Good or bad ? Social Media's impact on Business

   Social media, dramatically changes the face of business at such a fast pace that business leaders that can not adapt to it now will end up lagging behind other competitors sooner than later. More and more companies start to take advantage of the snowball effects of social media.

    If you want to book a hotel, you go search others’ people reviews and thoughts before making a reservation; If you want to try this restaurant, you may hear it from a friend, or somebody’s blog review, or go to Facebook or Yelp and check its stars; If you want to buy a product you go Google other users’ opinions and how much they like it, to get a more round and comprehensive idea. Apparently, this is not only the companies’ effort to make the brand advertising; it’s social media’s. 

    The benefit of social media, apparently, is to give company a more effective and cost-efficient way to connect and communicate with the customers. And this kind of soft advertising really works on the customers instead of the routine TV ads, or newspaper.

    But every coin has two sides, unless you take control of social media, you risk social media taking control of you. That’s why many companies are afraid of the realistic downside of social media.

    Here is a well-known incident known simply as “United Breaks Guitars,” featuring Canadian musician Dave Carroll. While flying on United Airlines, a fellow passenger looks out the window after landing, and announces to other passengers, including David, “look at those baggage handlers throwing that poor passengers’ guitar.” Apparently, David’s guitar was broken. Attempting to seek reimbursement from United, he faced a mountain of bureaucracy and denials and, ultimately, a rejection. In the end he wrote a song simply titled, “United Breaks Guitars” and uploaded the video on You Tube. At last count, “United Breaks Guitars” has close to 13 million views. Resultly, the Carroll saw an increase in his recording business, and even published his first book. And United Airline, on the other hand, offered an apology, reimbursement, and now includes “United Breaks Guitars” as a customer service training video. For companies, the subsequent damage of this kind of public humiliation is just like a nightmare, and the makeup costs is inevitable.

    How to dominate social media and make the best use of it? This question may linger in people’s head for a long time. But the foremost point is, companies need to be true to their products and brands, transparent and socially responsible in order to survive and make a success. If their true actions are far from the image that they portray, people will eventually discover the reality behind it and broadcast to the world.