Businesses and Social Media!

With the advancement of technology, businesses have to move with the flow and keep up with the face pace at which technology is. The internet is one aspect of technology that is soaring to standards that requires a lot of attention. As individuals use social media to gain attention and feel accepted, businesses also advertise their products and services on social media platforms so as to attract more customers. The more customers a company can get, the higher possibility of products to be sold and the more products sold, the higher the profit.

Businesses are all about making profit and ruling the market to give their competition a tough time. I must say it is a very brilliant and smart idea for a business to advertise its products and services on social media platforms. But, unfortunately this has had major negative effects for some businesses leading to the downfall of such affected businesses. The worst mistake that can happen to a business is the unintentional release of confidential information to the general public through social media.

Accidental Release of Confidential Information

Individuals with inside knowledge of the company might inadvertently blurt out confidential information, damaging the company's competitive advantage. Before social media, a letter sent to the wrong address or even an email that ended up in the wrong inbox could be retrieved and the information kept under wraps. In the world of social media, the sheer numbers mean that once confidential information is out, it's out.

Notice this is just one example of how social media can damage the success of a business? Information is so vital to the extent that if it gets into the hands of the wrong party, it will most definitely bring failure to a business. All hope is not lost as businesses can reverse this trend of being negatively affected when trying to advertise on social media.

Setting out policies in place can deter unfaithful users from engaging in unscrupulous behaviour on social media platforms. Policies will prevent and hinder these individuals from attempting to cause harm to a business. Better yet, businesses are protected from their competition as their policies will set a standard by law to which they are supposed to follow.

"Companies who fail to provide guidelines for how their employees should conduct themselves online are dealing with a ticking time bomb," says Brandon Harig, social media strategist, Identity, an integrated public relations firm.

"By establishing expectations of how employees represent themselves online, both during work hours and after, brands not only help educate their staff on potential problems, they create a fallback when someone goes too far," Harig says.

1. Jennifer Lonoff Schiff (2013, October). Not having a social media policy, Retrieved from, http://www.cio.com/article/2381554/social-media/15-big-social-media-mistakes-companies-make-and-how-to-avoid-them.html

2. Catherine Lovering (2010).  Accidental release of confidential information, Retrieved from, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effects-social-media-business-25682.html