In the last few years we have literally seen an explosion in social media – Facebook, blogs, twitter et el – are now all the rage
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The arrival of all this new media has seen the metaphorical birth of ‘monkeys with typewriters’. While this brings with it both many good (more competition) and bad (lack of standards) aspects to journalism that unregulated competition brings, it also brings further complications of how this impacts on communications by organisations and people.
Nowadays, it is not just mainstream media that these have to contend with, but also users of new media. The reality today is that anybody can set themselves up with a blogger account or a twitter site and – depending on their following – wax lyrically or (in most cases) not so lyrically about you, your company/organisation.
It was while reading some of the latest figures on people’s rating of mainstream media and the internet for information sources New Zealand: Social Media – Trends – DIGITAL MEDIA ACROSS ASIA which reminded of something Winston Churchill once said: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on!”
Going by these figures, it seems, the old British Bulldog was right on the money! According to this reseach, the internet is rated highly as a source of information – above all the other sources in this survey. With 65% rating the internet as important placing it as a more important source of information for people than television (55%), newspapers (53%), and radio (44%). The internet was even rated even higher than interpersonal sources like family and friends (53%) or community services such as libraries (45%).
What this tells us – like it or not – the majority of people believe what they read on the online. (Unfortunately, it seems technology is making people gullible rather than more informed!) So it means that companies; organisations; politicians or anyone who wants to communicate with the public, needs to be aware of and to manage their online presence. It is worth businesses and organisations taking the time and/or putting the resources into looking after their online reputation.
People looking to manage their reputation need to understand that internet and social media management is a tiger that needs to be tamed before it turns wild and unmanagable.