The Negative Effect
Accountability
For a business, social media comes with many disadvantages, but the most important thing that they should worry about while using social media is accountability. Today, people are able to post, share, and comment on anything they want and it can be seen by anyone.
In Socionomics by Erik Qualman, the author analyzes the effects that social media has on a business. Qualman mentions how companies can take advantage of social media to respond to customers who are upset about a product or service. Though companies can use this feature to their advantage, some companies can use it to their disadvantage.
In one example, the author uses a fictitious character, Peter Poster. In this situation, Peter makes a post about his dissatisfaction with a product from a company. The author mentions that, “he does not know who he is reaching and the reader most likely doesn’t know who Peter is.” This quote is very important because this situation and quote applies to many companies too not just individuals. When companies make a comment or a post, the post can reach anyone in the world. The companies’ post can be reposted, retweeted, and shared by not only their followers, but their followers’ followers, and so on. Following Peter’s post, some of his followers discredited it due to knowing his personality personally. Others believed him and listened to his claim whether it applies to them or not.
To connect further more with the situation, Qualman referenced the below quote.
“Someone who has stayed only at five-star hotels will rate a five-star hotel differently than a honeymooner staying at a five-star for the first time.”
— Bill Tancer, General Manager, Global Research, Hitwise
The above quote by Tancer can be a life lesson for companies. All consumer’s experiences with a company will be different and they will share it out for the world to see. For companies, if they make a “harsh” comment, some of their customers may ignore the offense, but others may take the offense and share their opinions to their followers. Companies have to consider the context of what they are about to post in order to effectively handle consumers. A businesses’ post can be taken two ways: one with appreciation, the other with disrespect. Consumers will always have their own opinion to a matter, when a business makes a post they have to consider not only how it will be perceive by their followers, but by the whole world.
Work Cited
Qualman, E. (2009). Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
