Is Twitter the New Canary in the Coal Mine?

Overused analogy aside, it is a fair question: Is Twitter the latest version of an early warning system that can tip a business that trouble – monumentally big trouble – is right around the bend?

While legions of businesses are finding ways to use social media in their communications and marketing and top advertisers are rapidly moving to Facebook, the number of executive skeptics reveals too large a number of leaders stuck at the starting line.

According to a new survey by Minnesota-based Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law, 80 percent of executives surveyed agreed that SMM has the potential to help improve customer relationships and corporate reputations. However, half said they fear social media could be detrimental to employee productivity, and 49 percent believe that using SMM could damage company reputation.

Those companies surveyed who are not using social media say they are not using SMM primarily because of concerns about confidentiality or security issues (40%), employee productivity (37%) or simply not knowing enough about it (51%).

Those are not insurmountable issues and should not be a barrier to bring the benefits of social media to your organization.

If you’re among the businesses still afraid to take the plunge, here’s a suggestion of how to stick your toe in the water (and how I’ll weave in the Canary – Coal Mine theme): Use Twitter, Facebook and Technorati to search for your company. You might be surprised what you read and you could find the next business or reputation crisis brewing without your knowledge.

Need a case study of how to use SMM as a reputation tool, look no further than the US Air Force. Public Affairs officers tracked public opinion - real time - on Twitter after an Air Force One photo-op over lower Manhattan sent people running into the streets fearing another 9/11 style attack was underway.

In short order, military officials quickly and correctly assessed the situation to have moved from a public relations coup to a PR disaster based on the comments of New Yorkers posted on Twitter and other social network sites. If the Air Force had only used traditional tools, they would have been far behind the public opinion curve and ill-equipped to deal with the heat the fly-over generated.

Once you discover there’s a whole conversation about you going on without you, chances are you’ll leap into SMM, too.

Come on in, the water – and coal mine - is fine, even if the metaphors are mixed.

Need to know more about how you can and should use social media, send me an email at james.lee@c2m2a.com or visit my Web site for more information.