Social Medis Sites, Good or Bad?

[webguyXP]

I have been reading a lot about the use of social media sites in the corporate sector and some of the concerns with this.

Ones site reported 51% of executives surveyed fear social media could reduce employee productivity and 49% said that using social media could damage a company's reputation. This was a survey carried out in the US so may not be a true reflection of how we see things in the UK, but still food for thought.

Yes I can see that social media could be damaging and one of the reasons has to be the control of what is said about a company. Employees are more likely to take part in a discusion/blog if they are unhappy and the results of this could be brought up when carrying out a search on the company. This area is also open to abuse from other companies in that sector and although underhand is a very common practice on the web.

To be objective you have to look at the benefits as well including free advertising, product awareness, employee welfare and many more. As we all know the web is a very open sourec for information and I am sure this has contibuted to companies dealing with complaints and bad press in a more professional manner.

Interested to see what members think of this and any positive and negative results so far.

[Alliance]

I don't see social media and engaging in the "blogosphere" as a negative thing, I try to get our website involved with it as much as I can. I feel making your company as transparent and accessible as possible is important in today's world because of the huge rise in popularity of services such as facebook, twitter, etc.

I remember flickr made a blog post recently, title something like "We messed up" when their site was experiencing difficulties. I think people appreciate the honesty in cases like this. You can worry about bad press all day long and try to hide it. Why not openly admit you've made an error and explain the actions you've put in place to prevent this happening again?

The success you get from these social networking sites depends a lot on the products and services you are offering though. Businesses in certain sectors (such as web design & online marketing) can get much greater rewards from them than basic e-commerce sites.

It can still be useful though...

[Mac]

Interesting question. I think anyone engaging in such activity has to remember that these sites have never been designed for business. Having said that we have quite good success with blogging but yes you do have to be careful as comments left or that you leave are picked up on the search engines (in my experience they never appear anywhere near the top though) I would never have employees using social sites for business purposes - too dangerous, if I wanted the world to hear about an aspect of business I would prefer to write something and engage any interested party myself.

Disgruntled employees or indeed customers could potentially cause damage from their own living room so it I suppose it pays to be vigilent, we have found our business mentioned and linked on forums (all good) on ie page 5 of a search engine, as a result of that I check our business name weekly to pick up on something potentially derogatory or positive - both are good to know about and also "do" something about if needed.

We use Blogger, Twitter and Youtube mainly - comment moderation is always turned on.

[sheffy]

I don't really understand much about Twitter and wonder if it would be worth the time it must take up.

[Mac]

I don't really understand much about Twitter and wonder if it would be worth the time it must take up.

Really depends how you want to use it. I got a following of approx 500 (mostly foodie orientated) within a few months then protected my account (followers need to request permission o follow) Its not bad for keeping up to date on something recently published - ie: there are a few foodie journo's using twitter that tweet about their most recent article in say the Guardian or BBC Good Food mag etc etc.

Food bloggers are also increasingly using twitter to get their posts "out there". Interestingly since joining twitter we have had a couple of recipe s to cross promote as well as a small contribution to a sherry tasting event in London so there are a few positives as far as making contacts are concerned. As always though you get out what you put in, I don't tweet a lot but when I do its usually in response to a followers post or detailing a new blog post/recipe or product on our website.

[creospace]

I don't really understand much about Twitter and wonder if it would be worth the time it must take up.

I've recently taken time to fathom out twitter and really get to grips with it and discovered these 2 things:

a) It is a very powerful business networking / marketing tool if used correctly and given the correct dedication.
b) it is a complete waste of time for general stuff unless you're a bored housewife/husband and isn't a replacement for facebook.

I will be posting some blogs about the subject as I learn more and do more research within the business community.

Gary

[www.noblexp.co.uk]

Hi Gary,

I would be interested in looking at your blog about Twitter when you have it up and running as I to do not understand it, I have a blog and would love to know how to get a following for it. Let me know when you have it up and running and I'll pay it a visit!

Angela

[creospace]

Hi Angela,

That's rather timely that you post. I'm up in Dundee this week and have been presenting seminars on social media and a twitter teach in.

Our general blog can be found on our website in my signature. I will be publishing the slides from the teach in online very soon.

If you have any specific questions then ask away. if you'd like a copy of the handout I gave then drop me an email or send a private message through the forums and I'll gladly email it to you or anyone else.

Hope that's of some help

Gary

[JinaAlbert]

Hi,
Social media is the best place to market your company and getting in touch with other people know about them.It is a good thing.It increases productivity employees will not get bored with the same routine of work it helps them to get relaxed and refreshed.It make them connected to other people.It is a social bonding between people bring them closer to each other.