or fellow employees on their blog or other blogs. It would adversely affect one's chances of getting a job, or keeping a job if a upper-level manager or boss found out about the remarks.
Some popular blogs include:
Merriam Webster(Blog definition
)