AmberCadabra Sep 02, 2008 02:40PM Preparing a blog post: many folks on Twitter have discussed the "risks" of social media for corporations. What risks do you see?
AmberCadabra Sep 02, 2008 02:53PM those are good ones guys. Do you think these are true "risks" that are different, say, than a misguided marketing campaign or a prod. issue?
AZJazzyJ says Sep 02, 2008 02:57PM potential resource drain is a big risk. Consumers will expect certain level of involvement which could require large time commitment by co.
sonnygill Sep 02, 2008 02:58PM a misguided campaign could be at fault and how they venture out into the diff SM mediums but there's also the risk of possible backlash of..
sonnygill Sep 02, 2008 02:58PM consumers just not wanting to see certain companies in different SM avenues.
sonnygill Sep 02, 2008 02:59PM So, not a total risk...but I guess more of a challenge for companies who don't have a strong brand name to rely on.
AmberCadabra Sep 02, 2008 02:57PM Jeff, that was a big one on my list - dedicating and *maintaining* the needed resources. I think lots of cos underestimate that part
BarbaraKB wonders Sep 02, 2008 03:04PM if biggest risk is doing *nothing*? Just like "do I need a website" of old, is SM presence same? Thus, seen as backward if do nothing?
BarbaraKB says Sep 02, 2008 03:04PM thus, a slow & consistent burn process for businesses. Cautious but do *something* and something depends on business.
AZJazzyJ says Sep 02, 2008 03:07PM understaffing SM could/will cause more damage than not having a presence at all.
AZJazzyJ says Sep 02, 2008 03:09PM lack of control of the message will be a risk especially if company must conform to regulations. What if an employee misspeaks?
Kellye_Crane Sep 02, 2008 03:07PM I think companies worry, with some legitimacy, "what if my employees say a bonehead thing?"
Kellye_Crane Sep 02, 2008 03:10PM AZJazzyJ - love that we're thinking same thing at precisely the same moment!
Jane Chin Sep 02, 2008 03:11PM difficulty in training and standardization by corp to provide quality and at the same time minimize legal liability at the employee-consumer
Jane Chin Sep 02, 2008 03:09PM this is one of the reasons why I think healthcare related services need to be extremely careful if they want to get into social media, and
Kellye_Crane Sep 02, 2008 03:12PM Amber, to my point about going off message, over the weekend LivePath had a whole blog post about WholeFoods saying "f'ing" in a tweet
sonnygill Sep 02, 2008 03:13PM Risk of disconnect between understanding & communication internally, between 'employee who gets it' vs 'upper mgmt thinking they know'
Kellye_Crane Sep 02, 2008 03:11PM The post was here: tinyurl.com/6ydgvr. I think this is precisely why companies worry: negative attention that offsets any positive
sonnygill Sep 02, 2008 03:12PM and ending up in a tug of war and possibility having to do it their way (wrong way) vs. the proper way
Tim Jackson Sep 02, 2008 03:12PM All of the above are great, but the biggest risk to me is the still shaky platform of Twitter. It's still too unreliable- IMHO.
AZJazzyJ thinks Sep 02, 2008 03:19PM it depends on why they are using SM as to whether platform instability matters. If I use it to broadcast message, having it down may be ok
AZJazzyJ says Sep 02, 2008 03:18PM management may think of SM being used 1way and users may think of it in another causing wrong resources to be manning the SM channel.
DebInAustin says Sep 02, 2008 03:43PM I am with AZJazzyJ, we saw that with our DNC experiment on sending out traffic updates- users wanted a higher frequency than the org could
AmberCadabra Sep 02, 2008 03:42PM so how do you guys feel about taking these risks? Like Barbara said, is the bigger risk not doing anything at all?
AmberCadabra Sep 02, 2008 03:43PM And how do you think companies can/should mitigate these risks? Is it about careful communication and planning like anything else?
AmberCadabra Sep 02, 2008 03:45PM I personally get frustrated at all the discussion about "what if our employees say something stupid" when whether or not the co is using SM,
AmberCadabra Sep 02, 2008 03:46PM it's going to get said anyway - officially or unofficially! So how about some education and trainign about these tools instead of just
AZJazzyJ says Sep 02, 2008 04:00PM depends on the industry Amber. If a bank employee says something, it could be grounds for litigation if msg is against regulation.
AZJazzyJ says Sep 02, 2008 04:00PM that is a very big risk and therefore the financial industry may choose not to accept it even though no message could be even worse.
AZJazzyJ says Sep 02, 2008 04:01PM there are privacy issues as well if user provides private info they assume it is going to right place but may not be.
AZJazzyJ is Sep 02, 2008 04:32PM sorry for all the comments, I am working on a white paper about this subject and so it is kind of at the forefront of my mind.
AmberCadabra Sep 02, 2008 04:35PM woohoo! Will look forward to that! And the comments are more than welcome - that's the whole idea!
Kellye_Crane Sep 02, 2008 04:43PM Great points from AZJazzyJ! Also, what if the "stupid" thing the employee says is even not related to the co.
Kellye_Crane Sep 02, 2008 04:47PM In addition to my cursing example, what if they get terse w/someone, which causes a backlash. I think the scope of worry goes beyond msging.
Kellye_Crane Sep 02, 2008 04:48PM This is not my perception, just the kind of thing I hear from companies looking at SM.
AmberCadabra Sep 02, 2008 04:50PM Kellye, do you think the "open" nature of SM makes it easier for these kinds of missteps to happen than, say, on a phone call or via email?
AmberCadabra Sep 02, 2008 04:50PM How do cos view SM channels as different than all the other ways people might miscommunicate?
Kellye_Crane Sep 02, 2008 04:53PM I think it's viewed as more public, and therefore more apt to be seen by a large number of people.
Kellye_Crane Sep 02, 2008 04:54PM Of course, emails are making there way onto blogs (as PR people know all too well!), so the perception and reality are not nec in sync
MackCollier says Sep 02, 2008 05:02PM putting people in charge of SM efforts that really aren't that well-versed in using these tools
MackCollier says Sep 02, 2008 05:02PM 'How did we pick our blogger? Well since only one of us had every HEARD of blogging....'