Is Social Networking Good for Companies?

Social networking is growing in importance within the business world. Emarketer has published social networking research showing that a third of CEO’s are on Facebook, almost a third also see it as important as are using it to build their brands.

There are risks with social networking though as the research shows. Social networking can be bad for your brands health! But I think this happens when companies ignore rather than embrace social networks, when they ban people from using them rather than educating people on the power of the networks on their brands, when companies don’t realise that brand engagement starts with employee engagement – therefore if companies don’t care about their employees, their employees won’t care about the brand.

For me the lesson is  – social networking can be an asset. Any asset which is ignored becomes a liability. Therefore ensure this asset has its very own maintenance program to keep it healthy!