Digital tools at my work
I work currently in a global logistics company, Kuehne+Nagel. I am at the air logistics business unit and my work includes taking care of the customers air cargo shipments. I book the space from the airlines and handle all the necessary export and customs documents. I also arrange the shipment pickup form the customer premises and make the necessary arrangements for the cargo to be prepared in our warehouse according to the shippers instructions.
My work entails the use of many different digital tools. To begin with, every shipment is handled in our ERP system, Salog. The system is built in-house and it is very broad in functions. Each our business units use it, air cargo, sea freight and overland freight. I personally like the program as it covers all the needs I have to handle shipments fast and efficiently. The only problem I have with it is that it is quite resource intensive and sometimes the program gets stuck.
Another digital tool I use in my work is Cargo.one. I have touched on it already in the previous assignment, but basically it is a website where I can book space directly from many different airlines. It works well and it offers capacity on over a dozen different airlines, so it is highly useful for my work.
As for communication, I use email to communicate with my clients and internally we use zoom to communicate with colleagues. We use both the chat function as well as video conferencing. The company is going through a change presently, the internal communication tool, Zoom, is being out phased out and Microsoft Teams will be rolled out. I am part of transformation team, and I am currently researching different use cases for the application.
Social media pros and cons
There are many sides to social media, both good and bad.
The first thing that comes to my mind, is that social media spreads information faster than any other media. Thanks to its big user base, there is always somebody spreading breaking news. The big number of social media users can also be negative side as there are so many users spreading the news, the flow of information is mostly uncontrolled. The users can share unwittingly unreliable and false information
Social media also gives people a way to stay better in touch with other people from around the world. This gives a way for people to share ideas and cultures, which wouldn’t have been possible without social media. This sharing can help people to innovate new products and services.
Another negative aspect of social media is that it might lead for people to compare themselves to other persons too much. This is especially problematic for younger people such as teens. They might develop problems because they see what kind of content the other persons publish. This might result in lower self-esteem and other problems such as eating problems.
Some people also get addicted to social media, using it much of every day. This can lead to problems if they neglect other parts of their life. The algorithms of social media have been programmed to make people use more social media, so this is partly the developer’s fault.
Social media platforms for my work
I have chosen the below social media platforms. I will explain how they could be used in my daily work
I believe that Facebook would be highly useful for the company I work for. The company could publish news about its products on Facebook. This way it would be quite cheap marketing, as it would only cost the salary of the community manager. Facebook would also be a great way to publish polls about new products and services. This way the company could know what kind of new products the clients want. This is also a great way to engage the audience
I think that Instagram is a highly effective marketing tool nowadays. My company could utilize it share photos of the company and interact with the clients. It is important to post quality content on Instagram as it is a highly competitive social media platform. It might be worth it to partner with some influencers, so that the company gets more positive marketing. Some giveaways could also be organized, such as some marketing material for the company.
LinkedIn is a resource valuable for the company. It can share the different product offerings it has and also publish different ideas it has on how to develop the business. It is important to have LinkedIn, as potential recruits can find out information about the company from there. It is also important to be active on LinkedIn, to always post new material.
Slack
Slack could be good communication channel for the company. It could implement it for internal communication. The software allows to create different chat rooms, so that many employees who work from home can work seamlessly together.
Nowadays Twitter is very important for many companies in my opinion. Twitter allows for instant communication with the clients and possible clients, and many of them lookup the company on Twitter. Twitter is social media platform where engaging the audience is very important. As the messages that are published on Twitter are quite short, it is important to post daily, in order to engage the clients
Self-evaluation
I have learned a lot about how the different social media platforms work. I have found out their different features and how they can be useful in a work setting. I have even learned about new platforms that I didn’t even existed.
There are many possibilities in these different platforms, but care must be taken in the implementation. It is important that not too many services are implemented at the same time, or there is the risk that the information that the company shares would become too fragmented. The clients wouldn’t know to which service to follow
I believe that there are numerous different social media applications that can help the company to succeed in attracting new clients. It is a big task to try to find the most useful, but I believe that is task worthwhile in doing, as it should provide good results for the company.