PLANNING ISSUES
Risks and Benefits
of Using Social Media
By JOSEPH McMENAMIN
The term “social media” refers to any Internet-based medium created through social interac- tion where individuals primarily produce (rather than consume) the
content. The growth of social media has
been explosive. An estimated two-thirds
of Internet users visit social networking or blogging sites. Reportedly, social
media now account for almost 10 percent
of all Internet time. Facebook claims more
than 400 million active users. Wikepedia,
YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, Google, and
Twitter all seem to have different audiences, but each is large and growing.
These media provide new and dramatically enhanced communication capabilities. Their speed and penetration offer
particular value in coping with disasters,
when information is often the coin of the
realm. After a recent hurricane, for example, a hospital system used Twitter to provide breaking information about patient
status and the number of patients admitted
and released. In the wake of the Virginia
Tech shootings, a Facebook community
emerged almost immediately to provide
reassurance about their safety to students’
loved ones.
Conversely, use of these media is risky.
A misstatement disseminated through them
reaches far more people more quickly than
was typically the case with “old media,”
so the potential for mischief is correspondingly greater. When employees use
company resources to access networking
sites, viruses may contaminate networks.
Even if that never happens, productivity
may suffer. If a manager anonymously
posts positive reviews of his product, or
does so under a pseudonym, odds are good
that he will be discovered, and the brand’s
image will suffer.
In this article, however, I focus on legal
questions rather than commercial ones. I
conclude that although many companies
should probably embrace these media, as
their employees already do, they should
do so understanding and compensating for
the risks.
