Social Media Case Study

Please read the case study “Should we fire him for that post?” and then answer the questions below.  Remember, you are to think as a business owner and all social media posts, by all employees (regardless of the time of day) are viewed as a reflection of your company.

1. List out all the social media discrepancies that Kenton has done. You can use bullet points for this part.  (5 points)

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2. Do these social media discrepancies, by Kenton, when listed out as a whole, look not as bad when spaced throughout the article, or worse? Which discrepancy looks the worst, which discrepancy doesn’t look too bad.  Explain your reasons why for both.  (5 points)

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3. “Getting ready for a new generation” is brought up in the article. As you’re now the generation in question, what’s your feelings on social media, your responsibilities with using it, proper and improper uses of it.  (5 points)

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4. Should you be responsible for what you post about the company, both on the clock and off the clock? Do find this to be fair or to be an intrusion of your time and space?  You’re not getting paid but you’re still responsible as an employee as to what you post and when.  Even if you’re not using the company computer/Wi-Fi/property, you’re still on.  Is this fair?  (10 points)

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5. In the case, it’s mentioned that the company has no “Social Media Policy” within the employee handbook. Will this be a problem should the company decide to fire Kenton?  Yes or No, please explain why, in detail and give examples from the Case to defend your position.  And keep in mind, whichever way you decide to go, fire Kenton or give him another chance, you need to explain your conclusion so as to prevent Kenton from either taking the company to court to get his job back, or to explain to him, and the entire staff, this will never happen again.  (10 points)

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6. You now need to research various companies and look up their Social Media Policy from their employee handbook. Do some searching, you can find them.  You’re required to find six (6) corporate Social Media Policies and then, design your own Social Media Policy.  Design this Social Media Policy as to how you’d expect one to be written if you were the owner of a company and what you expected from your employees, and yourself.  At the end, please paste all the links used to help you form your Social Media Policy so I can check them over.  Remember, no copy and pasting from other Social Media Policies or from other assignments, you need to arrive at your own conclusion and make this Social Media Policy new and comprehensive.   (15 points)

Please note, in this part you are NOT allowed to use the following business’s Social Media Policies:

(The first 5 below all come from the same website which I’m assuming most students use as their first hit on a search and never go any farther).  Look around outside these companies.

1. Intel
2. Best Buy
3. Ford
4. Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)
5. Dell
6. Walmart
7. NY Times
8. Oracle
9. Adidas
10. Hewlett-Packard (HP)
11. Coca-Cola
12. BBC
13. UK Civil Service
14. Pepsi Co

You can look, but don’t use, the following for creating your own Social Media Policy.  This is to be your own work and ideas.  Think about what you have seen, personally, on posts found on Instagram or Facebook, or Twitter, or even represented on a TickTok video; each of which you would consider to be a violation of an employee’s agreement with a business and how to interact on social media, appropriately.

Don’t use the Hootsuite “How to write a social media policy (free template + examples)”

Don’t repeat the SHRM Social Media Policy download example

Don’t copy Sprout Social’s website

Don’t copy or repeat Forbes – Why your business needs a social media policy and 8 things it should cover

There are other websites you’ll come up with when you do a search.

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