This is the first in a series of posts about Social Networking and Marketing.

When we were children, the adults in our life provided guidance in the form of information and direction, which they learned from their parents, or acquired themselves through the school of hard knocks. We were instructed not to touch the stove…it is hot and can hurt you; to look both ways before crossing the street…cars can hurt you; and do not run with scissors, you will put your eye out; etc, etc. Sensible advice aimed at helping us as we grew up and experienced the world, as our parents knew it.

Due to the rapid pace of technological change, only a few adults are providing guidance to their children as they learn and use internet skills and social networking tools. A Generation Y /Echo Generation person, raised on a computer, with its immediate access to information, continual linkage to their friends through IM or SMS, and seeing what their friends are doing on Facebook, lives in a different world than someone who remembers a Basic programming class or punch cards.

The issue is that neither the parents nor the children know what to do or how to act. The parents because they have not experienced it, the children because they are generally naïve and trusting, and there is scant education about social networking risks. Interestingly the Government has stepped into this void with some clear information and direction.

Accepting that there are bad people in the world, and that they will take advantage of others for personal gain, the Internet poses risks to people, countries and enterprises. The Lori Drew/Meg Meier suicide case and identify theft are examples of personal attacks. Denial of Service attacks happen daily, and are now deployed by government agencies in state-to-state conflicts. Enterprises are prime targets as BJ’s, TJX Heartland and Choice Point can attest.

On top of the security risks, there are significant marketing risks. Failure to address all of them may negatively impact the company or bring it down completely. Specifically:

1. Is the company using social networking properly? Are we employing the right mix of “traditional” communication technologies with social networking technologies? Failure to use the right mix may allow competitors to gain market share.
2. If the company embraces social networking, and has multiple people blogging and tweeting, along with multiple Facebook pages, is the right message being communicated, consistently? Is the message being undercut by rouge bloggers? See what happened at Whole Foods for an extreme example.
3. If bad people are using the information contained in the Marketing blogs, Facebook, and LinkedIn sites, along with Marketing tweets, to develop social engineering attacks on our company as a whole, or as a way to blunt our marketing programs, what our are defenses and mitigation strategies?
4. What protection is in place to stop company confidential information from leaking out through social networking postings? Are postings by a junior Gen Y person that she is “going to the trade show and we are introducing a feature that will really rock”, or that “We working on closing a multi-million dollar deal with Acme Tool and Die” a concern? What if the posting is more specific? Does everyone understand the sensitive nature of information or commenting about places or things? Making negative comments about Memphis proved to be disastrous.

The bottom line is that no one is providing adult supervision regarding the use and application of social networking tools. The knowledgeable Marketing Manager recognizes the risks, prioritizes them and then works with his department and within the company to teach, learn and lead. However, as with technologies today, speed is critical. Failure to learn, adopt and educate in 2009 may result is some of the negative issues cited above.

How well do you understand all the risks of social networking, and what are your second half 2009 mitigation plans? Will you be called on to explain how something happened when a social network goes south…which is a “when,” not an “if”? Are you prepared?

My next post will answer the question, “Would Smokey the Bandit Tweet?

RHM 6/25/2009