Social Media Team Research Articles

Commonwealth Edison: The Use of Social Media in Disaster Response

After a massive storm hit the northern Illinois service area of electric utility Commonwealth Edison on July 11, 2011, more than 900,000 customers were left without power during a hot, humid summer. ComEd crews and reinforcements from more than a dozen other states worked for days afterward to restore service. Meanwhile, the company's months-old social media strategy faced its first major test. The eChannels social media team, part of ComEd's customer operations division, worked around the clock to respond to posts from customers on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. At a time when the company faced public debate and criticism over its plan to raise electricity rates, in part to invest in smart-grid upgrades, engaging directly through social media was a way to strengthen relationships with customers and the general public, consistent with an important corporate goal: “Keep the lights on and information flowing.”After discussing the case, students will: Develop an appreciation for the role social media can play in shaping a company's reputation Understand how companies can use social media to engage customers directly in order to protect their reputations Understand the role these interactions with customers can play during a crisis situation Recognize the added reputational risk when a company's core business is directly impacted by a natural disaster

Medical students' perceptions about the added educational value of student-run HIV/AIDS educational campaigns in the Dominican Republic.

ObjectiveThis purpose of this report was to examine the perceptions of medical students about the strengths, limitations, and recommendations for improvement of the first known student-run HIV/AIDS educational campaigns in the Dominican Republic (DR), as they relate to the added value applied to their educational training.MethodsA retrospective review was conducted on evaluation reports completed by five medical students who coordinated the implementation of three annual HIV/AIDS educational campaigns in five DR communities, between 2012 and 2014. Thematic analysis was used to identify emerging themes related to perceived strengths, limitations, and recommendations for improvement and develop an acronym related to program strengths as value added to medical education.ResultsStudents highlighted that program strengths were the use of social media technology to facilitate communication and culture-based creativity to capture the attention of target audiences; and limitations were inadequate financial support and HIV-related cultural stigma, due to lack of disease knowledge and awareness or perceived contrasts between the federal system and faith-based community. Recommendations for program improvement, such as comprehensive event preparation and knowing the target audience, were described as key to maximizing the delivery of health messages.ConclusionsOur results highlighted that medical students gained expertise in the effective use of social media technology, culture-based creativity, and team synergy to disseminate HIV/AIDS health information across five DR communities. Students participated in these extracurricular community health campaigns, strengthening skills in communication, health advocacy, and leadership for their medical training. They served as human resources for health and can pave the way as future clinicians and indispensable health educators in local and national health collaborations.

Integrating social media at Sky Deutschland

Due to the rapid pace at which the social media environment is evolving, many businesses — both large and small — are unsure how to structure and integrate their social media teams. Whether social media efforts are best led by one person or a group of people depends on the company’s size. This is crucial for achieving such business goals as brand awareness, product reputation and customer service, as well as supporting the corporate recruitment processes. Drawing on real-life experience, this case study offers insights into how best to get a social media team up and running from scratch, and — more importantly — how to ensure the whole company is involved. The case study provides advice regarding ownership of social media, the differences between centralised and hub-and-spoke structures for managing social media, key performance indicators and budget commitments, and also describes the four crucial steps for integrating social media into the organisation.

The Relationship Among Social Media Consumption, Team Identification, and Behavioral Intentions

This study examined the relationship among social media consumption, team identification, word-of-mouth intention, and attendance intention. By analyzing a total of 146 undergraduate students, this study revealed the following insights. First, social media consumption directly affects team identification and word-of-mouth intention. Second, team identification directly affects word-of-mouth intention and attendance intention. Third, social media consumption affects word-of-mouth intention and attendance intention, mediated by team identification. These results expand the use of social media in the marketing and research field upon prior studies of social media and team identification in sport. The most important contribution of this study was to provide the evidence that social media consumption can affect behavioral intention directly and indirectly with team identification as a mediating factor. Thus, this study suggests the way that social media can be used not only for information distribution but also for driving more revenue by stimulating fans’ team identification and intentions.

The race to save lives: demonstrating the use of social media for search and rescue operations.

Importance: Utilizing social media in an emergency can enhance abilities to locate and evacuate casualties more rapidly and effectively, and can contribute towards saving lives following a disaster, through better coordination and collaboration between search and rescue teams. Objective: An exercise was conducted in order to test a standard operating procedure (SOP) designed to leverage social media use in response to an earthquake, and study whether social media can improve joint Israeli-Jordanian search and rescue operations following a regional earthquake. Design: First responders from both Jordan and Israel were divided into two mixed groups of eight people each, representing joint (Israeli-Jordanian) EMS teams. Simulated patients were dispersed throughout the Ben-Gurion University Campus. The first search and rescue team used conventional methods, while the second team also used social media channels (Facebook and Twitter) to leverage search and rescue operations. Participants: Eighteen EMS and medical professionals from Israel and Jordan, which are members of the Emergency Response Development and Strategy Forum working group, participated in the exercise. Results: The social media team found significantly more mock casualties, 21 out of 22 (95.45%) while the no-media team found only 19 out of 22 (86.36%). Fourteen patients (63.63%) were found by the social media team earlier than the no-media team. The differences between the two groups were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U-test, and evacuation proved to be significantly quicker in the group that had access to social media. The differences between the three injury severities groups' extraction times in each group were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test for variance. Injury severity influenced the evacuation times in the social media team but no such difference was noted in the no-media team. Conclusions: Utilizing social media in an emergency situation enables to locate and evacuate casualties more rapidly and effectively. Social media can contribute towards saving lives during a disaster, in national and bi-national circumstances. Due to the small numbers in the groups, this finding requires further verification on a larger study cohort.

Intellectual Property Is No Game: An Interview with James G. Gatto, JD.

Copying within the games industry is reportedly widespread. Some people attribute this to the belief that this is just the way it is and has always been based on the notion that the "idea" for a game is not protectable. But as the game market grows, so too do the losses from copying suffered by game innovators. A contributing factor is that many game developers do not develop comprehensive strategies for protecting the valuable intellectual property that they create. In the following interview, Bill Ferguson, PhD, Editor of Games for Health Journal, discusses the hazards and ways to protect health game assets with intellectual property expert Jim Gatto, Leader of the Social Media, Entertainment & Technology Team at the respected law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

Hi fans! Tell us your story!

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to establish an understanding of what components of the stewardship model (reciprocity, responsibility, reporting and relationship nurturing) were present on Toyota's corporate Facebook page through communicative patterns and themes in the wake of the 2010‐2011 vehicle recall crisis: and what comments/posts by the social media team – who act as “admins” of the social networking site to communicate with stakeholders and fans – indicate components of the stewardship model.Design/methodology/approachUsing Kelly's stewardship model as the theoretical framework, the study incorporated qualitative methods – specifically, a textual analysis to review the recall‐related conversation on the Toyota corporate Facebook page from January 2010 until the end of the first quarter in March 2010. The Facebook page was reviewed two to three times per day to monitor the discussion. In conducting the actual analysis, Toyota's Facebook page “Wall” was reviewed for words and phrases that referenced one or more components associated with the presence of the stewardship model.FindingsAs the crisis situation unfolded and the media coverage of the recalls intensified, the results of the textual analysis indicated a significant integration of the steps consistent with the stewardship model. After receiving compelling criticism from Facebook followers of the company for not engaging enough, Toyota's social media team formulated an enhanced social media engagement effort which focused on stressing the importance of genuine, two‐way, online engagement in a consumer‐driven environment. By doing so, this greatly contributed to Toyota's ability to quickly rebound from the crisis as well as emerge with their company's brand reputation intact.Originality/valueOverall, this research is significant because of its practicality and contribution to previous research in stewardship and social media. Furthermore, companies can learn from the example set by Toyota in that, while profits are important, building and nurturing long‐term relationships in a socially‐responsible manner can result in reinforced positive attitudes and behaviors, which are far more important to the company's bottom line. Finally, through the utilization of the stewardship model in an online engagement strategy during times of crises, incorporating a two‐way communication approach can yield positive results for the company's brand reputation.