The social media is experiencing unprecedented popularity right now. Not only can you follow the 'tweets' of your favoured movie star as they occur but you can communicate with friends, old and new alike, through Facebook, for example. It is also very enjoyable to have a giggle at all the humorous clips folks put on YouTube but, watch out, this can be addictive. YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are just 3 examples of the plethora of social networking sites on the internet that can take the form of anything from weblogs to video logs to podcasts to IM systems and the now well-established internet forums, to name buta few of these platforms.
Beneath everything, the main purpose of the social media as a whole has, until lately, been to communicate with a heavy emphasis on the social aspect of stuff. What is more, it has a reputation for being a leisure activity with a potential for being somewhat addictive to the point that employees have been known to engage with the social media during office hours just to receive their 'fix'.
The social media is very powerful and can make or break a company's reputation. InfoNews travels fast via the social network and negative publicity has the potential to harm a company's reputation far quicker than by conventional methods of publishing. In fact, the social media is rather like word-of-mouth on steroids. A grievance relating to a service or product can spread like wildfire and there is little or nothing a company can do to stop the negative effects.
Because the social media have the capacity to improve or destroy a company's reputation it is not a surprise that the corporate sector has viewed the phenomenon of social media with distrust. Added to which is the bad reputation the social media has gained for being accessed by personnel during company hours to the detriment of the corporation, so it isn't a surprise that the social media has in the past been the scourge of the corporate world.
On the flip side, the corporate world has recently been warming to the social media because it's been discovered to be a very effectivemethod of increasing awareness of a brand. Moreover, it's a great way to market goods and services because the audience is a global one, and, what is more, it is generally receptive. Viral advertising tends to work very well through the social media and advertising campaigns can take effect much quicker than with conventional media like magazine publishing, for example, where there can be a gap of up to 30 days before there is any feedback or response from the audience.
Furthermore, not only is using the social media a quick way of getting word out about services and merchandise, it's also extremely simple to make changes and change direction with this medium unlike the printed media where, when something has been published, it is permanent and can't be altered. What's more, the social media are easy to utilise and don't require specialised training which means that corporations can spread the word about the nature of the business out there fast and easily.
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