It’s no secret anymore that social media has changed drastically the traditional one-way communications that companies were accustomed in the past. Not only is social media opening possibilities for two-way communication but customers now have conversations even without addressing the company. The fear of losing control over what gets written or said in social media platforms is still one of the main reasons why companies hesitate about having a social media presence. Beyond that even companies who have a presence struggle in the hopes of controlling their communications.

But can the conversations in social media be controlled? Should they even be? Based on my personal experience and what I’ve learnt so far I would say no. I think companies should lose the fear of being able to control everything and accept the fact that social media opens new communication channels whether the company wants it or not. Companies should act as active listeners and monitor what gets said and if it needs some action from the company’s side.

This quote puts it nicely: “Social ability starts with being able to listen. Without listening your strategy becomes pointless. “

Furthermore, I think companies should take negative conversations in social media as a threat but as an opportunity. Not only can the conversations provide valuable information to the companies for things to improve but  also when reacted proactively it can turned as positive attention to the company.

An example of this happened last year with a big Finnish confectionary company Fazer, who got a lot of negative media attention after an unsuccessful CSR campaign. After all the negative publicity, the company was able to turn the conversations into positive and gain finally lot of good attention towards the campaign they were having.

Time has shown that customers want to have open and active conversation with companies and social media provides an excellent platform for this. So it’s not about being afraid about negative attention or being able to have full control over the conversations – it’s more about putting yourself (company) out there and start to listen to what your customers have to say and reacting in the right way.