Boards Need to Learn From Social Media

The power of social media has been seen clearly in the recent rash of rebellions against established governments, in the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots and of course in the more recent London riots.

But the power of social media extends far beyond such activities. It's reach is wide and always potentially disruptive. A tweet or two on a particular company about any issue, particular one having social ramifications, can spread like lightning, leaving management and the board with a problem at 8:00 AM they didn't know they had when they went to bed.

How to deal with this is an issue that many boards are grappling with. Some are forming policies that enable them to monitor the mainstream media for mentions of the company and then analyze them for potential action.

Monitoring them is easy. The social media all have search and key word functions that can be activated easily and quickly, For example, Twitter searches can pick up tweets about a company that were issued only moments ago. Tools like Tweetdeck enable all mentions to be scrolled on an ongoing basis.

Acting on the mentions is not so easy. It takes people to scan them and determine whether they represent a threat or not. Companies could dedicate a person or a team to watch and analyze the social media 24/7. But this would be expensive. And most mentions are harmless or even positive. It's when they gain traction and have negative connotations that they become a problem. So there is a need for guidelines for determining when social media releases should be considered for action.

Then there needs to be a referral system to the people in the organization who can deal with an emerging issue. The referees need to be ready to act on a moments notice, since the word can spread so fast.

And then there is the question of appropriate responses and who needs to authorize them. This is the toughest part of a policy. But it is policy that is needed. Social media has grown to the point that it not only cannot be ignored, it requires proactive action.

All Boards should heed the call. For the experience of one Board member, check out this blog entry.