Your Online Communities and Freedom

Image by theopie via Flickr

One of the biggest fears that a business has when creating a presence is online, particularly in Social Media, is that they are opening themselves up to attack.

If all you have is a website, an email address, and a phone number, the worst people can do is attack you in private. But once you start a blog, or create a Facebook page for your business, you have a problem. On the one hand, you want as many people there as possible. That’s why you’re there: to attract customers and grow your online communities.

On the other hand, these platforms are two-way. Not only can you talk to your customers, but they can talk back. That opens up a can of worms and creates a whole new level of vulnerability for you. It’s public. Whatever they say can be seen by others. As a result, there’s a temptation to find ways to minimize the danger by closing doors and limiting the activities of your community members.

This reminds me of a story from my youth involving one of my dogs, and that’s the topic of today’s video.

Enjoy!

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Related articles

• Q&A: DJ Waldow on community building (econsultancy.com)
• A Crisis of Social Media Crises: Don’t Be Stupid (inklingmedia.net)
• Managing Negative Comments in Social Media (waxingunlyrical.com)
• Five Ways to Deal with Negative Online Comments (spinsucks.com)
• Your Customers: Cattle vs. Community (inklingmedia.net)

Tagged as: blog, facebook, Online Community, YouTube