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Social Networking: Friend or Foe

Recently, I ventured from my comfortable home office to attend University’s day-long conference “Making MySpace Your Place,” which offered an inside look into social networking and its influence. Working for a predominantly virtual company requires a solid understanding and daily usage of social networking technologies; not only are they pertinent for business projects, research and strategy, but they also provide a company “water cooler” space where employees can reach out and interact socially, somewhat similar to a true office environment.

However, despite my experience with online communication, I did not walk into this seminar as an expert on social networking. I was eager to hear new opinions on this developing landscape, and once the speakers were announced, I became even more confident that my Friday would be well spent. Fleishman-Hillard’s David Lowey spent the morning introducing the audience to various social technologies and discussed the emergence of Wikis, blogs and social networking sites. Justin Smith, an industry expert and author of the blog "Inside Facebook," followed Lowey with an in-depth analysis of two of the most popular social networking sites, Facebook and MySpace. In addition to his comparison of the two emblems of the social networking world, Smith identified other popular networking communities and provided insight into the public’s attraction to these environments.

I am an active member of Facebook, a site that I was lured into during my college days at Saint Louis University. As I listened to the speakers, I began to reflect on the reasons behind my decisions to join an online community. As pointed out in the seminar, these technologies nourish two very distinct needs of Net users like me: exhibitionism and voyeurism.  A person’s online profile is a medium for advertising a personality that he or she cannot naturally communicate offline. In a way, it’s wrapping up the best pieces of oneself and presenting them to friends and others. However, these sites offer more than just an opportunity for self-promotion; they present an open window into the lives of all of the people within your network. By reviewing profiles, users can often answer the who, what, when, where, why and how across all of their acquaintances. I’m still trying to calculate the number of cell phone minutes I’ve saved.

Clearly, Internet networking has revolutionized the speed of communication, allowing people to share themselves, their ideas and their opinions instantly. With that, this channel is becoming a growing opportunity and concern for organizations. People are not only communicating with companies over the Internet, they’re communicating about companies over the Internet. Web users can share thoughts, positive and negative, on corporate issues that range from customer service to company ethics. Activists are quickly adopting social networking tools as a way to broaden their reach and further their movement. Corporations are rapidly discovering that online communities can be their best friend or their worst enemy, and, as a result, many organizations are adapting to social technologies and using them to establish a stable online environment.

Some of the most insightful points that I heard at the seminar surfaced in a discussion on organizational communication through social media. According to Lowey, online interaction has changed the expectations surrounding relationships between an organization and its public. The majority of social media users flock to the Internet to escape the “spam” of corporate marketing initiatives. As a result, these Net users have created a platform for sharing ideas that is completely free of ulterior motives.

Lowey noted thatmany companies looking to explore Internet spaces continue to try to become the online destination for people interested in their products and services. This is unwise, I learned, as many Net users search Web sites less frequently today because they can often find the information that they need within their online communities. With that in mind, the best way to market to this audience is to go where the online cluster exists. Organizations must feel comfortable giving up a sense of control in order to market and succeed in relevant outlets, such forums, Wikis and social networking sites. As emphasized by Smith and Lowey, no one can buy an authentic community.

I was blown away. Who would’ve thought that a site like Facebook, a site I joined mostly to learn the gossip on my friends, could be so powerful? As I walked to my car, I realized that the phrase, “Power to the people,” has resurfaced and accurately describes the new generation of online communicators. With the Internet, the tables have turned. Public perception is now the leader, instead of the follower, and clearly, it has led organizations online.

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