10 Reasons Business Should be Embracing Social Media

There is fear about social media - as an ex HR Director I understand why, honestly I do! - despite the fear I believe the benefits in engaging both consumers and employees are so great that business really needs to embrace that fear, turn that adrenaline from fear to motivation to make social media a time saver, an engagement tool rather than a potential issue. Here are my thoughts following my interview with Eileen Brown of Microsoft of why embraces social media

1. People smell fear. If employees or consumers smell that fear they will perceive you have something to hide. Yes you will face negative feedback, yes you will need to deal with abuse of the tools, yes you will need to work hard at managing the reputation....but the opposite is even more frightening - unaware of problems is business suicide.
2. It is never what you say, it is what you do in this world that people will judge you by...so have a look at your values - anything in there about areas such as respecting, diversity, teamwork, collaboration, openness, authenticity etc? If so I would encourage you to live by those values, it may be hard at times but people respect people who try!
3. People need to be themselves, they need channels when they can build their own personal brand. If you recruit people to the values of the company then why fear allowing them to express their values? 
4. People need a voice, they want a voice...if you suppress that voice you will not silence it, you will just shift that voice into "underground activity!" Let them speak within your environment, that way you are aware of what they are saying...rather than sending them to rival sites!
5. 9/11 really exposed the deep need of humans to care, to feel part of a community, to help others. Social media can be a facilitator for this process and create engagement with your brand, internally or externally.
6. Business is about relationships, it is about people. Social media is a tool that can help with those connections - why would you not want to connect with talent, with target consumers, with people who want what you offer? It is an opportunity to increase your reach...isn't that what business is about?
7. Business normally wants to make profits, or at least want to keep the cost of business down. Social media has taken hold because it is such great value...it removes the barrier of money. It removes the barrier of who you know......it removes the barrier to greatness.
8. Business is about communication - why would you stifle a tool that makes communication easier??
9. Social media is no different to any other part of business. If people abuse the community, or the tool deal with it as you would anything else....actually I believe it may well be easier....because the community will demand you to, there will be written or verbal evidence for why you deal with disrespectful behaviour.
10. Lastly, it is not going away. You can fight it, you can ignore it, you can hope it will go away...but it won't.....social media has moved the power to the market, either you join in, learn to use it beneficially or you lose credibility within the marketplace.

Disagree or agree? Would love your comments...