priio

The question arose based on the Social media roadmaps report that lists five development lines triggered by social media. About transparency is said:

"The transparency of activities is a key feature in social media and it will be expected in other areas as well. Transparency is important for companies, and they have to adapt to the imperative of transparency and make sure that their brand promise matches the reality. Public administration faces similar expectations. Information about successes and malpractices spreads quickly through multiple social media channels. Also individuals are faced with ubiquitous transparency: things presented in virtual spaces are not easily erased and privacy narrows. The authenticity of things will be valued even more by consumers in the future, and the increased transparency makes it possible for people to check it."

I had an interesting talk when asked, if social media really makes things more transparent, or if it just makes it easy for companies and politicians to misuse the channels for their own purposes (with fictitious user accounts and comments that support their own agenda).

Does social media provide companies and public sector (as well as individuals) only new means to protect themselves and hide the real issues?

I would say yes and no. Social media provides new ways to protect themselves and hide some issues, but the transparency also gives means for others to investigate the issues. If a company or even an individual is caught doing something wrong and covering it in public the word of it spreads rapidly through social media and the reputation is lost.

So I would say the means and enablers are there, but can the companies and individuals afford taking the risk of getting caught?

Case in point: The Danish government made a viral video to market their country and their lovely ladies, but they got busted doing it. Now everyone frowns upon them: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8627...

I realize now that I only repeated what the report said.

I don't really know if transparency is a feature of social media itself. Social media just forces individuals, companies and public sector to open up and be more transparent in their behavior since all the variations of the norm will be reported through social media, in good and in bad.

I've got many nice recommendations for places to go and restaurants to eat and I like to praise great food and service through social media channels. On the other hand I still remember the names of restaurants that have heard to done something wrong even though I can't remember what they did.

In the latter case social media makes it possible for a company to respond to the critique with their own and established persona in the respective media and try to save what it left of the reputation. Honest (or at least seemingly honest, untill caught of another lie) responses and sincere apologies work a long way in the eyes of the public. That is what I call transparency and that would be a nice business for PR managers now and in the future.

@priio It is always important to be a bit suspicious as to who is behind the discussions and opinions in social media - and elsewhere as well :-) - but it is quite an effort to get a lot of activity relating to a topic. And finding out about fake ids and activity causes a lot of bad publicity so there is a lot of risk there as well.