Reducing Social Media Risks

In the mad dash to acquire tens of thousands of online friends for their brands, many companies are not pausing to consider the potential risks.

With Facebook membership now past the half-billion mark and Americans spending nearly a quarter of their time online, business has gotten into the act. Companies plan to spend nearly double the percentage of their current marketing budget on social media over the next year, according to a 2010 study by the American Marketing Association and Duke University. In just a few years, social media networking has gone from something employees did on the sly to an official communications medium championed by marketing and human resources departments.

It’s easy to see why everyone is “friending” social media. Organizations are seeing increased brand recognition, customer satisfaction and sales revenues. It is now easy to get customer feedback—often within minutes of a news announcement or product launch. And monitoring what your competition and customers are doing and saying has never been easier. Another benefit of sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo is the ability to reach potential and former employees.

But in the mad dash to acquire tens of thousands of online friends for their brands, many companies are not pausing to consider the potential risks. Since social media tools are new to many organizations and do not require additional IT infrastructure, they may be introduced to the enterprise by a business unit, marketing team or individual employees, bypassing the normal safeguards and risk assessment provided by the IT, HR and legal departments.

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Source: baselinemag.com
By: Robert Stroud