As we journey farther into the age of new social media, individuals gain more and more power. Dialogue and feedback with peers is treasured like gold and companies have to constantly try to win us over to keep consumers in a relationship. Corporations are going as far as exposing their inter workings of the business. Editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail, Chris Anderson has notice the “shift from secrecy to transparency.” Like I stated in an earlier post, the traditional model of communication has been literally turned upside down. Most businesses policy of information outside the company to non-employees is confidential. However, something radical has happen to transparency. Companies have created a venue for people inside and outside the company to know the detailed business scoop.
Companies like Dow Chemical have created intranet network using blogs for employees to discuss any business issue. These posts are unmonitored and unfiltered messages that never see communication person for tweaking. As a result, company’s communication and trust grow tremendously.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have used social networks as space for employees to communicate, but at a costly price. In The Economist, companies used Facebook and MySpace to reach a larger audience. Employees were using these forums to bash the safety standards and vent their frustrations about passengers on board. This immediately became a Public Relations disaster for the two companies. Companies learned from the event is to educate employees what’s appropriate online and follow company’s guidelines. The shift to radical transparency just came down a level. Companies are beginning to worry about the risk over the reward of social media. If companies are not ready for negative comments on issues, then companies are not ready for social media. Monitoring messages for “rouge employee” is understandable, but monitoring messages can dilute the raw feedback from others. Tim Leberecht says it perfectly in his article, Trends for 2009: Radical Transparency, when a company publicizes that they have nothing to hide, it highlights they have a lot to show. This is fundamental idea of corporations being authentic.
There are companies taking transparency to a whole other level. Marc Hedlund, CEO and co-founder of Wesabe, a web-based software company that gives financial advice, is taking transparency and authenticity to another level. Hedlund is taking calls from 12-4pm to hear what consumers have to say. We should applaud him for his company’s efforts in radical transparency. Others should follow in his footsteps.
Chris Runyon's Blog 
March 28, 2009 at 8:21 pm
I feel that the most important thing to take from this discussion is “if a companies are not ready for negative comments on issues, then they are not ready for new social media”. Negative comments from dissatisfied constituents are what drives a company forward and helps to make things better. Anyone who is even taking the time to write a negative comment obviously had a bad experience with a service or product and wants the company to know about it so it can be made better. When companies use these new technologies to embrace this rather than close themselves off, they are only hurting themselves.
March 29, 2009 at 5:02 pm
This is a very interesting dilemma for corporations just beginning to use social media. For a blog or other way of communication to be successful, it is very important for the messages to be authentic. You talk about transparency as being essential, but then when does an employee’s blog become TOO transparent. When they are bashing the company they work for openly, when is it okay for the company to step in regulate what is said? While i do believe that negative comments from customers can eventually help a company improve itself, the public relations implications of widespread employee negativity may not have the same effect.
March 29, 2009 at 9:19 pm
I feel like companies need to not shy away from negative comments. Negative comments gives the company a chance to try to fix a problem as best they can. That way they can possibly keep a customer, rather then lose one. However, learning about company blogs, majority of them have terms and conditions for posts. They mostly monitor just to make sure no derogatory comments are made.
Also there were two places in your post where you were missing a word.
“Like I stated in _ earlier post” needs the word an.
” If companies are not ready for negative comments on issues, then companies are not ready __ social media.” need for.
March 29, 2009 at 9:55 pm
thanks and I will correct those right now
March 30, 2009 at 1:12 am
Negative comments are going to happen because no company is perfect. Like everyone else has said, negative comments should be considered learning experiences. They are the only way you can improve business, otherwise you are already doing everything perfectly. As far as keeping track of employees on social networking sites, well there’s really no way to do that without watching their every move. The best you can do is establish a set of guidelines that are published somewhere for everyone to see. That way if you do have to remove something, you can refer to the guidelines as to why it was removed. Just make sure the guidelines are fair so no one has any complaints towards them.