The vast majority of consumers prefer to carry out business communications via social media, according to a new survey by research firm Yankee Group for Siemens Enterprise Communications – Yankee Siemens Social Media 2010 (.pdf). Consumers want companies to be more engaged with social media, particularly in the realms of customer support and service. Companies [...]

Social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Flickr have become invaluable mobilization tools for activists. No longer is social networking just for gossiping, hobnobbing or telling your friends what you had for breakfast. Increasingly, it has become an effective communications tool to mobilize masses to effect change. Lately we have seen:

Prompted by the BP rig explosion and the ensuing spill, BP has come under heavy social media attack: Attacked on Facebook by a boycott movement called “Boycott BP,” urging a worldwide boycott of all BP brands and services An anonymously managed Twitter account – BP Public Relations (@BPGlobalPR) – that makes glib comments, purportedly on [...]

Maybee 140 characters should not be used to comment on controversial or sensitive issues, especially those dealing with the Middle East. CNN’s senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, Octavia Nasr, was shown the door after sending a tweet that expressed respect for the Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. Despite a lengthy explanation of her [...]