The Hidden Risks of Social Media – It’s Not What You Think

I'm very interested in the issues surrounding managing risk around social media, and so I invited cool risk manager Leslie White of Croydon Consulting, LLC to write this guest post for me. She can be found on Twitter at @ltwhite.



This is my first guest blog posting so be patient with me. The topic is a summary of my session (with great assistance from KiKi L’Italien of the Optical Society of America) at ASAE’s Finance and Business Operations Symposium on the Hidden Risks of Social Media.

Most people expected me to talk about liability risks – defamation, invasion of privacy, copyright and trademark infringement and release of confidential or proprietary information – all serious risks but easily mitigated or managed. Instead, I identified the greatest risk of social media as the potential to cause a perceptual change of your association’s reputation or brand. Risk is as much about opportunity as loss. Innovation is risky and uncertain – you don’t know if the new service or program will be a success or the greatest failure since new Coke. So your reputation can be harmed or enhanced via social media. But by developing a social media strategy using informed, fact-based decisions your association can influence the outcome.

Lack of active participation in social media may be your greatest risk. Your association may not have a formal social media strategy but many of your employees and members (especially chapters) are already participating through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, FriendFeed or Ning, just to name a few. People are conversing about your association - if they aren’t talking about the association, then you have a larger problem.

Without a social media strategy, you have abdicated your brand by allowing others control the conversation. The conversations are occurring, so your reputation is at risk and the potential harm increases by your lack of effective participation. Your goal is to engage the right people in the right communities with the right conversations. Your association may have a blog, Facebook page, LinkedIn group or Twitter alias but if you are not listening in the right places to the right people all you get is meaningless chatter. Without a social media strategy, your rewards, if any, will be limited and the potential for a disaster is high.

The best way to increase your chances for success is to develop and implement a social media strategy. The creation process should be an organizational effort involving many departments such as communications, public relations, human resources, legal, information technology, membership, and chapter or component relations. Identify and analyze the risks and rewards and establish the training, policies and procedures needed to have an effective program. A social media policy is critical and should tie into your employee handbook, members’ codes of conduct, user agreements, antitrust and conflict of interest policies. Review Lindy Dreyer’s series of posts on social media policies for some guidance. Also don’t forget to update your crisis communication plan to reflect the world of social media.

The importance and relevance of social media to the association world is still being discussed. But if you view social media as another communication tool to engage your employees, members and others relevant to your association, it has value. Social media can be a powerful tool for good or evil so evaluate your risks and rewards and develop a program that works best for your association.

The hidden risks of social media

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