Strategic Information Management Online Journal 01

Question: Discuss the impact of social media on an organisations management

information system.

By
PIYUMIKA K.G.
Student ID: 20289374

Piyumika K.G.

Journal 01

What is Social Media?

According to Back et al (2011) social media is a catch-all term for sites that may provide
radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people
share short messages or updates with others. Facebook, in contrast is a full-blown social
networking site that allows for sharing updates, photos, joining events and a variety of other
activities. Social media often feeds into the discovery of new content such as news stories,
and discovery is a search activity. Social media can also help build links that in turn
support into SEO efforts. Many people also perform searches at social media sites to find
social media content. Social connections may also impact the relevancy of some search
results, either within a social media network or at a mainstream search engine.

What is MIS?
Management information system, or MIS, broadly refers to a computer-based system that
provides managers with the tools to organize, evaluate and efficiently manage departments
within an organization. In order to provide past, present and prediction information, a
management information system can include software that helps in decision making, data
resources such as databases, the hardware resources of a system, decision support systems,
people management and project management applications, and any computerized processes
that enable the department to run efficiently (Kimball, 2003).

The link between Social Media and MIS

The use of social media is going to be a blessing in disguise for MIS. As mentioned by
Lupfer (2011) all the features and benefits that are being experienced by people in the
consumer space can be incorporated into enterprise solutions. For example, if a manager
wants to update more information about a member of his team who joined recently, he can
get the designation, department, contact number, etc., from the corporate directory services
while the additional information such as hobbies, interests, previous employment details can
be pulled from social networks.
Adrian, VP Sales for Trampoline Systems, which manufactures systems that allow companies
to monitor, measure and manage social networks, says that the main sources of innovation in

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organizations are employees, business partners and clients. Establishing connections among
these three players through enterprise social computing will enable organizations to manage
knowledge and information management systems effectively. In addition to this, social
computing helps companies in identifying experts in organizations and also make
communication more efficient.
Social Media has three basic functions which can be represented as three edges of a triangle
(Back et al, 2011). They are:1. Information Management
2. Communication
3. Identity and Network Management

Advantages

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To discuss the advantage and disadvantages of the use of social media here I choose the
Argos as it is one of the main organisation who is using social media to enhance its online
and offline selling. As an introduction, Argos is a UK based retailer of toys, home
furnishings, personal care and technology, with over 40 years of trading behind them. A
massive 95% of the British population live within 10 miles of one of Argos 750+ stores
(Argos, 2015). It equipped with real time insights, ARGOS could quickly understand which
STORES were performing well and which elements of the new digital stores customers loved
and what elements they werent so keen on. According to James Finch - Customer and Digital
Insights Manager-Argos, one of the main reason behind the success of the management of
Information System in new digital stores is good understanding of social insights (Argos,
2015). They always use customer feedbacks on social media pages such as Facebook and
Twitter, in order to decide the new trends of the customer needs.
There are many other reasons behind the influence of social media on the information system
of the Argos. Argos could manage information sharing because social networks improve
employee excellence. The employees starts to think globally by using the social networks. At
the same time employees can use the networking tools deployed in the organizations to
increase visibility by sharing their expertise in online communities of practice.
According to James Finch, social networks influence the achievement of the new vision of
the Argos through innovative digital stores, and after new changes they could see
considerable increase in their sales as well (Argos, 2015). This statement shows the social
media has affected indirectly in increasing revenues.

Disadvantages
Sometime, social media can be affected to harm the goodwill of the company as anyone can
publish their honest views though social media such as Facebook. As an example, in 2011, a
father fighting cancer has been fired from his job at ARGOS after he called the company a
shambles on Facebook after RETURNING from holiday (Simon, 2011). This case was
really famous during that period as it was in the headlines of many newspapers. This father
said I would understand it if I had said something really bad about the company but it was
just a little grumble.

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When intranets are opened to business users outside the organization and when internal users
start using the different collaborative tools available over the internet, it will be difficult to
maintain security as a whole. It is also important on the employees part to be careful about
the nature of information they share. As search engines are becoming more and more
powerful, any information leakage can be caught by people using the internet. All these
challenges make the managers and executives resistive to change. As more number of
applications that have been developed with collaborative capabilities is being increasingly
used by employees, organizations have to make sure that security is not impacted.

Conclusion
When the business and IT team work together to refine social networks used in organizations
to make them secure and integrate them to their corporate information systems, they can
unleash social networks maximum potential and deliver better business results. So with the
social media technology continuously evolving, we can expect more and more organizations
to implement these tools in the future to manage information and knowledge management by
providing better collaboration facilities for employees and customers.

REFERENCES
Argos

Official

Website

(2015)

[Assessed

on

19 th

June

2015]

Available

in

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/StaticDisplay/includeName/AboutArgos.htm
Back, Andrea, & Koch, Michael. (2011). Broadening Participation in Knowledge
Management in Enterprise 2.0. Information Technology, 53.
Canals, Agust, Boisot, Max, & MacMillan, Ian. (2005). Evolution of Knowledge
Management Strategies in Organizational Populations: A Simulation Model.
Kimball, Lisa, & Rheingold, Howard. (2003). How Online Social Networks Benefit
Organizations By Lisa Kimball and Howard Rheingold. 15.
Lindgren, Rikard, Hardless, Christian, Hardless, Christian, Nuldn, Urban, & Institute, The
Viktoria. (2002). The Evolution Of Knowledge Management Systems Needs To Be
Managed. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice.
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Lupfer, Elizabeth. (2011). Knowledge Management: Creating a Social Intranet Where

Employees

Can

Learn

Retrieved

20th

October

2011,

2011,

from

http://socialmediatoday.com/elizabeth-lupfer/285241/knowledge-managementcreating-social-intranet-where-employees-can-learn
Reichental, Jonathan. (2011). Knowledge management in the age of social media, Retrieved
20th

October

2011,

2011,

from

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/03/knowledge-

management-social-media.html
Simon, N. (2011) Argos fires father with cancer after he uses Facebook to call company
'shambles' Retrieved 22nd June 2015, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article2028087/Argos-fires-father-uses-Facebook-company-shambles.html

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Journal 01