Social media has become almost inextricably linked to the online strategy of organizations and businesses. They use social media for marketing purposes, external communications, as well as crowd sourcing ideas regarding product and service development. Despite the immense amount of use social media is getting within these organizations and businesses, a surprising few have done anything to establish guidelines for controlling, restricting, or encouraging desired behavior via social networks. According to Barry Murphy a governance analyst, corporate governance in the information technology is still waiting to be applied to social media, but it’s only a matter of time before this becomes a necessary step for businesses.

Risks, Security, and Privacy Concerns

The benefits of social media tools are a huge asset to businesses, but according to a publication released by the Global Corporate Governance Forum, there are several risks regarding security and privacy concerns that are inherent to the usage. One of the reasons social media has snuck by largely without project plans or risk assessment is that the technology is already familiar to most and teams have introduced the technology without thinking about the possible risks. Businesses must now backtrack slightly to create strategies to overcome these risks. [Read more…]