Social Media can be both a positive and negative thing for a company. There are many different aspects in various social media outlets. Nowadays, you can find professionals using twitter, facebook, wordpress/blogspot, podcasting, and even youtube. At first thought, I thought to myself – is this professional? Should these major business corporations be stooping down to our level in communication. But, then I realized, I pay much closer attention to different companies, people, etc. because of social networking. I follow a great deal of businesses or organizations through twitter. I think social media can really be a friend to businesses. Professor Nixon asked us to listen to “Social Media: Friend or Foe?” podcast featuring hel Holtz, Mark Ragan and others discussing “concerns and objections around the adoption of social media communication channels.” They brought up many of these positive outlooks on social media. Although, social media can also have a downside. You must be cautious about what you put on the internet – because everything you say and do is representing not only you, but your company. It is not just a personal blog/twitter. Your representing your company as a whole. Another negative consequence in social media, is giving your readers an opportunity to speak negativity about your company. There have been a variety of different cases as of recently – where company’s facebook pages and blog’s were filled with negative comments and feedback that others can see. It is definitely a risk. I think companies should continue using social media, as long as they are thinking of ways to avoid this negative feedback. They have to be careful about what “gets out” about them. The public can make or break a companies reputation.
Thanks for posting this! I agree with you on both the idea that social media doesn’t always seem professional but also, like you said, most of the time we know about companies or products put out by these companies because of their use of social media. I thought a lot of the things they brought up in the interview were very valid points. Since they do represent their company as a whole, I think it’s important to remember what your purpose is for writing. You last sentence I totally agree with! Whatever the public thinks is what goes in some cases. It’s important for companies to know their purposes for using a social media outlet and then taking advantage of those outlets.