Social media’s darker side

Keeping up with social media and making sense of it for clients is a real challenge for today's PRs. In fact, staying ahead of your tech-savvy kids can be even more challenging. Take my eight year old son for instance. He recently persuaded me to sign him up to Disney's phenomenally successful Club Penguin. He's since become a secret agent, lives in an igloo and owns a gaggle of 'puffles'. Furthermore, he now has a boss, people to spy on and a new set of online 'penguin-mates'.

All harmless fun and a great way to get him engaging with new technology and hopefully send him top of the class for IT.

However, there is a dark side to all this. The tragic case of Ashleigh Hall, the 17 year-old girl lured to her death by a man she met through Facebook, is a very sobering reminder of the dangers of online networks.

Of course, parents must take responsibility for their children's safety at all times and there are some useful websites to help parents make sure their kids are safe such as www.thinkyouknow.co.uk and www.kidscape.org.uk.

But as PRs advising clients, we also have to take care not to expose our clients to online harassment and unwanted attention. Social media are exciting and powerful channels and used well can unite like-minded people in a common cause. Used badly, as companies such as Habitat and Ryanair have discovered, they can seriously undermine a brand and ruin a promising marketer's career.

Watch yourself out there - it's a crazy, wired world.

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